Every field has its own terms and the correctional field is no exception. This section defined a number of basic terms used in this module. These terms have been highlighted in purple throughout the module, allowing you to rollover the term to see the definition.
Boundary spanners: “Individuals who can facilitate communication across agencies and profession to coordinate policies and services.”1
Efficacy: The power to produce an effect.
Fidelity: A measure of the degree to which a given intervention is actually applied or carried out as intended.
Logic model: “A picture of how your organization does its work—the theory and assumptions underlying the program. A program logic model links outcomes (both short- and long-term) with program activities/processes and the theoretical assumptions/principles of the program.”2
Long-term public safety: Differing from simple public safety, which is enhanced for the short term while an offender is incarcerated, long-term public safety involves the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety of the general public, and sustains this desired state over a significant period of time after an offender is released from jail.
Partnership: “A formal agreement between two or more parties that have agreed to work together in the pursuit of common goals.”3 Within the criminal justice system, partnership requires that system stakeholders put aside past differences or competition in favor of a mutually agreed upon or shared mission.
Public safety: The prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety of the general public such as crimes or disasters.
Stakeholders: People, practitioners, or actors within the system of criminal justice as well as those employed outside the system or within the community who share interest in or offer service to transitioning offenders.
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1 Catherine Conly, “Coordinating Community Services for Mentally Ill Offenders: Maryland’s Community Criminal Justice Treatment Program,” Program Focus (Rockville, MD: National Institute of Justice, 1999), available at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/175046.htm.
2 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook, “Using Logic Models to Bring Together Planning, Evaluation, and Action,” Logic Model Development Guide (Battle Creek, MI, 2004).
3 Cochrane Community, "2.1.10 Partnership policy of The Cochrane Collaboration," available at: http://www.spvm.qc.ca/EN/service/1_5_3_1_definition-partenariat.asp.
