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The greatest reductions in recidivism are achieved when offender treatment is cognitive-behavioral in nature and targets the criminogenic needs of the highest-risk offenders in a manner that is conducive to the individual learning style, motivation, abilities, and strengths of the offender—the widely recognized Risk-Needs-Responsivity or RNR model. In spite of all the evidence, however, many agencies still focus on compliance monitoring and other law enforcement aspects of offender supervision—unfortunate because it has been well documented that sanctions such as intensive supervision have no appreciable effects on recidivism. This article exmaines a new approach developed by Paula Smith and Chris Lowenkamp and called EPICS—Effective Practices in Community Supervision (EPICS) model to teach community supervision officers how to restructure the content of their face-to-face interactions with offenders in order to better adhere to the principles of effective correctional intervention. Specifcally, this model encourages officers to increase the intervention dosage of treatment to the higher-risk offenders, to focus on criminogenic needs, and to use a cognitive-behavioral approach in their interactions with offenders.
