A Year of Impact and Progress:
The Crime and Justice Institute's 2018 Highlights
The past year saw the Crime and Justice Institute working with exceptional partners at the local, county, state, and federal levels to advance programs and policies that promote fairness and safety. From landmark criminal justice legislation in Oklahoma, to sharing lessons learned on improving outcomes for youth at a conference in Minnesota, to building momentum for reform in Nevada and Florida, CJI helped lead the conversation on moving criminal justice forward to improve outcomes and protect public safety.
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Oklahoma's governor signed sweeping criminal justice reforms into law
Oklahoma
marked a major milestone in April when Governor Mary Falli
n signed comprehensive criminal justice legislation designed to control growth in the state's prison population, strengthen public safety, and invest in programs that reduce recidivism.
The bill followed two years of data gathering, analysis, and debate. In partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Pew Charitable Trusts, CJI provided technical support to a group of key stakeholders from all disciplines within the criminal justice system that developed policy recommendations, forming the basis for this legislation.
Governor Fallin followed up by investing $12 million in mental health and substance abuse services, programming to reduce the number of women sent to prison, and other public safety and recidivism reduction programs in the 2018 budget.
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Nevada leaders are exploring criminal justice improvements
In August, Governor Brian Sandoval announced the
kick-off of an initiative to improve the state's criminal justice system, with
CJI providing technical assistance to support the BJA-funded project. Governor Sandoval charged the Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice with developing comprehensive and data-driven sentencing, release, and corrections policies for consideration during the Nevada legislature's 2019 session.
The panel of Nevada criminal justice leaders and advocates is now preparing to release a package of policy recommendations in early 2019 designed to reduce recidivism, hold offenders accountable, and give taxpayers a better return on their public safety investment. CJI will continue to provide assistance as policymakers shape those recommendations into meaningful policy changes.
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Louisiana moved out of first place on the list of the most incarcerated states
A year into implementation of the largest criminal justice reform legislation in its history, Louisiana has moved out of the top spot as the most incarcerated state in the country.
While still in the early stages of implementation, Louisiana is already seeing promising results from the sweeping 2017 reforms.
At a June press conference, Governor Edwards released the first annual update on the legislation, showing that the overall prison population declined by 7.6 percent, driven by a reduction in the number of people imprisoned for nonviolent offenses, which dropped by 20 percent.
CJI continues to support Louisiana leaders and agency staff as they implement the reforms.
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A juvenile justice conference in Minnesota showcased the work of seven states
In June, CJI
hosted a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota that showcased how seven states adopted comprehensive improvements to their juvenile justice systems, each a powerful example for other states.
Leaders from Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah walked through the processes they employed and the positive results that have followed, including reductions in the number of juveniles placed in secure facilities.
Representatives from nine additional states attended the conference to better understand what they might try differently in their own efforts to improve outcomes for young people.
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CJI encouraged collaborative criminal justice reform in a series of state forums
CJI launched a series of forums in 2018 designed to
explore individual states' criminal justice systems, challenges they face, and opportunities to improve public safety.
The CJI-hosted forums in
Alaska,
Kentucky, and
Tennessee in 2018 were part of an initiative of the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance designed to encourage collaborative criminal justice reform efforts across the nation. In the coming months CJI will host two additional state forums.
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CJI continued work in South Dakota to make considerable behavioral health impact
In collaboration with stakeholders across the state, CJI assisted South Dakota in achieving significant outcomes in the first year of implementation of a legislative effort to improve criminal justice responses to people with mental illness.
Wait times for competency to stand trial evaluations now average 37 days, down from four to six months; crisis intervention training is available statewide; seven jails piloted and continue to implement mental health screenings; and over 2,400 criminal justice stakeholders, including judges, probation officers, jail and prison corrections officers, public defenders, law enforcement officials, and prosecutors, have received mental health training.
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Policy reforms from earlier state efforts show improvement
Four states where CJI provided technical assistance - Alaska, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Utah - continued to realize positive impacts in 2018 from new policies designed to improve outcomes in their adult and juvenile justice systems.
Alaska transformed its pretrial system by implementing a risk assessment tool developed by CJI, focusing pretrial release decisions on risk rather than a defendant's ability to pay, and investing in resources to bolster pretrial supervision.
Tennessee's Davidson County also rolled out a new pretrial risk assessment and is now leading the way in the state on rethinking pretrial detention.
In Mississippi,
Governor Phil Bryant signed House Bill 387 into law in April, further strengthening the state's criminal justice system four years after passing comprehensive legislation to safely reduce its prison population.The new legislation prevents incarcerating people who are unable to pay fines and fees, expands parole eligibility, and supports reentry.
Since overhauling its juvenile justice system in 2017, Utah has significantly reduced its reliance on locked detention by diverting more young people into community-based programs that hold them accountable at a lower cost and with better outcomes for youth, families, and communities. CJI will publish a report on Utah's progress in early 2019.
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Florida set the table for future data-driven policy-making
State leaders and criminal justice reform
advocates in Florida built strong momentum in 2018 for advancing legislation intended to safely reduce the state's overcrowded prison population, which ranks third-largest in the nation.
CJI
presented an analysis
to lawmakers in February showing that Florida sends fewer people to prison, but those who do end up there are serving longer sentences, even for low-level, non-violent offenses. The analysis suggested that Florida can hold individuals accountable and safely reduce its prison population without increasing crime through data-driven sentencing reforms, expanding alternatives to incarceration, and implementing policies and practices shown to reduce recidivism.
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CJI's work made headlines around the country. Here are some highlights:
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