Level of Service / Case Management Inventory

Who Should Attend?

  1. Front line community corrections service professionals responsible for conducting offender intake assessments and supervising offenders
  2. In-house treatment program personnel
  3. Supervisors, managers, and QA staff who will supervise front line staff’s application of LS/CMI and active listening skills

Alternatively, J-SAT can provide a one-day overview of the LS/CMI for supervisors who are unable to attend the full three-day event or who are uncertain about the agency’s commitment to using the LS/CMI. The one-day overview session is compressed into a balanced amount of didactic presentation and experiential how-to.

Setup a Training

Once you contact us to discuss the specifics of the training and set dates, our training coordinator will walk you through the entire process, making sure that you have all the information you need to provide for a smooth, effective training experience.

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2450 Central Ave. Suite A-1, Boulder, CO 80303 | 877-572-8232 | 303-544-9876

Overview of Workshop Activities

Alternating Instruction and Practice

During this three-day training, participants receive alternating modules of instruction and practice, ensuring that they can:

  • Administer, score, and interpret the LS/CMI instrument
  • Use a systematic quality assurance protocol for continuous improvement in use of the LS/CMI
  • Demonstrate core active listening skills (open questions, reflections, affirmations, and summaries) that encourage youths to disclose interview material necessary for accurate risk/needs assessment
  • Understand the Evidence-Based Principles that support actuarial risk/needs assessment—an integral part of effective case planning

Success in achieving the above objectives will be measured by:

  • Pre- and post-tests for measuring immediate retention,
  • Successive timed skill rehearsals,
  • Co-participant ratings of clinical skills,
  • Trainer observation of participants conducting interviews.

Mid-Training Normative Feedback and Coaching

J-SAT uses a copyrighted software application to give participants immediate objective feedback on their assessment completion and active listening skills performance. Graphed profiles show individual participant performance as compared with the class average, targeting specific areas of improvement. Workshop facilitators explain individual performance results to the participants and coach participants between sessions for improvement on later practice sessions.

Post-Training Feedback and Coaching

To assure inter-rater reliability among risk-assessment training participants, certified J-SAT staff critique audio-taped interviews submitted by course graduates. Graduates receive a comprehensive report providing feedback and coaching on active listening skills, scoring accuracy, and fidelity to all scoring and time-based rules.

Optional Post-Training Skill Retention/Building Activities

Without reinforcement, new skills often decline. Ask us about the following services that can help your staff retain and use what they have learned:

  • A one-day "booster session" at 6-months
  • A second round of tape critiques, giving your staff written feedback
  • Training of LS/CMI Trainers—allows your staff to be able to provide "boosters" and follow-up trainings in-house. This option includes the course described above, but then adds on trainer trainings for participants who show trainer potential.
  • Assessment Interview Critiquer Training allows your staff to conduct critiques on assessment interviews to ensure that line-staff are using the LS/CMI and active listening skills in their daily tasks

In addition, specified contact persons in your agency will receive a post-training report including: Graphs highlighting training group strength and growth areas in pre- and post-test knowledge gains and post-training skill implementation, Written suggestions about on-going participant coaching, and Lists of organizational development issues raised during training that will be key to ongoing implementation of the LS/CMI and active listening skills.

» Download Full Course Outline

Level of Service / Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI)

The Level of Service / Case Management Inventory is both an assessment tool for adult offenders (16 and older) and a case management tool for justice, forensic, correctional, prevention, and related settings. The LS/CMI offers specific norms (risk levels) for both male and female incarcerated and community offenders.

The main assessment section of the LS/CMI, Section 1:

  • Consists of 43 questions completed from a semi-structured initial interview with the offender
  • Identifies which of the following eight areas in the offenders’ backgrounds and current situations put them at greatest risk of reoffense: 
    • Criminal History
    • Leisure / Recreation
    • Alcohol / Drug Problems
    • Education / Employment
    • Companions
    • Pro-Criminal Attitude / Orientation
    • Family / Marital
    • Antisocial Pattern

Sections 2-5 identify additional risk factors within the following areas:

  • Personal Problems
  • Social, Health, and Mental Health Concerns
  • Responsivity Considerations
  • Perpetration History
  • Pro-Criminal Attitude / Orientation
  • Incarceration History

Sections 6-7 provide a summary of risks and needs, allowing for clinical overrides of assessment recommendations based on atypical offender situations.

