The Risk Assessment Program and the Court of Penal Execution in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina

This study describes the working of a new system that supervises the execution of the punishment phase in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina; namely, the Court of Penal Execution, as well as the risk assessment program. It also reports the results of the violent recidivism baseline risk assessment carried out in candidates for conditional release. The cohort studied was recruited during 18 months in the Judicial Department of La Plata, taking into consideration psychopathological and criminological variables. The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), the Historical, Clinical, and Risk Management--20 (HCR-20), and the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG), among others, were used as measures. During the study period, 65 candidates for conditional release were part of the baseline assessment, and they constitute the population of this study. The measures' mean scores were PCL-R, 20.57; HCR-20, 18.58; VRAG, 12.17.