A preliminary examination of offender needs assessment: are all those questions really necessary?

Criminologists generally agree that offender recidivism can be reduced by addressing the criminogenic needs of this population. Two prominent assessments of offender risks and needs are the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) and the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS). Both predict recidivism, but they are largely based on data from records. In contrast, the determination of inmates' service needs is based on lengthy (and costly) offender interviews. In light of evidence that many correctional systems have not adopted standardized assessments of service needs-and that time burden and costs are typically cited as barriers, the present study examined whether interviews involving complex scales improve the accuracy of offender needs assessment relative to a few single-item measures. To test this, 75 California prison inmates were administered the LSI-R, COMPAS, and a set of four yes/no items asking if they needed help with substance abuse, vocational training, housing, and education. Approximately 70% to 90% of inmates identified as needing these services according to the LSI-R or COMPAS could have been identified using these four supplemental items, though specificity rates were low for the financial and housing domains. The results suggest that simpler, less costly approaches to offender needs assessment might be achievable.