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Infographic: States Deliver Results (2018)
Using data from Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, this infographic highlights three-year reincarceration rates as reported by state corrections agencies. -
Reentry Matters: Second Chance Act 10th Anniversary Edition
Featuring 21 stories from programs across 19 states, Reentry Matters profiles the impact of Second Chance Act grant-funded programs through both the practitioners who run them and the people who are impacted by them. -
New Web Tool Provides Look at Often-Overlooked Legal, Regulatory Restrictions Against People who have Criminal Convictions
The new National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction resource compiles thousands of state and federal statutes into a searchable database. -
Infographic: The Importance of Implementing Risk and Needs Assessments Successfully
This infographic explains the urgent need for corrections agencies to examine how they administer risk and needs assessments, so they can confidently rely upon the results and avoid the pitfalls of poor implementation. -
Groundbreaking 50-State Report on Public Safety Updated with 2017 Data
The report is a web-based resource that combines extensive data analyses, case studies and recommended strategies from all 50 states to help policymakers address their state’s specific public safety challenges.
Infographic: States Deliver Results (2018)
Recent CSG Justice Center Posts
Reentry Essentials: Prioritizing Treatment for Substance Addictions
A large proportion of people in the criminal justice system have substance addictions. While there is an overwhelming need to provide effective treatment, challenges exist in quantifying the extent of that need, providing appropriate treatment programming, and taking a strategic approach across systems.
California and Virginia Convene State Forums on Public Safety
California and Virginia are the most recent states to hold state forums on public safety to continue the discussions begun at the 50-State Summit on Public Safety that took place in November 2017 in Washington, DC.
Oregon Kicks Off Data-Driven Review of State’s Criminal Justice, Behavioral Health Systems
Oregon’s Behavioral Health Justice Reinvestment Steering Committee met on Oct. 31 to officially launch the state’s participation in the federally funded Justice Reinvestment Initiative. The committee will focus on developing a statewide policy framework to support local governments in improving recidivism and health outcomes for people who repeatedly cycle through both the public safety and health systems.
The Guidance Center Releases Free Roll Call Mental Health Training Series for Police Departments Across the Country
A new series of free web-based training modules that provide officers with effective tools for readily recognizing signs of mental illness and interacting with people who may be in crisis has been produced through a partnership between The Guidance Center (a nonprofit child and family mental health service provider) and the Los Angeles Police Department, the Long Beach Police Department, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
New Web Tool Provides Look at Often-Overlooked Legal, Regulatory Restrictions Against People who have Criminal Convictions
The new National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction resource compiles thousands of state and federal statutes into a searchable database, making it easier to identify these obscure regulations that can be triggered by a particular conviction.
Pennsylvania Launches First-in-Nation Stepping Up Technical Assistance Center Focused on Helping Counties Reduce Number of People in Jail with Mental Illnesses
Secretaries of Pennsylvania’s Department of Health, Department of Corrections, and others launched a first-of-its-kind resource center on Oct. 15 in Philadelphia focused on helping counties reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jail through research-driven approaches.
Highlights
- North Dakota Explores Expanding Alternatives to Incarceration and Behavioral Health Services for People in the Criminal Justice System
- Second Chance Act Spotlight: Darius Dennis, Norfolk, Virginia
- WATCH: Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson Meets Face to Face with Client at Newly Opened Crisis Stabilization Unit
- In Focus: Implementing Mental Health Screening and Assessment
- Reentry Essentials: Reducing Recidivism and Improving Other Outcomes for Youth and Young Adults
Announcements
Request for Proposals: Technology Platform to Help States Reduce Recidivism
The CSG Justice Center seeks a highly skilled technology partner to assist in realizing an automated, open-source analysis platform to help states gain the real-time analytic capacity needed to reduce revocation admissions to prison by ingesting criminal justice data from existing data systems, connecting siloed information, and automatically calculating revocation and other recidivism metrics.
Register for Webinar: Enhancing Program Success and Sustainability for Women in the Justice System–Targeting System Change Strategies
This webinar will cover system-level strategies to maximize outcomes for women in the criminal justice system and ensure the sustainability of gender-responsive services. To highlight these strategies in action, representatives from Franklin County, Ohio, will describe gender-responsive system changes that have been made in their jurisdiction.
Register for Webinar: A Duty to Protect—Mental Health Care to the Incarcerated
This webinar will discuss how the nation’s jails are experiencing a crisis in managing and treating people with mental illnesses, and what key protocols jails should have in place to help remedy this crisis.
WEBINARS
2018 Second Chance Act Orientation for Adult Reentry and Employment Strategic Planning Grant Program
During this webinar, recipients of 2018 Second Chance Act (SCA) Adult Reentry and Employment Strategic Planning grants received information on the requirements and deliverables of the program. Specifically, grantees learned how they will develop a strategic plan that is comprehensive, collaborative, and multisystemic in its approach to increase economic mobility and reduce recidivism for people returning to the community from incarceration.
