Many criminal justice institutions implement evidence-based reforms. While most scholars are aware of implementation challenges, we still know relatively little about sustainability. Using longitudinal data from criminal legal staff implementing an evidence-based reform, this paper considers: What happens during the implementation of an organizational reform that affects continued use of these reforms? Guided by an organizational change framework, findings suggest sustainability aligns with key organizational goals including legitimacy, efficiency and effectiveness. While all sites saw the reformed practices as legitimate enough to initially consider adoption, two sites never adopted, four sites toyed with reform, and two sites continued to use the reform after the study was over. This paper explores sustainability and identifies legitimacy as an important factor that affects the routinization of new practices. Transformation of organizational change initiatives into routine practices should consider efforts to build legitimacy in lieu of primarily rationalizing on the values of efficiency and effectiveness.

中文翻译：

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变革的合法性：在社区矫正机构内采用/适应、实施和维持改革

许多刑事司法机构实施循证改革。尽管大多数学者都意识到实施方面的挑战，但我们对可持续性的了解仍然相对较少。本文利用刑事法律工作人员实施循证改革的纵向数据，考虑：在组织改革实施过程中会发生什么影响这些改革的继续使用？在组织变革框架的指导下，调查结果表明可持续性与关键组织目标一致，包括合法性、效率和有效性。虽然所有站点都认为改革后的做法足够合法，可以初步考虑采用，但有两个站点从未采用，四个站点在进行改革，两个站点在研究结束后继续使用改革。本文探讨了可持续性并将合法性确定为影响新实践常规化的重要因素。将组织变革举措转变为常规实践应考虑努力建立合法性，而不是主要合理化效率和有效性的价值。