Supervision face-to-face contacts: the emergence of an intervention

Abstract

Face-to-face contacts are the cornerstone of community supervision. As community supervision in the United States and Canada emerges into a new behavioral management approach, new training curricula have emerged to conceptualize the techniques of supervision and develop the skill sets of officers. This chapter reviews five such curricula--Proactive Community Supervision (PCS) (Taxman, Shephardson, & Byrne, 2004; Taxman, 2008), Strategic Training Initiative in Community Supervision (STICS) (Bonta et al., 2011); Staff Training Aimed at Reducing Rearrest (STARR) (Robinson et al., 2012); Effective Practices in Community Supervision (EPICS) (Smith et al., 2012); and Skills for Offender Assessment and Responsivity in New Goals (SOARING2) (Maass, 2013). The comparison reveals similarities but major differences in an emphasis on the operational components for client-level change. The question remains as to which supervision intervention components are mechanisms facilitating client level change.