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Measuring What Matters: Defining Success in Probation
SESSION INFO
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
3:15 PM - 4:45 PM
Session Type: Workshop
Across the country, probation agencies are rethinking how they define and measure success. While recidivism remains an important indicator, it tells only part of the story. This session explores how agencies can design and implement performance measures that reflect meaningful progress and outcomes for clients, staff, and organizations. Participants will examine measures tied to desistance from crime, quality of supervision interactions, the use of incentives versus sanctions, and the application of specific skills by staff. Real examples will illustrate how data can be used to guide learning, improve outcomes, and tell a more complete story of supervision success. Attendees will receive the recently developed “Probation Performance Measures Resource Guide,” and leave with practical strategies and sample measures they can adapt to their own agency context.
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SESSION PRESENTERS
Troy Hatfield
Senior Manager, Center for Effective Public Policy
Troy Hatfield is a Senior Manager at CEPP, where he serves as a substantive expert, trainer, and technical assistance provider on probation supervision issues. Mr. Hatfield also develops new resources for community supervision practitioners. Mr. Hatfield previously worked in the criminal justice field for over 25 years, beginning his career as a juvenile probation officer. He served as the Deputy Chief Probation Officer for the Monroe Circuit Court Probation Department for more than 15 years, overseeing adult and juvenile probation and the court alcohol and drug program. He also helped to create a legal and evidence-based pretrial services program and spearheaded the activities for the Reducing Revocations Challenge for the jurisdiction, facilitating data collection and developing policy and practice. He served as an adjunct faculty member at Indiana University, teaching a course on probation and parole. Mr. Hatfield holds a BA in criminal justice and psychology from Indiana University and an MS in criminology from Indiana State University.
Denise Symdon
Senior Manager, Center for Effective Public Policy
Denise Symdon is a Senior Manager at CEPP, where her primary area of expertise is assisting probation and parole agencies to incorporate system changes that are evidence-based or research-informed. Prior to joining CEPP, Ms. Symdon worked in the criminal justice field in Wisconsin for over 34 years, where she held a variety of positions, including Administrator at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WI DOC), Division of Community Corrections; Assistant Administrator at the Division of Adult Institutions; and Regional Chief at the Division of Community Corrections. She served on the Wisconsin Evidence-Based Decision Making (EBDM) State Team and co-chaired their Behavior Management Workgroup. Through her work with WI DOC, Ms. Symdon was a champion of incorporating evidence-based and research-informed practices to improve the outcomes of probation and parole supervision. Ms. Symdon received her BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a double major in social work and behavioral science and law.
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