Moving Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice Forward: A Practitioner's View

Abstract

There is a gap between science and practice in community corrections. Until recently, most community corrections practitioners have faced the challenge of implementing evidence-based practice (EBP) by simply figuring it out on their own. But as the articles in this issue illustrate, the tide has begun to shift toward a more balanced approach that embraces the science of implementation and engages in the deliberate study of specific implementation methods that can bring EBP to scale and achieve the results that community supervision agencies have promised. From a practitioner's point of view, achieving this goal must involve coordinated and deliberate discussion among correctional researchers and practitioners. Implementing EBP is a complex endeavor that involves multiple players and multiple layers within organizations and across components of a system. Building a framework that recognizes interdependent levels will make it possible to define key decisions at each level, identify implementation strategies attuned to interdependencies within a complex system that might otherwise be missed, and develop a structure for evidence-based decision making. In building this framework, it is critical that we embrace research on decision making and cognitive biases, which might help explain common roadblocks that practitioners have faced in their efforts to implement EBPs.