Supervision officers must recognize and respond to both desirable and undesirable behaviors. Historically, community supervision emphasized responding to non-compliant behavior and sanctioning it. Research and practice have shown that recognizing positive behaviors is significantly more important if the goal is sustained behavior change. Officers should notice and reinforce positive, prosocial statements and actions.

Officers also must address non-compliant behavior and never ignore it. Non-compliance should be noticed, discussed, and recorded in case records. Deciding how to respond to non-compliance should start with assessments and discussions with persons on supervision. This dialogue can often uncover the causes of non-compliance. All responses to non-compliant behavior should be swift, certain, fair, proportionate, and parsimonious. Responses to non-compliance should be behavior-specific and problem-focused. Addressing and mitigating the risk factors is more effective than punishing individuals without addressing the drivers of non-compliance.

Responses to desired and non-compliant behaviors should be prompt, which helps persons on supervision connect responses to specific behaviors and strengthens responses.