Change agents who have nurtured a new program, policy, or statute should, before the initiative is implemented, determine how they will measure its success.  The outcome measures identified should correlate to the specific goals of a program and the problem it was designed to address.  Program administrators and policymakers are sometimes prone to pinning the success of an effort to types of outcomes that their program could never guarantee. 

Selecting outcome measures that are particularly difficult, time-consuming, or expensive to measure also undermines the value of an evaluation.  For example, while determining the overall cost savings that a program generates can be very valuable in persuading the legislature to maintain or increase funding for a project, isolating such data can be extremely complex.  Empirical data linking a program's impact on criminal behavior to a pilot project can be equally elusive.  Longitudinal studies with random assignment and control groups are not only an enormous undertaking, they also may not yield conclusive findings.  

Law enforcement, court, corrections, and mental health system officials each measure success differently, and they have developed (or are in the process of developing) performance-based measures unique to their professions. ^[1]    The recommendations below describe outcome measures that can be tailored to law enforcement, court, corrections, or mental health programs.   In addition, these measures can provide useful information without requiring an evaluation process that is particularly time-consuming or expensive to conduct. 

Recommendations:

a.

Establish process measures to assess how well the program activities have been implemented. 

b.

Establish outcome measures that indicate the impact of the initiative on the  person's involvement with the criminal justice system and mental health system

c.

Monitor the gross numbers of people with mental illness in contact with - or under the supervision of - the criminal justice system