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County Teams Work to Make Stepping Up Initiative ‘A Movement, Not a Moment’
Behavioral health and criminal justice professionals recently gathered in Washington, DC, to address strategies for reducing the prevalence of individuals with mental illnesses in jails. -
Obama Administration, U.S. Attorneys Unite Around #ReentryWeek
The Obama Administration and members of state and local governments, nonprofits, and communities across the country rallied behind the message of the inaugural National #ReentryWeek. -
2015 JMHCP & SCA National Conferences
U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch speaks to grantees at the annual Second Chance Act (SCA) and Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) conference in Washington, DC. -
50 State Teams Gather to Develop Plans for Improving Youth Outcomes
On the heels of new data showing massive reductions in the number of youth incarcerated, representatives from all 50 states met to tackle the next big challenge: making sure supervision...
County Teams Work to Make Stepping Up Initiative ‘A Movement, Not a Moment’
Recent Posts
‘Washington Post’ Criminal Justice Summit Considers Opportunities for Reform
As someone who was once incarcerated, Khalil Cumberbatch knows that the things many people miss while behind bars may not be what one might expect. “Many people that I’ve met in maximum security prisons want to … be involved with their community; they want to be taxpayers; they want to be able to drop their kids off and pick them up from school,” he said at the Washington Post’s Criminal Justice Summit in Washington, DC, this month. “Second chances matter.”
Understanding the FBI Crime Report
Recently, the FBI released its annual report on crime, which included distressing news: violent crime—while still at levels far below what it was 20 years ago—increased between 2014 and 2015. Whenever elected officials see anything indicating their constituents are less safe, they are understandably and appropriately anxious.
UTEC and Roca Uplifted as Model Programs for Young Adults in the Justice System
UTEC and Roca, two Second Chance Act grantees based in Massachusetts, were highlighted in a recent report by the National Institute of Justice for their innovative approaches to working with young adults.
The Continuing Leverage of Releasing Authorities: Findings from a National Survey
This report, a compilation of a national survey of state parole boards and the U.S. Parole Commission, is a resource for parole and correctional authorities, policymakers, and other criminal justice system stakeholders who are interested in seeing how parole boards across the country compare with one another.
Rockdale County, GA, Uses RNR Simulation Tool to Customize Reentry Plans for People Leaving Jail
“We really became committed to reentry,” said Rockdale County Lieutenant Dennis Pass. “So going to command staff and getting buy-in for using this tool wasn’t difficult. They knew finding a tool that doesn’t take a clinician to use is tough, so this was a perfect fit.”
HUD Publication Outlines Promising Reentry Housing Models
It Starts With Housing is a new publication from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that encourages public housing authorities to collaborate with partners to “make second chances real for the men and women returning” from jail and prison.
Highlights
- Understanding the FBI Crime Report
- Scientific American: When Police Deal with People Who Have Mental Health Issues
- Gov. Sandoval Leads Launch of a Comprehensive Review of Nevada’s Juvenile Justice System
- In San Francisco and Beyond, Homeless Crisis Should Not Derail Progress on Mental Illness
- PBS Newshour: Breaking the School-To-Prison Pipeline for Young Offenders One Class at a Time
Announcements
Apply Now: Multi-System Collaboration Training and Technical Assistance Program
The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR), in partnership with the Center for Coordinated Assistance to the States, has issued a request for applications from jurisdictions seeking to engage in multi-system improvement efforts.
Register for Webinar: Police-Mental Health Collaboration Programs, a Different Way of Policing
This webinar will provide an overview of police-mental health collaboration programs—collaborative partnerships among law enforcement agencies, mental health providers, and other community-based entities—and will feature two Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program grantees whose programs effectively respond to people with mental illnesses.
Apply Now: Research Network on Misdemeanor Justice
The Research Network on Misdemeanor Justice, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice project funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, is convening various criminal justice agencies to work with research institutions across seven jurisdictions to analyze trends related to low-level offenses such as misdemeanors and summonses/citations. Applications are due October 15.
