Analysis Area 1: Detail the impact and cost/benefit of Iowa Department of Corrections’ (IDOC) revocation-reduction efforts on public safety by determining how violations, revocations, and offending patterns by people on community supervision changed during the pandemic and estimating the impact of that change on public safety. The cost/benefit of the revocation-reduction efforts will be assessed by working with IDOC to estimate a cost of the revocation-reduction efforts in terms of staffing, caseloads, and other related costs, then balancing those costs against the impact on public safety.
Update: CSG Justice Center staff continued conversations with a research consultant and IDOC research staff to verify our understanding of the preliminary data that were shared and to map out our next series of descriptive analyses. CSG Justice Center staff continued to clean and sort the data, as well as produce visualizations to illustrate variation in violation and revocation rates prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic in preparation for the 2/25 launch presentation. CSG Justice Center staff continued to build out an analytic file that will be used to develop and run statistical models to test the impact of revocation reductions on public safety. Additionally, CSG Justice Center staff incorporated feedback from IDOC and attendees of the 2/25 launch presentation into their analysis plan.
Analysis Area 2: Evaluate the implementation of recent IDOC efforts to reduce revocations; estimate their impact on community-based corrections officers’ ability to supervise effectively, case management activities, officer and supervisee needs, and utilization of community-based services and programs; and identify which efforts to keep (and which to adjust or modify).
Update: CSG Justice Center staff continued the Community Supervision Assessment by documenting recurring themes across the district director, supervisor, and frontline officer focus groups. CSG Justice Center staff also convened a focus group with people formerly or currently on community supervision to understand their experiences and the challenges they encountered being on supervision during the pandemic.
Analysis Area 3: Connect with criminal justice stakeholders (law enforcement, courts, community-based corrections, etc.) and review available data to better understand larger criminal justice responses and changes implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Update: CSG Justice Center staff finalized focus group questions for IDOC reentry stakeholders, court stakeholders, law enforcement, and the victim advisory group based on the themes observed during the community supervision assessment focus groups. Additionally, CSG Justice Center staff publicly launched the project by delivering a presentation to the Oversight Committee on February 25, 2022.
Research Monthly Status:
In February, CSG Justice Center staff organized and vetted descriptive analyses on our study cohort and prepared data visualizations based on these descriptives to present at the official launch of the project on 2/25/22.
Research Monthly Log:
- 2/7: Call with IDOC to review data decisions, interpretations, and visualizations for the project launch presentation. Following the call, adjustments were made to our initial descriptive output to reflect feedback from IDOC.
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