Founding State Recruitment and Engagement
In April, the CSG Justice Center team increased their state engagement and recruitment efforts, with site visits to New Mexico, Iowa, and Indiana, as well as numerous virtual onboarding and recruitment meetings. Recruiting calls were held with stakeholders in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, including the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and the Office of the Lieutenant Governor. Onboarding calls were held across the Founding States, including a call with the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court in St. Louis. Staff from the CSG Justice Center and Recidiviz mapped out the blockers to launching the first dashboard and a plan to move through them. Until the dashboards are launched, data shared by agencies is visualized within the Justice Counts Publisher. CSG Justice Center staff also began brainstorming language, roles, and attributes for cheerleaders and “doers” within each agency being recruited as well as ways to recognize agencies that have opted in on the Justice Counts website.
In New Mexico, the site visit included meetings with the Chamber of Commerce for Albuquerque and the district attorney for the Second Judicial District as well as a presentation to the New Mexico Sentencing Commission’s convening of Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils and Crime Reduction Grant Act Awardees. Over 80 New Mexico agency leaders and stakeholders attended the event at which 34 individuals representing 11 of the state’s 14 judicial districts signed up for further meetings and discussions on Justice Counts. The Administrative Office of the Courts for New Mexico also opted in after meeting with staff from the CSG Justice Center to review their DataXchange system and identify the sector to begin the process of onboarding. Discussions explored how New Mexico’s DataXchange can serve as a super agency and facilitate data sharing for courts and jails data across Chaves, Bernalillo, San Juan, and Sandoval counties. The team held engagement calls with the Law Offices of the Public Defender, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, and New Mexico’s Bernalillo County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
In Ohio, staff from the CSG Justice Center held engagement calls with executives from Cuyahoga County; Delaware County Commissioner, Barb Lewis; and the Eastern Ohio Corrections Center to understand more about the community supervision case management systems used statewide. CSG Justice Center staff also held calls with the Executive Board Members of the Ohio Community Supervision Services (OCSS) to discuss the possibility of Justice Counts integrations within the OCSS platform and the Volunteers of America Cincinnati Residential Reentry Program staff to discuss Justice Counts and share information on how their unique agency can participate in the initiative. In a meeting with Chief Operating Officer Melissa Pierson of Franklin County’s Justice Policy and Programs and Senior Director Meg Griffith of Franklin County’s Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health Board, they volunteered to be part of any future Tier 2 metrics focus groups as well as the public comment forum. They hope to be part of this initiative in a way that helps treatment providers and community-based correctional facilities construct a recipe for successful reentry. CSG Justice Center staff and staff from Recidiviz conducted onboarding calls with Franklin County Municipal Courts, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the Franklin County Public Defender’s Office, and the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office. Staff from the CSG Justice Center also presented in a virtual workshop kicking off Franklin County, Ohio’s, Reentry Month; the Access to Justice Subcommittee; and the Attorney General’s Probation and Community Supervision Committee. Lastly, CSG Justice Center staff began scheduling meetings with stakeholders for their on-site trip to Ohio in May to raise awareness and gain opt-ins from other counties within the state including Licking, Delaware, and Fairfield.
In Iowa, CSG Justice Center staff and staff from Recidiviz conducted a virtual onboarding session with Story County Attorney’s Office and in person with the Ames Police Department to begin to configure the law enforcement metrics and the Iowa Department of Corrections to discuss the configuration approach and establish an effective data sharing process. CSG Justice Center staff held engagement calls with the Linn County Sheriff’s Office to explore jail and law enforcement data metrics and the Iowa State Association of Counties to discuss prosecution metrics and building a Justice Counts report within the prosecutor’s case management system, Prosecutor by Karpel. While on site in Iowa, staff from the CSG Justice Center presented to the Polk County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and the Iowa State Sheriffs’ & Deputies Association (ISSDA) and met with the Polk County Attorney’s Office.
In Indiana, CSG Justice Center staff conducted a site visit during which they presented to the Indiana Prosecuting Attorney’s Council, the Indiana Sheriffs’ Association, Cass and Pulaski County Community Corrections and Court & Pretrial Services, the Howard County Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council, and Howard County Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council where they passed a motion to take the first steps to become a Justice Counts Founding site.
Implementation Grant States
Work in Implementation Grant states also increased in April. CSG Justice Center staff worked collaboratively to develop an agenda for the first on-site meeting with the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission. That meeting was spent planning out activities and deliverables through the end of September and provided important insights for future site visits in Implementation Grant states.
Metrics Development
In April, the team worked with staff from BJA, Measures for Justice, and the National Center for State Courts to digest and synthesize the recommendations from the judicial focus group. The judicial focus group also received and reviewed the notes from their last meeting. At the same time, the team started planning how to gather feedback on the proposed slate of Tier 2 metrics from the National Steering Committee, as well as how the Tier 1 metrics and Technical Implementation Guides will be reviewed and revised after their pilot period has been completed. The team also continued planning for the public comment period on Tier 2. The requirements include the ability to see all metrics in consideration for a sector or category at once, information on the demographics of people submitting comments and their relationship to the criminal justice system, and the ability to affirm the metrics as well as submit suggestions. CSG Justice Center staff also developed new PDF displays of the Tier 1 metrics, and breakdowns were developed to help illustrate a clearer snapshot by category and sector. They will be available on the Justice Counts website soon.
Justice Counts Partners
CSG Justice Center staff worked with project partners to plan for conference appearances through the year, including five conferences in May and June. Partners who are associations of practitioners in the field are working together with CSG Justice Center staff to ensure warm introductions to their members in Founding States as well as states that are in the recruitment phase. Project partner University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute (UCCI) has highlighted Justice Counts in their newsletter, and the American Probation and Parole Association posted on social media reminding their members and followers to provide feedback online for the Tier 1 metrics Technical Implementation Guides. UCCI has started including Justice Counts materials in all their training guides used in in-person and virtual institutional and community corrections training sessions nationwide and is collaborating with CSG Justice Center staff to make connections in current and potential Founding States. RAND drafted a complete system map of Tier 1 metrics that visually represents how the connection between systems data is crucial for decision-making.
Project Administration
The CSG Justice Center is exploring ways to improve staffing for the initiative and is developing job descriptions for positions that will help meet core project needs. Additionally, an initial draft of a Justice Counts style guide was shared with CSG Justice Center staff. This will be a great resource for staff and partners alike to streamline reviews and make it easier (and faster) to publish articles and other work about Justice Counts.
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