Finally, Section 8 provides tools for program and placement decisions for institutional and community offenders, indicating which areas, when treated are most likely to reduce offenders’ risk levels overall. The LS/CMI was developed by Andrews, Bonta, and Wormith in 2004. It has been validated on various offender populations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.

Training of LS/CMI Trainers

For agencies that want their staff to become LS/CMI trainers so that they may conduct future trainings and "booster sessions" on-site, this workshop:

  • Trains staff in all skill-sets necessary for scoring and interpreting a third-generation risk/needs assessment tool and using scores to make appropriate supervision and programming decisions for offenders on their caseloads
  • Identifies participants who show the potential to become in-house LS/CMI trainers
  • Trains identified trainers in training content and methods
  • Coaches trained trainers as they practice implementing the basic LS/CMI course

Workshop Structure

Training Phase I: Basic LS/CMI Training (3 Days)

If your staff have not previously received a Basic LS/CMI training, we will deliver the full 3-day workshop, structured as follows:

 Interspersed Instruction and Practice

During the three-day training, participants receive alternating modules of instruction and practice, ensuring that they can:

  • Administer, score, and interpret the LS/CMI instrument
  • Use a systematic quality assurance protocol for continuous improvement in use of the LS/CMI
  • Demonstrate core active listening skills (open questions, reflections, affirmations, and summaries) that encourage youths to disclose interview material necessary for accurate risk/needs assessment
  • Understand the Evidence-Based Principles that support actuarial risk/needs assessment—an integral part of effective case planning.

Success in achieving the above objectives will be measured by:

  • Pre- and post-tests for measuring immediate retention
  • Successive timed skill rehearsals
  • Co-participant ratings of clinical skills
  • Trainer observation of participants conducting interviews

Mid-Training Normative Feedback and Coaching

J-SAT uses a copyrighted software application to give participants immediate objective feedback on their assessment completion and active listening skills performance. Graphed profiles show individual participant performance as compared with the class average, targeting specific areas of improvement. Workshop facilitators explain individual performance results to the participants and coach participants between sessions for improvement on later practice sessions.

If your staff have already received the Basic LS/CMI course, we will deliver a 1-2 day abbreviated "booster session" that prepares staff for the following training phases.

Interim Period between Phases I and II Tape Critiques and Written Feedback

To assure inter-rater reliability among risk-assessment training participants, certified J-SAT staff critique audio-taped interviews submitted by course graduates. Graduates receive a comprehensive report providing feedback and coaching on active listening skills, scoring accuracy, and fidelity to all scoring and time-based rules.

Selection of LS/CMI Trainers

From among course participants, J-SAT trainers recommend those who should be trained as LS/CMI trainers and lead trainers based on:

  • Demonstration of knowledge and skill retention during Phase I (measured through pre- and post-tests and mid-training exercises)
  •  Normative performance ratings from tape critique reports.

Trainers will also note and report to the agency contact:

  • Champions of the training and its expected outputs / outcomes
  • Opinion leaders having influence in the direction of expected outputs/outcomes
  • Managers directly involved by the training, and who may play a role in implementing it.

Post-Training Agency Report

Specified contact persons in your agency will receive a post-training report including:

  • Graphs highlighting training group strength and growth areas in pre- and post-test knowledge gains and post-training skill implementation
  • Written suggestions about on-going participant coaching
  • Lists of organizational development issues raised during training that will be key to ongoing implementation of the LS/CMI and active listening skills.

Training Phase II: Content and Methods for Training the LS/CMI (4 ½ Days)

  1. During the first 4 days, two J-SAT trainers alternate between presenting modules of training content and methods to participant-trainers and then helping them to practice what they have learned.
  2. On the final half-day of the training, all participant ratings are evaluated and 6-8 lead trainers are selected from among the group. Participants debrief their Phase II experience and learn what to expect for the next phase

Training Phase III: Coaching New Trainers as They Train (3 Days)

Soon after the completion of Phase II, one J-SAT trainer returns to coach the new trainers as they conduct segments of the in-house Basic LS/CMI training program. Usually, this requires three full days.

To train your staff in tape critiquing LS/CMI interviews to ensure that practitioners are following LS/CMI scoring rules and using active listening skills in their daily tasks, please also consider our Assessment Interview Critiquer Training.