Center for Justice Innovation and Leadership

Following the Evidence to Improve Crime Reduction Strategies

Criminal justice agencies today are increasingly focused on results. Rather than a new direction, this is a refinement of what has been happening in the corrections industry for the past decade as proof positive results of what works to reduce crime is being routinely published. The emphasis on outcomes requires jurisdictions to “follow the evidence” and adapt to what the research says works.

Agencies must consider how to implement more evidence-based and cost-effective approaches to all of their processes from arrest, through conviction, pre-trial detention, sentencing, probation supervision, prison operations, parole decision-making, parole supervision and community discharge. At every step, at every decision, decision makers are increasingly following the evidence that helps reduce crime while increasing public safety. And it saves money.

As the vehicle to deliver high level, policy focused professional consulting services, Northpointe has created the Center for Justice Innovation and Leadership. The Center develops partnerships with state, federal and private non-profit organizations targeting state department of corrections, state budget offices and governor’s offices to adopt more effective and efficient correctional policy and practice.

Governors and legislatures are demanding answers from corrections departments and they are being told that more space is needed because legislatures refuse to change sentencing laws. There is an understanding that major changes are needed and a growing understanding of what will work to reverse the trends but little financing ability to get the job done.

The Center’s professional services provide the facilitated leadership-oriented strategic planning and mentoring for state government leaders that are focused on three points of reference: the front end, i.e. community corrections activities that are focused on reduced admissions; custody, control, classification and programming activities inside institutions that are focused on improving and reducing the length of stay of prisoners; and work on the back end, i.e. prisoner re-entry and improvement in parole supervision and offenders’ post prison performance. These thee areas, simply put, control the size of prison populations.

The Center’s professional services revolve around four cornerstones: agency need, agency competency and capacity, facilitated decision-making, planning and implementation:

1. We work with you to examine your documented need of record as a first step to determine the corrections and political environments.
2. We work with you to determine the degree of competency and capacity that your agency possesses in order to perform significant assessment, analysis, planning and implementation.
3. We work with you to consider the range and timing of professional services that will help facilitate the change process. These services can range from high-end strategic planning and education, to further assessment of the various offender populations and specific implementation planning.
4. Based on this review, we work with you to develop a work plan for design, implementation, monitoring, adapting, evaluating and reporting your new evidence based, performance driven approaches. The data informs the process, the policy drives the decision making. Performance results.

Examples of the Center for Justice Innovation and Leadership Partnerships include:

• Council of State Government’s National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC), a project that provides NRRC guidance in how to best provide Second Chance Act grantees on-site technical assistance to improve prisoner reentry policies, practices and programs in local and state jurisdictions and to assist NRRC staff in direct technical assistance activities.
• Center for Effective Public Policy, a project funded by the Public Welfare Foundation that is offering state level strategic planning facilitation to each of the 23 Second Chance Act Adult Demonstration Sites to assist them in reaching their long term goal of reducing offender recidivism by 50% over the next five years.
• Constitution Project, a project funded by the Public Welfare Foundation to assist governors-elect in 2011 to reduce corrections costs by implementing evidence based practices in states’ justice agencies.
• Urban Institute and the Vera Institute of Justice, a project funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance to work with states under the federal Justice Reinvestment Initiative to assist states, local jurisdictions and tribal nations in identifying the policies and practices that are responsible for escalating prison and jail populations, amending those policies and practices to reduce over incarceration and detention, and reinvesting the savings on approaches that are more effective at reducing crime.