Increasingly, policy-makers, funding agencies, and the general public are demanding accountability from justice system institutions and social service providers. As the demands on public resources grow, it becomes more and more important to choose wisely how available public resources will be spent. Agencies and organizations working in the human services field have been feeling the effects of this trend, and many struggle to provide meaningful information about the work they do as they pursue funding and other resources to support their programs.

Historically, justice practitioners have relied greatly on intuition and personal experience to guide their work and determine consequences for anti-social behavior. More recently, however, performance assessment has become a key component of the evidence-based programming and accountability movement. Performance assessment emphasizes measuring an organization’s ability to do things, encompassing the measurement of productivity (how much they do), effectiveness (how efficiently they do it), quality (how well they do it), and timeliness (how long it takes them to do it).

In this presentation, we cover the basic aspects of performance assessment, in terms of why it should be done, how it should be done, and how the results can be used to benefit the organization. In general, performance assessment links organizational philosophy and mission to specific agency activities, and further allows an organization to determine whether its goals and objectives are being achieved. Measuring performance requires a clear unit of analysis (e.g., individual offenders or clients); consistent data collection procedures and processing; and regular dissemination of important information generated by the data. In measuring performance, multiple outcomes (i.e., measures of success) should be considered that indicate what the organization is trying to achieve (e.g., reduce recidivism, improve school performance, enhance family relationships, etc.). When done well, performance assessment can produce results that improve operational and staff management; assist with resource acquisition, allocation, and budgeting; and inform stakeholders about organizational successes and needs.

Recent experiences of a diverse array of jurisdictions across the country illustrate that it is possible, practical, and useful to measure the performance of criminal justice systems and organizations devoted to working with judicial clients.