SENATE COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

February 10, 2003 Hearing Room 343

8:00 A.M. Tapes 21-22

MEMBERS PRESENT: Sen. John Minnis, Chair

Sen. Ginny Burdick, Vice-Chair

Sen. Ted Ferrioli

Sen. Charlie Ringo

Sen. Vicki Walker

MEMBER EXCUSED: Sen. Charles Starr

STAFF PRESENT: Craig Prins, Counsel

Jane Bodenweiser, Committee Assistant

MEASURE/ISSUES HEARD: Informational Meeting

Dr. Ed Latessa, Promoting Public Safety through Reducing Recidivism. What works, What Doesn’t.

These minutes are in compliance with Senate and House Rules. Only text enclosed in quotation marks reports a speaker’s exact words. For complete contents, please refer to the tapes.

TAPE/#	Speaker	Comments
TAPE 21, A
003	Chair Minnis	Calls the meeting to order at 8:10 a.m.
005	Craig Prins	Committee Counsel. Introduces Dr. Ed Latessa.
015	Dr. Ed Latessa	Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati. Gives presentation on Promoting Public Safety Through Reducing Recidivism.
090	Sen. Ringo	Asks about extending incarceration.
098	Dr. Latessa	Says extending time does not reduce recidivism.
105	Dr. Latessa	Continues his presentation.
157	Chair Minnis	Wonders about treatment and correction being in the same context.
164	Dr. Latessa	Says risk reduction or intervention would be a more appropriate term than treatment.
187	Dr. Latessa	Continues his presentation.
193	Sen. Walker	Asks about transitional offenders and the prognosis for risk reduction.
200	Dr. Latessa	Addresses transitional offenders. Continues his presentation.
240	Dr. Latessa	Discusses major risk factors for criminal conduct.
376	Chair Minnis	Talks about his experience with criminal offenders.
420	Dr. Latessa	Describes some specific examples of sex offenders.
TAPE 22, A
028	Dr. Latessa	Continues his presentation.
042	Dr. Latessa	Discusses effective correctional intervention.
060	Sen. Walker	Asks for clarification of intervention for high-risk offenders.
068	Dr. Latessa	Explains there is no effective intervention for the highest risk category.
070	Vice Chair Burdick	Asks what tools are used to classify risk factors and assessment.
089	Dr. Latessa	Discusses how risk factors are measured.
120	Dr. Latessa	Recaps a recent study of community correctional programs in Ohio.
227	Chair Minnis	Asks if some programs are doing more harm than good.
234	Dr. Latessa	Replies, yes.
244	Vice Chair Burdick	Wonders which programs did the worst.
285	Dr. Latessa	Discusses why some programs do so poorly.
340	Dr. Latessa	Continues to discuss treatment effect.
397	Vice Chair Burdick	Asks about self-esteem and how it is approached in these programs.
416	Dr. Latessa	Explains that self-esteem is targeted as a risk factor.
454	Dr. Latessa	Continues an evaluation of various treatment programs.
TAPE 21, B
050	Dr. Latessa	Talks about treatment effects overall.
075	Chair Minnis	Asks if the correctional programs in Ohio are government programs.
082	Dr. Latessa	Says about half are government programs, half are contract programs.
112	Prins	Asks about secure half-way houses.
118	Dr. Latessa	Says half-way houses are not secure.
121	Chair Minnis	Asks about half-way house programs today compared to the 1960’s.
140	Dr. Latessa	Says there are bad programs in every state and always will be.
175	Dr. Latessa	Talks about the most effective programs.
217	Dr. Latessa	Discusses programs that manage people rather than reduce recidivism.
360	Vice Chair Burdick	Wonders if there is potential for too much cognitive programming.
370	Dr. Latessa	Explains why he doesn’t think so.
380	Vice Chair Burdick	Asks if listing programs that are shown not to work would be helpful.
389	Dr. Latessa	Responds that it should be made clear that cognitive programming and activities should be kept separate.
416	Chair Minnis	Asks about response of programs based on race.
429	Dr. Latessa	Says race is not a risk factor, but programs are sometimes not specific enough to ethnic groups.
462	Chair Minnis	Discusses his experience with working in certain areas of Portland.
TAPE 22, B
052	Sen. Walker	Asks what programs are available for the mentally ill.
065	Dr. Latessa	Discusses programs for the mentally ill.
088	Chair Minnis	Asks for resources for promoting public safety.
095	Dr. Latessa	Cites two resources including his web site www.uc.edu/criminaljustice.
105	Prins	Asks about his work specifically in Oregon.
116	Dr. Latessa	Recaps his work in Oregon.
146	Chair Minnis	Closes the informational meeting at 9:45 a.m.