BSCC-PPIC Multi-County
Realignment Study
Association for Criminal Justice Research-CA
October 24, 2013
Sonya Tafoya, Ryken Grattet, Mia Bird
Purpose of Multi-County Study

Collaborate with the BSCC to develop an individuallevel database for realigned offenders

Study effectiveness of county policies and practices

Provide data for broad range of research and
reporting efforts by:
– Counties
– State agencies
– Academic researchers
Project Endorsement and Participation
Endorsed by:
•
California State Association of
Counties
•
County Administrative Officers
Association of California
•
California State Sheriff’s Association
•
Chief Probation Officers of California
•
CDCR and DOJ
Partially Funded by:
Eleven California Counties
•
National Institute of Justice
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Data and Data Sources
Recidivism
•Arrests,
Violations
•Convictions
•Returns
DOJ
CI&I
Unique ID
Services &
Sanctions
•Alternative
Sanctions
•Treatment
Counties
Background
•Risk & Needs
•Offending
history
Counties
CDCR
How do we know what works?
ID
Controls
Intervention
Outcome
Offender
County
Demographics
Risk
Needs
Service
Recidivism
Andre
X
32, M, White
High
SA
Y
Y
Sebastian
Y
22, M, Asian
High
SA
Y
Y
Juan
X
45, M, Black
High
SA
N
N
Steve
Z
34, M, White
Low
Educ
N
N
Erica
X
27, F, Latino
Moderate
MH
Y
N
What questions can be answered with
such data?

Is our recidivism rate (however best defined) going up or down?

Do the services we refer people to decrease their recidivism?

Is flash incarceration leading to behavior change?

Do offenders given split sentences do better, worse, or the same as
offenders given straight sentences?

Do offenders placed on electronic monitoring do better, worse, or the
same as offenders given straight or split sentences?

Do we have the right set of service and program options in place?

Are their promising evidence based practices being used elsewhere that
could benefit our county?
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Progress and Current Status

Collaboration established with BSCC, CDCR, DOJ 

State-level endorsements of project 

County recruitment 

Identifying county needs for full participation

Data collection begins January 2014 (@ 6 month
intervals)
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Contact
Sonya Tafoya
Research Associate
Public Policy Institute of California
tafoya@ppic.org
(415) 291-4470
Ryken Grattet
Research Fellow
Public Policy Institute of California
grattet@ppic.org
(916) 440-1123
Mia Bird
Research Fellow
Public Policy Institute of California
bird@ppic.org
(415) 291-4471
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