Managing Costs and Improving
Public Safety
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES
2013 LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON HILTON
MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2014
Denise E. O’Donnell
Counties Matter
• Most crimes happen locally and most justice is administered at the
local level through courts, prosecution, indigent defense, and
probation.
• Counties are where the bulk of services are administered through
hospitals, mental health and substance abuse treatment centers,
etc.
• In 2012, the jail incarcerated population was 33 percent (744,500)
of the total incarcerated population (2,228,400).
• About 700,000 people are released from state and federal prisons
every year, but about 9-10 million cycle annually through jails.
• Approximately 2/3 of local detention is for those in a pretrial status,
i.e. people who have not yet been found guilty of any crime.
BJA Invests in Counties Through
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Criminal Justice Reform
Pre-trial Reform
Reentry
Place-based Initiatives
Improving Prosecution
Improving Indigent Defense
Justice Reinvestment Three-Step Process
Bipartisan, Inter-Branch, Inter-Disciplinary Structure
1
Analyze Data and
Develop Policy Options
• Analyze data to
look at crime,
court, corrections
and supervision
trends
• Solicit input from
stakeholders
• Map allocation of
resources
• Develop policy
options & estimate
cost savings
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3
Adopt New Policies
Measure Performance
• Identify assistance
needed to
implement policies
effectively
• Deploy targeted
reinvestment
strategies to
increase public
safety
• Review
implementation
progress
• Track the impact of
enacted
policies/programs
• Monitor recidivism
rates and other key
measures
Justice Reinvestment State
Assessment Report
• Report describes the progress, challenges and preliminary
outcomes of 17 JRI states from 2010 to summer 2013.
• All eight of the sites that had JRI policies in effect for at least one
year have experienced meaningful reductions in their prison
populations, and five of them have met or exceeded their
population reduction goals.
• Report estimates that there will be a total projected savings of as
much as $4.7 billion over a 10 year period.
JRI Resources
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BJA Website – JRI Page:
https://www.bja.gov/ProgramDetails.aspx?Program_ID=92
Center for Effective Public Policy: http://cepp.com/justice-reinvestment
Crime and Justice Institute: http://www.crj.org/cji/projects
Urban Institute: www.urban.org/center/jpc/justice-reinvestment/resources.cfm
• Justice Reinvestment: A Toolkit for Local Leaders
• The Criminal Justice Planner’s Toolkit for Justice reinvestment at the Local
Level
Council of State Governments: http://csgjusticecenter.org/jr/
VERA Institute For Justice: http://www.vera.org/centers/center-sentencing-andcorrections
Pew Center on the States: Public Safety Performance
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/initiatives_detail.aspx?initiativeID=31336
Pre-Trial Reform
• Reform at the front end of the criminal justice system is
key to improved outcomes at each subsequent stage –
problem-solving courts, smarter sentencing, smarter
policing and prosecution, and smarter probation and
parole
• The use of validated risk assessment tools to inform
pretrial release decisions is critical.
• www.pretrial.org, maintains BJA-funded publications,
including a number of case studies on successful
jurisdictions, and many policy briefs on risk
assessment, supervision, and other related topics.
Reentry and Recidivism Reduction
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Seven programs provide resources to states, tribes, cities/counties and non
profit agencies to affect change and reduce recidivism among different reentry
populations through the Second Chance Act (SCA).
Over $1 billion in SCA funds requested; to date over $300 million in grants have
been made to 600 recipients in 49 states
New focus on leveraging Affordable Care Act and recidivism reduction
opportunities
Since its initial administration in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, SCA programs have
included the following:
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Adult offenders with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health Adult and juvenile
demonstration (planning and implementation) projects
Reentry courts
Adult and juvenile mentoring programs
Technology careers training projects for incarcerated adults and juveniles
Adult statewide recidivism reduction projects
Smart probation projects
Evaluation of adult and juvenile reentry demonstration projects
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• National Reentry Resource Center
(www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org )
synthesizes what works in reentry and
disseminates through website, webinars, national
convenings, and peer networks.
• National conferences and workshops
• Four evaluation projects underway assessing
process, cost, implementation and impact of
many SCA-funded adult and juvenile projects
Federal Coordination Through the Reentry Council
National Reentry
Resource Center
inventoried and
mapped major
federal reentry
resources
going to states
and localities
Address Federal Barriers to Reentry
Federal Coordination
Barriers to
Employment
Public Housing
Veterans
38,000
Collateral
Consequences
Access to Benefits
Address Common Reentry Myths
Each sheet addresses a common ‘myth’
about reentry, ranging from federal
financial aid to employment issues.
It lists facts debunking the myth, answering
common misperceptions…
…describes the details of each, including
explanations of different state policies…
…and lists important suggestions and
recommendations for readers.
At the end of the form, each sheet lists
useful online resources.
Criminal Justice/Mental Health
• Women’s Pathways to Jail: The Roles and
Intersections Serious Mental Illness and Trauma
• https://www.bja.gov/Publications/Women_Pathways_to_Jail.pdf
The findings of a study which found that a national sample of women
in jails showed high rates of mental health problems
• Adults with Behavioral Health Needs under Correctional
Supervision: A Shared Framework for Reducing
Recidivism and Promoting Recovery
• The report is written for policymakers, administrators, and service
providers committed to improving outcomes for the large number of
adults with mental health and substance use disorders that cycle
through the criminal justice system.
