PURPOSE OF ORDER:
The purpose of this order is to establish procedures for the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) program and its team members.
SCOPE OF ORDER:
This order applies to all personnel assigned to the Population Management Bureau (PMB), who utilize the COMPAS program.
ORDER: The following provides an overview of the COMPAS program process:
COMPAS is a risk/needs assessment instrument used by criminal justice agencies to make informed decisions regarding placement, supervision, and case management of offenders.
Statistically based risk/needs assessments have become accepted as established and valid methods for organizing much of the critical information relevant for managing offenders in a correctional setting.
The COMPAS team is comprised of Community Transition Unit (CTU) custody assistants who travel the LASD jail system to administer the COMPAS assessment to inmates. Once completed, the CTU custody assistant shall enter the assessment information into the web based Northpointe system to receive a risk/needs assessment score. These scores are ultimately used to determine placement into Alternative To Custody (ATC) or in-custody programs.
- The COMPAS team will either receive the list of inmates from the ATC team, or other sources within the PMB. From these lists, the COMPAS team will locate the inmate and inform them of their possible participation in an ATC or in-custody program.
- The COMPAS team will administer either the COMPAS “LASD Master All Scales” or the “LASD All-Risk Scales” assessments to the inmates.
- Depending on the inmate’s mental status, an inmate may be given the “LASD Master All Scales,” 137-question assessment, or the “LASD All-Risk Scales”, 31-question assessment. In some cases, only the “LASD All-Risk Scales” are administered to inmates, due to their mental status and their ability to focus on completing a full “LASD Master All-Scales Assessment.” However, with both assessments, a number of questions are automatically populated by the Northpointe System from the inmates criminal history. (30 questions from the “LASD Master All-Scales” and 25 questions from the “LASD All-Risk Scales” assessments).
- Once the assessments are completed, the COMPAS team shall enter the COMPAS assessment into the Northpointe web based system, which will generate a score of: high, medium, MOC (medium with override consideration), or Low. An MOC score is a combination of a low and a high scale score on the assessment, which the system automatically determines. High scores for violence will disqualify inmates from any out-of-custody ATC programs.
- Once the assessments are entered into the Northpointe system, an email is generated back to the COMPAS staff notifying them of the completed assessment.
- These assessments are then used to create a decision of possible inmate placement into an ATC, or other in-custody programs.
Note: COMPAS assessments are valid for up to two (2) years from the date of completion.