New data released today by The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, with support from Arnold Ventures, reveals the startling extent to which probation and parole violations contribute to states’ high prison admissions and populations, as well as the subsequent cost to taxpayers.
Michael P. Boggs, a Georgia Supreme Court justice, has been appointed chair of The Council of State Governments Justice Center’s Advisory Board.
I arrived at the CSG Justice Center aware that the field of criminal justice has changed dramatically since our inception in 2007, presenting our organization and others with new challenges and exciting opportunities. As we entered our second decade, I felt that we first needed to be sure we understand who we are, what we stand for, and how we fit into this growing field.
At a recent North Dakota Justice Reinvestment Oversight Committee meeting, CSG Justice Center staff highlighted recent decreases in prison admissions that resulted from alcohol and drug offenses and probation revocations. These declines seem to be the cause of a 6.5-percent drop in the state’s total prison population in FY2018, which exceeded expectations, and have reinforced the state’s efforts to increase behavioral health services for people in the criminal justice system.
CSG Justice Center staff spoke with four Second Chance Act Innovations in Reentry Initiative grantees about their experiences fostering effective partnerships between criminal justice practitioners and the researchers evaluating their programs. These programs span the country and the justice system, serving clients within courts, prisons, jails, and in the community.
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The program, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, provides funding aimed at reducing crime and recidivism by helping state governments improve their capacity to set goals for their criminal justice systems, measure whether they are achieving them, and use those results to make data-driven policy decisions and allocate scarce resources effectively.
The annual conference will bring together participants from counties of all sizes to shape NACo’s federal policy agenda, share proven practices, and strengthen knowledge networks to help improve residents’ lives and the efficiency of county government.
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The program will support multidisciplinary teams from state and local jurisdictions—including probation leadership, judges, attorneys, and other key stakeholders—to fundamentally rethink their system-wide approach to probation to increase public safety and improve youth outcomes.
This webinar provides an overview of the intersection of mental illness and the criminal justice system; describes factors contributing to the need for cultural competency as it relates to people in the criminal justice system who have mental illnesses; identifies strategies and best practices that judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys can employ when working with people of diverse backgrounds who have mental illnesses.
The presenters of this webinar discuss overcoming the challenges to effective community engagement and explore ways to increase the number of juvenile record clearances.
This webinar explores ways that juvenile defenders and civil legal aid attorneys can partner to share expertise and provide essential legal representation for youth facing the collateral consequences of having criminal records.
This report describes 12 “levers of change” related to potential discretionary parole release reforms; the reforms are called “change levers” because, once a lever is pulled, it is designed to impact prison populations by altering parole grant rates and durations of time served.
This report shares current and emerging practices for better serving youth charged as adults, insights from practitioners about what makes for successful programming for this population, and specific recommendations for policy and practice change.
This new report gives cities and counties a tool for fighting mass incarceration by providing a guide to preventing unnecessary jail expansion, laying out 33 questions that local decision-makers should ask when evaluating proposals for new or bigger jails.
Judge Mary Triggiano is no stranger to trauma. Presiding over cases in Milwaukee County Family Court over many years, she has witnessed countless times the lasting behavioral effects that trauma imparts on children.
This focus on an incarcerated person’s overall well-being represents a shift in how reentry programs are modeled, Carrie Pettus-Davis, an associate professor at Florida State University says. It’s based on helping them develop healthy thinking patterns, effective coping strategies, meaningful work trajectories, positive social engagement, and favorable interpersonal relationships.
The resolution commits the county, led by the County Administrative Office, Sheriff’s Office, and the Probation and Health Departments, to a “call to action” that includes “sharing lessons” learned from other counties in the state and nationally.
Erroneous or outdated criminal charges that linger on a person’s record for years—also known as “sticky warrants”—can result either from prosecutors and probation departments refusing to drop minor cases from the distant past, or from outright clerical errors.