Developing a Competency Model for Parole Board Members

This project sought to identify competencies important for making quality parole decisions and to develop and validate tools to assess these competencies. In the first phase, a blended approach of competency modelling and job-analysis was used to identify six competencies for Parole Board Members (PBMs): Ethical Competence, Adherence to System Factors, Evidence-Based Risk Assessment (EBRA), Evidence-Based Decision-Making (EBDM), Effective Communication and Self-Improvement. Measures were subsequently developed to assess these competencies and administered to a group of volunteer PBMs (n = 38) through the Association of Paroling Authorities International. PBMs demonstrated fair levels of overall competence across all measures. Room for improvement was noted for both EBRA and EBDM. An evaluation of Cronbach’s alpha and item-total correlations by subscale for each measure informed revisions to the original measures, thereby improving the reliability of the tools. Suggestions for training are discussed as are possible modifications to the tools.