About Us
There is a significant body of social science research that describes "what works" in reducing reoffending by individuals involved in the criminal justice system, but agencies continue to struggle to effectively implement that knowledge.
PRAXUS was developed specifically to close the gap between knowing and doing. These struggles are apparent when we examine the content of conversations with individuals involved in the criminal justice system for the presence of key principles and approaches that are based on over 20 years of social science research from all over the world. A close examination of these conversations reveals a gap between what is done today vs what should be done, based on social science research (e.g. referred to as "Core Correctional Practices" - found in STICS, EPICS II, STARR and other curriculums, as well as Motivational Interviewing)".
We have spent our careers trying to help agencies effectively implement evidence-based practices to achieve better outcomes.
Our team has reviewed over 15,000 recordings of interactions by staff with individuals at various stages in the criminal justice system, on: diversion, pretrial, probation, supervised release and parole.
We have coached thousands of officers over the past 15 years around the development of skills associated with Core Correctional Practices. Based on this unrivaled experience, we have developed methods for successfully coaching staff towards a high level of skill proficiency. Unfortunately, after our work with an agency ends, (i.e., the project ends), the agency often struggles to sustain the progress that has been made. We continue to find, without ongoing support and feedback after the training phase is completed, "Drift" from the use of the best practices with fidelity begins to occur. The new processes that were put in place during the term of the project, start to deteriorate; and the gap between knowing and doing begins to expand. As agencies begin to recognize this regression, they are disappointed the valuable resources they devoted to the implementation effort did not result in widespread, sustained and effective use of Core Correctional Practices.
We, like many others, have learned when the success of an implementation effort hinges on the work of a few individuals (whether that’s us, or internal staff that we have extensively coached and mentored), scalability, sustainability and fidelity are major ongoing challenges. Organizations struggle with replicating staff behavior change efforts on a large enough scale to produce sustainable change that positively impacts mission critical outcomes. Based on years of work in this area, we have realized the only way organizations will be able to fully implement and sustain change with the fidelity needed to result in significant improved outcomes, is with the active support of technology-based tools.
We have spent years transferring what we have learned from our decades of experience working with staff who assist the justice system involved individuals, into technology enabled tools that are designed to facilitate and sustain the successful implementation of Core Correctional Practices. These technology-based tools are designed to support agencies with installing, monitoring, and supporting all of the necessary drivers of successful implementation to effectively sustain staff behavior change, and measure fidelity. The PRAXUS platform helps an agency make adjustments to their implementation plans as needed, to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of the project, (the old way: agencies moved forward assuming everything was going as intended until they ran their outcome studies--typically several years later; then at that time, they realize their efforts did not have the intended effect).
The word "praxis" simply means, putting knowledge into practice. Sounds simple enough, but this single term concisely characterizes one of the biggest challenges government and social service agencies face when trying to put best practices constantly into action. For agencies working with individuals involved in the criminal justice system, moving from ‘knowing to doing’ directly impacts success in accomplishing mission critical outcomes. That’s why we developed Praxus; by utilizing enabling technology, agencies can improve their implementation of Core Correctional Practices. We selected the name PRAXUS to reflect both the challenge of actualizing knowledge, combined with the reality that success is based on collaboration.