WEBINARS
Developing Program Phases in a Mental Health Court
As jurisdictions refine their practices within mental health courts they often seek additional information on using a phased approach as a way to structure program participation. How are program phases created? What makes them effective? How many program phases should a mental health court have? This webinar focusses on answering these questions and others.
Developing Sustainability, Success Stories from the Field
Grant funding often provides seed money to help agencies launch new programs. However, once the grant has expended, finding additional funds to sustain a program can be challenging. This webinar discusses how other funding streams can be leveraged, and partnerships developed, to help sustain a program.
Strengthening Collaboration between the Behavioral Health and Juvenile Justice Systems to Improve Reentry Outcomes
This webinar is especially useful for juvenile correctional agencies, behavioral health agencies, clinicians, reentry coordinators, probation and parole staff, and other stakeholders.
Keeping Fathers Engaged in Reentry Programs Post-Release
This webinar discusses the challenge of keeping participants engaged in fatherhood reentry programs after they have been released from incarceration and examines some techniques and strategies that have been employed by different programs.
Medication Assisted Treatment in Jails and Community-Based Settings
This webinar is designed for Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program and Second Chance Act Reentry Program for Adults with Co-occurring Substance Use and Mental Disorders grantees and features speakers from three different grant programs that are utilizing MAT in jail and community-based settings for people involved in the justice system.
PUBLICATIONS
Justice Reinvestment in North Dakota: Policy Framework
The Justice Reinvestment Policy Framework presented to the Incarceration Issues Committee offers four pragmatic policy options that are projected to reduce the forecasted prison population in 2022 by 13 percent, avoiding $36.3 million in contract prison bed costs.
Justice Reinvestment in Pennsylvania: Fourth Presentation
The fourth presentation to the Pennsylvania Justice Reinvestment Initiative Working Group focuses on prioritizing recidivism reduction and understanding sentencing choices and outcomes as well as potential policy options.
Justice Reinvestment in Georgia: Sentencing Subcommittee, Third Presentation
This presentation to Georgia’s Sentencing Subcommittee focuses on the state’s recidivist sentencing law, sentencing trends, and recidivism outcomes.
Justice Reinvestment in Georgia: Probation Subcommittee, Third Presentation
This presentation to Georgia’s Probation Subcommittee focuses on felony probation population trends, supervision practices, and recidivism outcomes.
Justice Reinvestment in Arkansas: Policy Options and Projected Impacts
This presentation outlines proposed policy options for the Legislative Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force, which are designed to address current pressures on prisons, county jails, and the state’s supervision system.
JUSTICE CENTER IN THE NEWS
Prison Rehabilitation Program Gets an Overhaul
As a part of a revamping of the all Department of Correction facilities, the rider program had new curricula added. A rider is served at an intensive rehabilitation facility where offenders enter treatment with the hope of diverting them from recidivism.
US Departments of Labor and Justice Award $59.4M in Grants to Improve Reentry Outcomes for Currently, Formerly Incarcerated Individuals
The funds awarded today are part of the Obama administration’s ongoing efforts to reduce recidivism and promote reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals.
Criminal Justice Panel Working Toward Year-End Policy Debate
After months studying recidivism trends, drivers of incarceration and other elements of criminal justice in Massachusetts, researchers from the Council on State Governments Justice Center plan to gather with a 25-member working group in December to go over final policy recommendations.
We Can’t Arrest Our Way out of Pa.’s Heroin Epidemic: Josh Shapiro
As Chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and more recently as a candidate for Attorney General, I’ve traveled to every corner of our Commonwealth and seen how the heroin and opioid epidemic is gripping communities – urban, suburban and rural alike – as the number one accidental killer in Pennsylvania.
Russell Moore Talks About His Meeting With President Obama on Prison Reform
Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore told The Christian Post in an interview that President Barack Obama is “very receptive” to ideas on prison reform that are being advances by a coalition of conservative and liberal activists.
When a Policy Alone Is Not Enough
In his first eight sessions as a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Kris Steele paid scant attention to crime and punishment. But, in 2008, Steele’s work on the state budget put Oklahoma’s prison system in his sights for the first time. What he saw, he says, “puzzled and dismayed” him.