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 Training to Improve Restitution Management Orders for offenders to pay restitution to victims for criminal losses often are not well enforced, leaving individual victims, employers, insurance companies, communities, and governments disproportionately bearing the burden of criminal costs. Low restitution payments to victims result from multiple problems and deficits that occur during the justice processes of arrest, prosecution, adjudication, and corrections. Such issues often are related to the restitution orders, offender monitoring, collection, and disbursement practices. The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has awarded a cooperative agreement to the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) to develop and pilot test a curriculum for community corrections and court services personnel on restitution management. This 18-month project will build upon earlier work completed by the APPA and funded by OVC which collected and compiled promising practices for restitution into an unpublished Compendium. This project will focus on the restitution process of monitoring and enforcing restitution orders, collecting payments, and disbursing funds to victims, which are most frequently the responsibility of community corrections and court services personnel. The project will assess training needs and update information on promising practices for restitution. It will develop curriculum materials and training methods to improve restitution management processes. The curriculum will be pilot tested at least four times in classroom settings so it can be evaluated and revised as needed. Further, the project will develop one or more articles, place information on APPA’s website, and develop a resolution on restitution for APPA’s membership. For more information on this project, contact:
Tracy G. Mullins |
