HARNESSING THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY IN INSTITUTIONAL CORRECTIONS BY NANCY LA VIGNE
One researcher reflects on the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing and evaluating criminal justice technologies.
A s criminologists, we are typically well trained in evaluation methodology but less so in the issues and nuances associated with technology deployment. When we evaluate criminal justice technology, we must understand both the
capacity of the technology and how people use it. Focusing on one at the expense of the other can render the entire evaluation effort futile.
We learned that lesson the hard way during an NIJ-funded evaluation of the use of radio frequency identification device (RFID) technology to reduce sexual assaults and inmate infractions in a women’s prison.1 Although our evaluation revealed much about the promise of RFID technology for monitoring, tracking, and investigating inmates, it was seen largely as a failure, because the implementation of the technology was fraught with problems. (Read more about the evaluation at NIJ.gov, keyword: 229196.)
Social science publications often favor studies that yield statistically significant findings in the expected direction. But we can arguably learn much more from failure than from success, and these lessons can help improve both technology deployment and evaluation methodologies.
This article offers some lessons learned from our evaluation about the challenges and opportunities associated with deploying criminal justice technologies in the manner most likely to yield their intended impact. Doing so requires:
• Developing a clear understanding of how you envision that the technology will work — the logic behind its implementation and use.
• Educating users about implementation and training requirements to ensure cultural buy-in and full deployment — the fidelity piece.
• Engaging in early and ongoing assessment to identify and correct implementation problems and challenges and learn how they relate to intended impact — the feedback loop.