Priority Area 1: Facilitate a working group to finalize and implement administrative policy and practice changes identified during the Phase I process.
Background: Minnesota counties have three options for the delivery of probation and post-incarceration supervised release. They can (1) opt to administer all correctional field services themselves; (2) supervise adults charged with misdemeanors and youth in the juvenile justice system, with the Department of Corrections (DOC) providing felony supervision; or (3) have DOC manage the entire caseload for the county. During Phase I, CSG Justice Center staff found wide variation in recidivism rates for people on felony probation by supervision agency, as well as in the use of evidence-based supervision practices. Minnesota’s delivery systems also do not use a common risk assessment tool, so there is no way to understand risk and need from a statewide perspective.
To address these issues, CSG Justice Center staff will facilitate a working group of representatives from all three delivery systems to do the following:
• Establish supervision service standards and definitions.
• Finalize and formalize the use of a statewide incentives and sanctions grid.
• Identify next steps for developing a common risk screener/risk and needs assessment tools or a process for mapping current assessment tools to a universal five-level matrix for consistent, equitable supervision levels.
Update: In October, CSG Justice Center staff met with representatives from the three delivery systems to discuss the working group, its membership, and its goals and anticipated challenges. CSG Justice Center staff solicited recommendations for who will represent each delivery system on the working group.
Priority Area 2: Assist the existing Court Services Tracking System (CSTS) data committee in developing a core set of supervision outcomes to measure supervision success across delivery systems.
Background: Each supervising agency or county uses their own version of CSTS to document and monitor data for people they supervise. Because each county manages their own data system, the definitions used and the specific data collected vary widely by agency. Additionally, data related to recidivism and other outcomes are not consistently available to agency leadership. Recognizing the need to develop common data definitions and establish statewide supervision outcome measures, representatives from the three delivery systems convened the CSTS data committee in early 2021 and have requested technical assistance from the CSG Justice Center to support this effort.
Update: CSG Justice Center staff reached out to leaders on the data committee to obtain meeting details so staff can begin attending but have not yet received it.
Priority Area 3: Support the development and implementation of changes to Intensive Supervised Release (ISR).
Background: More than 60 percent of prison admissions in Minnesota are due to supervision failures. Many of these people cycle through prison quickly, meaning that on most days, about 25 percent of the standing population was admitted for a supervision violation, costing the state more than $77 million annually.
Many of these revocations are from the state’s Intensive Supervision Program, which provides post-prison supervision for very high-risk people convicted of violent or repeat sexual offenses. It is funded by the state and administered by both counties and the DOC. The current structure of ISR is surveillance-based rather than focused on effective evidence-based interventions, which likely contributes to the high rate of supervision failures driving prison admissions. DOC and the counties convened a working group in September 2022 to reform ISR with the goal of increasing supervision success and decreasing recidivism and have asked the CSG Justice Center to advise and support this work.
Update: In October, CSG Justice Center staff attended one meeting of the ISR group and advised the group on the development of their charter and goals and shared information and resources about the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA)’s sequential intercept model for reentry.
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