Statewide Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI)

Overview

As part of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, CEPP helped seven-state jurisdictions implement solutions aimed at reducing recidivism, promoting long-term community safety, and making the best use of available resources. Each state’s area of focus was determined using a data-driven approach that analyzed the drivers of their justice system populations.

Our Approach

Implementing new approaches in the justice system requires collaboration and widespread support both within and across justice agencies. CEPP worked both on-site and remotely to help seven state jurisdictions (Idaho, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, and West Virginia) implement solutions to their area of focus. These areas included improving reentry opportunities for people leaving prison and returning to the community, expanding court services for specialized populations, developing automated reporting systems for people on parole assessed as being at low risk of recidivism, establishing transitional housing, and offering related services to people on probation and parole assessed as being at higher risk of recidivism, and addressing probation and parole supervision issues through a gender-informed lens.

CEPP staff helped establish collaborative teams and facilitate their work—assisting local project leaders as they developed sound approaches for their projects, including developing timelines, sustainable project plans, and performance and outcome measures. Critically, CEPP provided relevant training and research information to the teams, which helped build support and momentum for the local initiative.

The Impact

Each jurisdiction successfully implemented its desired changes, programs, or services. Results included:

• In Idaho, developing innovative approaches to reentry by matching people at a higher risk of recidivism with reentry case managers six months prior to release from prison and continuing their assistance for six months after release
• In Nebraska, establishing several transitional residential centers with services for people on probation or parole who have mental health and substance use issues and who are assessed as highly likely to recidivate
• In Ohio, creating an automated telephone reporting system for people on parole assessed as low risk and requiring less supervision attention in order to free up officer time for higher-risk cases
• In Oklahoma, expanding the use of risk and needs information in courts prior to case disposition so that people held in jail could be reviewed and recommended for appropriate diversion options more quickly, and increasing the capacity of selected mental health courts
• In Oregon, hiring coordinators for three local public safety coordinating councils to help plan and implement evidence-based community programs and services.
• In South Dakota, developing an intensive case management system and evidence-based programming and services  for women on supervision in danger of revocation, and providing training on gender-responsive and trauma-informed principles and approaches and on existing tools and programs developed specifically for women

In several states, promising results from these efforts led organizational leaders to increase the scale of their solutions, sometimes expanding projects statewide. Each implemented solution will be evaluated by the jurisdiction over the next several years to determine the impact that it has had on promoting success, reducing recidivism, and making the best use of resources.