Minnesota Governor’s Council on Justice Reinvestment Discusses Results of Community Supervision System Review

On January 21, 2022, the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Justice Reinvestment met for the second time, to review the results of a comprehensive examination of the state’s community supervision system conducted by the Delivery System Standards and Funding Policy Working Group with assistance from the CSG Justice Center.

Since September 2021, staff from the CSG Justice Center have supported the working group in assessing community supervision delivery systems across Minnesota and developing a more equitable funding model that sustainably allocates resources across the state to expand the use of evidence-based supervision practices. This work is part of the state’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI).

Key findings from the assessment of the state’s community supervision system include the following:

• Minnesota’s community supervision funding mechanisms are complex and have resulted in significant variation in state and county investment across the state.
• The CSG Justice Center’s assessment of community supervision agencies indicates that there are inconsistencies in the use of risk and needs assessment tools, quality assurance practices, community program availability, and case planning across the state.
• There is wide variation in revocation rates for people on felony probation by supervision agency, and Minnesota can improve outcomes for people on supervision by consistently employing the principles of effective intervention.
• Black and Native American people are over-represented in community supervision populations and are more likely than White people to be reincarcerated.

Going forward, members of the Governor’s Council will consider policy recommendations for addressing these challenges and helping Minnesota achieve a supervision system that is effective, equitable, and adequately resourced. Final recommendations will be delivered to the governor by the end of February 2022 to inform action during the 2022 legislative session.

Both the council—a bipartisan, interbranch committee—and the working group—a committee established to update the state’s supervision funding formula—are overseeing this work as part of JRI. JRI is funded by the U.S. DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance and The Pew Charitable Trusts and was jointly initiated by leaders from Minnesota’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches as well as county leadership.

© AndreyKrav

This project was supported by Grant No. 2019-ZB-BX-K002 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.