News
NPC Publishes Integrated Results of Maryland Drug Court Evaluation
NPC Research has published the integrated results from a 2007–2009 evaluation of Maryland drug courts that included process, cost, and outcome studies. The study provided the opportunity to look at areas of strength and challenge across the state. The results identified many areas that programs can continue to work on to enhance program practices and increase their effectiveness in the years to come. This body of work gives Maryland’s Office of Problem-Solving Courts one of the largest sets of drug court evaluations in the United States. View report. Learn more about this project.
NPC Completes Alaska Youth Competency Assessment and Strength-based Practices Training and Research Project
This project involved eight trainings at six juvenile justice facilities in Alaska on the Youth Competency Assessment and Strength-based Practices. Social climate survey data (using the Correctional Institutions Environment Scale [CIES]) were collected from participating sites on a voluntary basis (six sites contributed pre data and two sites contributed post data, 6 months after the training), which were summarized at the site and state levels. Results of the CIES surveys include:
- Residents had lower ratings of social climate in their facility than staff, both prior to and after the trainings
- Both residents and staff rated their facilities as having more positive social climate 6 months after the trainings than before
- On average, residents rated their facilities higher on social climate than the average of residents who use this same tool across the country
- Resident scores tended to show greater positive change over time than staff scores
Learn more about this project.
Major Research Grant Awarded to Study Oregon’s Healthy Start Program
NPC Research, in collaboration with the Oregon Commission on Children and Families, has been awarded a 5-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, one of only five such grants awarded nationwide. The nearly $1 million federal grant will be used to conduct a randomized study and cost-benefit analysis of child maltreatment outcomes for Oregon’s Healthy Start program, a statewide voluntary family support and parent education home visiting program for high-risk first-birth families.
Dr. Beth Green, President of NPC Research, said, “This project reflects both national interest in further rigorous research on the Healthy Families America (HFA) model and the hard work that has gone on in Oregon to provide and document a well-implemented HFA system.” Healthy Families America is an evidence-based home visiting model. Oregon is one of only six states in the nation that meets the high standards for full accreditation as a multi-site state system from HFA.
The study will look at the impact of Healthy Start on documented incidents of child maltreatment and will conduct a detailed cost-benefit study of the program. The study’s results could significantly advance the current debate about the efficacy of the home visitation model, particularly in terms of child abuse outcomes. It will also be the first detailed cost-analysis of child welfare and child maltreatment program costs, which will provide policymakers with measureable cost benefits of Oregon’s Healthy Start program.
Dick Withnell, the new chairman of the Oregon Commission on Children and Families, noted that “Healthy Start has been the most successful program Oregon has in reducing child abuse. Our most recent research shows that Healthy Start children are two and a half times less likely to become victims of child abuse.”
Martha Brooks, State Director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, said, “Our law enforcement members are pleased that Oregon will again be in the forefront of research showing that home visiting can improve families’ lives, reduce maltreatment, and reduce crime."
