Performance-based Standards (PbS) for Youth Correction and Detention Facilities

In 1995, the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) launched the Performance-based Standards (PbS) system that provides:

• A set of goals and standards for individual facilities and agencies
• Tools to help facilities achieve these standards through regular self-assessment and self-improvement
• Reports that allow facilities to evaluate performance over time and in comparison to similar facilities
• Promotion of and information on innovative practices and the collaboration across facilities

The PbS system is administered by the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators (CJCA), with technical assistance provided by Abt Associates.

CJCA's goal is to integrate PbS into daily facility operations to create a field-supported and self-sustaining learning and improvement system in facilities nationwide. CJCA provides support to PbS sites through a variety of training and technical assistance efforts, which include assigning a consultant to each site to ease and guide PbS implementation.

The PbS system requests that facilities collect certain data from records, reports, and interviews and enter it online through the PbS Web site. The data is reviewed by PbS staff and used to generate an online site report of each facility's performance in key outcome measures. The report tracks performance over time and shows facility measures compared to field averages. The data from each facility is kept confidential.

Using the information in the site reports, facilities work with PbS consultants to identify areas of improvement. Once the areas of improvement are identified, the PbS consultants work with facilities to develop and help implement a detailed improvement plan.

Over 125 facilities in 26 states and the District of Columbia are at various stages of participation in the PbS system, and over 30 facilities have completed 10 PbS cycles (data collections, site report analyses, developed and effected facility improvement plans). Seventeen new facilities completed their first round of data collection in April 2004. Of the states participating in PbS, 16 have implemented PbS statewide. 

For more information about the PbS system, please visit www.cjca.net. For applications to participate or other inquiries, please contact the PbS Implementation Director, Akin Fadeyi, or the PbS Project Director, Edward J. Loughran.

Article courtesy of CJCA.

PbS has recently been named one of 15 finalists for the Innovations in Government Award, a program of the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. The award is administered in partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government.

170 Forbes Road, Suite 106, Braintree, MA 02184
(781) 843-2663; Fax: (781) 843-1688
E-mail: help@pbstanadards.org
www.cjca.net

Published July 2004

See Akin Fadeyi's presentation on Performance Based Standards on Reintegration from the NDTAC's December 2003 conference on transition.

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