2018 Second Chance Act Orientation for the Community-Based Adult Reentry Program: Category 2
During this webinar, grantees received information about the grant program, including steps for getting the program started, submission of the Planning and Implementation Guide, and Bureau of Justice Assistance expectations.
2018 Second Chance Act Orientation for the Innovations in Reentry Initiative Grant Program
During this webinar, FY18 SCA Innovations in Reentry grantees received information about the grant program, including steps for starting their program, submitting the Planning and Implementation Guide, and fulfilling Bureau of Justice Assistance expectations.
2018 Second Chance Act Orientation for Reentry for Adults with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Illness Grant Program
In this webinar, representatives from the NRRC, along with staff from BJA, provide an overview of the Second Chance Act’s Reentry for Adults with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Illness (CSAMI) grant program and explain the training and technical assistance opportunities that are available to grantees, including the Planning & Implementation Guide, and other resources available to grantees.
Using the New National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction Website
This webinar provides an overview of the new NICCC site and discusses how attorneys, judges, policymakers, advocates, and people involved in the criminal justice system can leverage this one-of-a-kind resource to better navigate and understand these often-overlooked policies.
PUBLICATIONS
Justice Reinvestment in Rhode Island: Modernizing Supervision Practices
After using a Justice Reinvestment approach, Rhode Island passed legislation that will modernize probation and parole policies and practices, create more opportunities for community-based treatment for people with substance addictions and mental illnesses, and expand benefits for victims of crime, among other measures. This publication presents a summary of the Justice Reinvestment process and legislation.
Justice Reinvestment in New Mexico: Overview
This overview outlines several criminal justice challenges in New Mexico, including high crime rates and overdose death rates, a growing prison population, and an increase in the reincarceration rate, and provides a summary of the stages of the Justice Reinvestment process.
Justice Reinvestment in Massachusetts: Reducing Recidivism and Strengthening Public Safety
After using a Justice Reinvestment approach, Massachusetts passed legislation that focuses on incentivizing good behavior, diverting people from incarceration to treatment and programming, and strengthening community supervision, among other measures. This publication presents a summary of the Justice Reinvestment process and legislation.
Best Practices for Successful Reentry for People Who Have Opioid Addictions
This fact sheet from the National Reentry Resource Center describes the best practices that correctional, community-based behavioral health, and probation and parole agencies can implement within their systems to ensure reentry for people who have opioid addictions is safe and successful.
Justice Reinvestment in Missouri: Lowering Recidivism by Improving Supervision, Enhancing Connections to Services, and Addressing Violent Crime
After using a Justice Reinvestment approach, Missouri passed legislation that will help local law enforcement combat violent crime, ensure that risk assessment results drive key decisions about people on community supervision, provide better community-based treatment and services for people on probation or parole who have behavioral health conditions, and strengthen infrastructure to support victims of crime. This publication presents a summary of the Justice Reinvestment process and legislation.
JUSTICE CENTER IN THE NEWS
Key Missouri Departments Are Working Toward a Turn-Around of State’s Incarceration Rates
State directors and staff in the fields of public safety, mental health, social services, and corrections are rolling out implementations of the state Justice Reinvestment Initiative. It aims to turn around Missouri’s rising incarceration rates by investing in treatment and other services rather than in prisons.
Five Questions Facing Wyoming as the Gordon Administration Prepares to Take Office
While governors set the tone and the general direction of a state’s destiny, it is the legislature they work with — independent and made of dozens of independent minds — that controls the flow of the conversation.
Suffolk Sheriff Sets up Family-Oriented Cellblock to Keep Young Inmates out of Jail
Sheriff Steve Tompkins recently told a roomful of public officials and inmates that the PEACE unit—an acronym for “Positive Energy Always Creates Elevation”—is part of an effort to reshape the way people are treated behind bars.
Out of Prison, but Struggling for Health Care
“People that are healthy are more likely to be able to find work,” said Tom Betti, press secretary for the Ohio Department of Medicaid. “In the long run that saves taxpayer dollars. They are healthier, employed and not reincarcerated.”
Advocates: Missouri Crime Victim Aid Law Changes Are Working
A new law meant to make it easier for Missouri crime victims to request financial aid to help pay for medical coverage, counseling and other expenses appears to be working, advocates say.
National Groups Highlight Massachusetts’ Success Reducing Recidivism
“Massachusetts has been a leader in this, really taking advantage of a groundswell across the nation of general support for good reentry (programming),” said Nicole Jarrett, director of the National Reentry Resource Center.