From Evidence to Practice – What Implementation Science Means for Probation and Prison Development
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The first IN-CJ webinar on implementation science addresses a persistent challenge in criminal justice practice. How do services move from knowing what works to embedding those approaches in everyday professional activity? Framed by Vivian Geiran, Fellow of the Probation Institute and former Director of the Irish Probation Service, the discussion brings together perspectives from across Europe to examine how change is achieved, sustained and evaluated in probation systems.
Professor Ioan Durnescu of the University of Bucharest establishes the conceptual foundation. His contribution centres on a familiar but often overlooked problem. Training alone does not produce change. Without structured follow-up, staff are unlikely to apply what they have learned in a consistent or sustained way. Drawing on comparative examples, including developments in Slovenia, he shows that implementation requires a cycle of activity that extends beyond initial instruction. Coaching, supervision, refresher learning and evaluation all play a role in ensuring that knowledge becomes practice rather than remaining abstract.
Michelle Richardson, Assistant Principal Probation Officer and Lead for Learning and Organisational Development in the Irish Probation Service, extends this argument into organisational design. She describes the development of the Irish Probation Framework as a process shaped through consultation with staff and reflection on existing practice. Rather than imposing a fixed model, the framework seeks to bring coherence to diverse approaches by emphasising quality supervision, engagement with clients, and consistency in professional standards. Her focus is on the practical realities of implementation, including the need to understand what happens in day-to-day supervision and how this can be improved across the organisation.
Dr Daniela Mrhar Prelic, Director of the Slovenian Probation Service, offers insight from a system still in formation. Her account highlights the importance of building organisational capacity from the outset. With staff drawn from varied professional backgrounds, the Slovenian approach has involved whole-service training, the development of internal coaches, and the introduction of supervised practice followed by refresher learning. This is presented not as a one-off reform, but as an ongoing process that requires reinforcement and leadership commitment. Implementation, in this context, is something that must be maintained rather than completed.
Across the discussion, several themes emerge. Evidence-based practice depends on organisational conditions as much as on the quality of the evidence itself. Professional cultures, leadership priorities and resource allocation all shape whether change is realised. Implementation is therefore not a technical exercise but a developmental process that involves people, systems and institutional expectations. Evaluation is also critical, not only for assessing outcomes but for building confidence among practitioners and policy makers. Without credible evidence of impact, reform struggles to gain traction.
Although the focus is on probation, the relevance for prison settings is clear. Many of the challenges discussed are shared across custodial and community-based services. These include inconsistency in practice, limited time for reflective learning, and the difficulty of sustaining change in complex organisational environments. The discussion suggests that meaningful development in prisons, as in probation, depends on embedding learning within routine practice. This includes structured supervision, opportunities for reflection, and systems that support continuous improvement rather than episodic reform.
The closing exchanges reinforce the practical implications of this work. Questions about restorative justice and long-term reform highlight the tension between immediate policy expectations and the slower process of organisational change. The contributors emphasise that implementation requires persistence and a clear articulation of its value. Improvements in practice must be linked to outcomes that matter, including reduced reoffending, improved wellbeing, and more effective engagement with those subject to criminal justice interventions.
This podcast of the webinar offers a grounded and comparative account of implementation science in action. It does not present a single model to be adopted, but instead illustrates how different systems approach the challenge of translating evidence into practice. In doing so, it reflects the wider purpose of the IN-CJ network, which is to support international knowledge exchange and to create space for reflective discussion among practitioners, researchers and policymakers.
For those working in prisons, probation and related fields, the message is direct. Change is not secured through policy statements or isolated training programmes. It depends on sustained attention to how people learn, how organisations function, and how practice is supported over time. Implementation, in this sense, is not a final stage of reform. It is the work itself.
