Manitoba MLA and new CJPS Committee Appointee, Andrew Smith

Since the last newsletter, activity on the Midwestern Legislative Conference's (MLC) Criminal Justice and Public Safety (CJPS) Committee has been relatively quiet. There has been one new appointment in recent months. The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba recently appointed Andrew Smith, Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Lagimodiere riding, as the government caucus' representative on the MLC CJPS Committee. A member of the Progressive Conservative Party, Mr. Smith has been a MLA since 2016. He currently lives in Winnipeg with his wife Jaime and their son, Lincoln. Congratulations to Mr. Smith on his appointment and welcome to the CJPS Committee! 

	Indiana Sen. Michael Crider accepts his Toll Fellowship award from CSG National Chair, Wisconsin Rep. Joan Ballweg

From October 2017 to March 2018, staff at the CSG Justice Center studied two jurisdictions' efforts to coordinate reentry and employment services for 521 people leaving state prisons and jails. These efforts were modeled on the approaches outlined in Integrated Reentry and Employment Strategies: Reducing Recidivism and Promoting Job Readiness white paper. One of these jurisdictions was Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. These services are incredibly important for the successful reintegration of offenders back into their communities and for ensuring they don't recidivate. The final product of the Justice Center's study is the Integrated Reentry & Employment Strategies (IRES) Pilot Project Process Evaluation Report. This study was made possible with the support of the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. 

The original whitepaper hypothesized that recidivism and employment outcomes would improve if corrections and workforce development agencies applied risk-need-responsivity (RNR) principles to their services. "The risk principle matches the intensity of a person's intervention with his or her assessed level of risk for criminal activity; the need principle targets the factors that contribute to the likelihood of new criminal activity such as substance addiction or antisocial behavior; and the responsivity principle accounts for each person's individual learning style, abilities, motivations, culture, and demographics." The evaluation of the pilot project shows that the two jurisdictions experienced both challenges and successes in implementing these RNR principles. The jurisdictions need to improve at providing the appropriate employment services before release and improve at assessing levels of job readiness. However, they were successful at enacting the proper resource-allocation and service-matching tools between agencies after release. 

The full pilot project evaluation report, including data analysis and methodology can be found here:  https://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/FINAL-IRES-Pilot-Project-Proc-Eval-Report.pdf