• http://consensusproject.org/jc_publications/adults-withbehavioral-health-needs
Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation
• Created as part of the Obama Administration’s
larger neighborhood revitalization efforts to help
local and tribal communities develop place-based,
community-oriented strategies to change
neighborhoods of distress into neighborhoods of
opportunity. BCJI was launched in 2012.
• Through coordinated federal support, this
interagency effort aligns programs of the
Departments of Education (Promise), Justice (BCJI),
Housing and Urban Development (Choice), Health
and Human Services and Treasury
Map of FY12 and FY 13 BCJI Grantees
Seattle,
Washington
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
Omaha Nebraska
Omaha,
Kansas City, Missouri
Buffalo,
New York
Detroit,
Michigan
Evansville,
Indiana
Syracuse, New
York
Dayton,
Ohio
Lowell,
Massachusetts
Dayton
Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Portland,
Oregon
Springfield,
Massachusetts
Providence, Rhode
Island
Corning, California
Brooklyn,
New York
San Francisco,
California
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
Los Angeles,
California
Erie, Pennsylvania
Charleston,
West Virginia
Charleston
West Virginia
San Bernardino,
California
FY 2012 Grantees (15)
FY 2013 Grantees (14)
Cross-sector teams are using evidencebased, community-driven strategies to
address crime hot spots in specific
neighborhoods in each city
Albany,
Georgia
San Antonio, Texas
Austin,
Texas
Baton Rouge,Austin
Louisiana Texas
Nashville,
Tennessee
Tampa, Florida
Baltimore,
Maryland
BCJI Core Program Elements
• Place Based: Targets crime “hot spots” or microplaces as
part of a comprehensive neighborhood development
strategy
• Data-driven problem solving: Uses local researcherpractitioner partnership to use data to clearly define
problems and identify solutions
• Community-oriented: Seeks to catalyze and sustain
change through active involvement and leadership of
neighborhood residents, as part of a broad cross sector
partnership team.
• Cost effective: Place-based strategies should maximize
local resources; BCJI promotes leveraging all other
funding sources (federal, state, local, and private.)
BCJI Site Funding
• FY 12 and FY 13 Solicitations:
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Planning and Implementation (up to $1 million)
Planning and Enhancement (up to $600,000)
29 total grantees (17 P & I, 12 ENH)
FY14 solicitation planned
• Training and Technical Assistance:
Provided by the Local Initiatives Support
Corporation (LISC).
BJA Tools for the Field
• Risk–Needs–Responsivity Simulation Tool
• BJA and its academic partners have developed a
Risk, Needs, & Responsivity (RNR) simulation tool
to address recidivism issues in jurisdictions.
• This tool will enable jurisdictions to reform their
incarceration and reentry processes so that they
can learn to identify an individual’s risk level and
several criminogenic needs, and then develop
appropriate programming for that individual.
• http://www.gmuace.org/research_rnr.html
BJA Tools for the Field
• Cost Benefit Knowledge Bank for Criminal Justice
(CBKB)
• Provides resources for justice practitioners and
policymakers interested in using cost-benefit
analysis methods and applications to better
evaluate the economic impact of criminal justice
policy choices.
• cbkb.org
BJA’s National Training and Technical Assistance Center
(BJA NTTAC)
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BJA NTTAC facilitates the delivery of high-quality, strategically focused
training and technical assistance (TTA) to state, local and tribal
jurisdictions.
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BJA NTTAC works to improve the criminal justice system by providing
rapid, expert, coordinated, and data-driven TTA to support
practitioners in the effort to reduce crime, recidivism, and unnecessary
confinement in state, local, and tribal communities.
National Training and Technical Assistance Center (BJA NTTAC)
• The TTA services provided through NTTAC cover a
broad set of topic areas including training, information
dissemination, technical assistance, and facilitation of
multi-agency and cross-jurisdictional teams and working
groups.
• TTA Examples: Implementing evidence-based
programs, curriculum development, data analysis,
onsite and distance learning training, peer-to-peer visits,
research and information requests, and strategic
planning assistance.
• For more information and to request TTA:
www.bjatraining.org
NTTAC’s Crime Analysis on Demand
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TTA to law enforcement agencies to enhance their capabilities to
analyze and use data to make informed decisions, respond
effectively, and prevent crime.
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Crime Analysis on Demand process is as follows:
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Conduct a needs assessment to determine analytical gaps and needs.
Develop and present recommendations for addressing the identified gaps
and needs.
Document how the recommended TTA would promote organizational change,
help reduce crime and enhance public safety, and data sources and elements
that will be used to support these conclusions.
Outline technical solutions that enable real-time sharing of crime data and
analytical products on a local, regional, and statewide basis including
examples of best practices in collaboration that address crime needs that
involve distance learning tools and
Bureau of Justice Assistance
Office of Justice Programs
U.S. Department of Justice
Contact: Denise E. O’Donnell
Director
810 7th St., NW
Washington, DC 20531
Tel: 202-616-3613
denise.odonnell@usdoj.gov