Roseland, NJ, Nov 10, 2006 -  Dr. Robert Mackey, Chief Operating and Clinical Officer at Community Education Centers (CEC), and Dr. Ralph Fretz, Director of Assessment and Research at CEC, will present at the workshop, “Offender Risk-Needs Assessment: A Necessary Tool for Reducing Recidivism,” in Trondheim, Norway next week.

“I look forward to presenting CEC’s treatment model to an international community of correctional treatment and psychology professionals. CEC leads the effort in America to reduce recidivism and our successes have proved not only a valuable benefit for the men and women we treat, but also for the communities where these men and women return,” said Dr. Mackey.

Sponsored by the Research Council of Norway and University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, the workshop will take place over a three day period from November 11-14. Dr. Mackey and Dr. Fretz will be the only representatives from the United States and will be joining other presenters from Canada and Europe.

Don Andrews, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University, invited Dr. Mackey and Dr. Fretz to present at the seminar. Dr. Andrews is an expert in the field of correctional psychology and is co-author of the Level of Service Inventory family of risk/needs assessment instruments. He has received awards from the American Probation and Parole Association, Correctional Service Canada, Canadian Psychological Association, the International Community Corrections Association, and the American Society of Criminology for his contributions to the field of correctional psychology.

“I appreciate the invitation by Mr. Andrews to present at this workshop. It is an honor to represent the United States and share CEC’s evidence-based treatment model with a group of our international peers,” said Dr. Fretz.

Dr. Robert Mackey, CEC’s Chief Operating and Clinical Officer, has been a treatment provider for over thirty years providing therapeutic services to adult and juvenile offenders. He has designed and implemented secure residential operations as well as intensive outpatient services for diverse populations including substance abusers, domestic violence offenders and those with various criminogenic risk/needs.

Dr. Ralph Fretz, Director of Assessment and Research at CEC, has worked with a variety of population including children, juvenile and adult offenders, psychiatric inpatients and sex offenders. Dr. Fretz’s work has been published in corrections journals, including Corrections Today and Best Practices. He was the co-author of a manual for a nationally used risk assessment instrument and has given presentations on a variety of topics, including the development of Assessment Centers and family therapy techniques.