In September, Rhode Island’s 28-‐member Justice Reinvestment Working Group, co-‐chaired by Chief Justice Suttell and Associate Justice Savage (ret.), held its second meeting. The meeting was well attended by members, members’ staff, press, and interested parties. CSG Justice Center staff presented to the working group, which included three sections: 1) seven key principles on “what works” to reduce recidivism, 2) analysis of the state’s pretrial system, and 3) initial analysis of the state’s probation system. Major takeaways of the presentation include:
1) Probation violators and failure to pay/failure to appear within pretrial admissions have increased, and the length of time people are detained awaiting trial has grown significantly, especially among felony detainees.
2) Early analysis of the state’s probation system indicates that policies allow for lengthy probation terms as well as a probation term following time served within a correctional facility, which may contribute to the state’s large probation population of over 23,000 people.
3) The state does not consistently employ meaningful risk assessments at key decision-‐making points throughout the system, from pretrial and presentence to decisions around targeting community supervision intensity levels.
In addition to the working group meeting, CSG Justice Center staff held two additional site visits to Rhode Island. The first site visit included a focus group with victim advocates from various organizations to better understand the availability of victim services in the state, the process for collecting victim restitution, the effect that lengthy probation terms have on the lives of victims, and opportunities for potential policy improvements for victims of crime. Moreover, this site visit included an observation of Courtroom 9 at the Superior Court, the court decisions responsible for all for felony probation violation cases.
The second site visit in September included multiple focus groups with probation and parole officers, as well as meetings with the Rhode Island Department of Corrections’ (RIDOC) probation staff and the Rhode Island Probation and Parole Officers’ Association. The purpose of these focus groups was to learn, among other things: how risk assessments are used to target resources and level of supervision
intensity; the quality of reporting sessions, training requirements, availability and access to community-‐
based services; and the use of sanctions and incentives to respond to behavior.
Moreover, throughout the month of September, CSG Justice Center staff held calls with various stakeholders to analyze the current probation system and identify opportunities for improvement.
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Prepare for Rhode Island’s third working group meeting on Tuesday, October 27th, at which CSG Justice Center staff will provide a deeper analysis about the state’s probation system, including how lengthy probation terms affect people on supervision and victims of crime.
Arrange and hold a group meeting with behavioral health experts from various organizations to discuss potential opportunities to improve the state’s behavioral health system as it relates to the adult criminal justice system, particularly in the areas of probation and pretrial.
Arrange and hold a group meeting with community advocates, service providers, and people who were formerly incarcerated/probationers/parolees to better understand how lengthy probation terms and current probation sentencing and supervision practices affect the individuals serving these terms
Begin preparations for a meeting with the Parole Board in early November to discuss how the board currently uses its risk assessment tool to make parole release decisions and further explore opportunities for the board to use evidence-‐based practices.
Begin to develop Rhode Island’s final report, which may be released in early January 2016.
• (9/1) Call with District Courts Director of Pretrial Services Unit to discuss the behavioral health aspects of the pretrial services unit.
• (9/1) Call with State Police Colonel to discuss law enforcement engagement and arrest data by demographics.
• (9/2) Call with House of Representatives Chief of Staff & Office of House Speaker Chief Legal Counsel to receive feedback on the second working group presentation.
• (9/2) Call with Senate Policy Director to discuss the second working group meeting and presentation.
• (9/2) Call with Project Weber Executive Director to discuss his work with male sex workers with substance use needs.
• (9/2) Call with Office of the Governor Chief of Staff, General Counsel, Director of Public Engagement, and Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff to discuss stakeholder engagement strategies and to provide the governor's office with an update about the progress of the justice reinvestment project.
• (9/16) Call with Superior Court Judge to discuss sentencing practices, including how judges determine the length of probation sentences.
• (9/17) Call with Justice Assistance President and Chief Executive Officer, and The Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights Project Director to discuss their work with District Court filings.
• (9/18) Call with Office of the Governor - General Counsel and Director of Public Engagement - to discuss logistics of the community advocates meeting.
• (9/21) Call with Office of the Governor Chief of Staff, General Counsel, Director of Public Engagement, and Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff to discuss engagement with behavioral health experts and treatment providers.
• (9/23) Call with Presiding Superior Court Judge and Superior Court Magistrate to debrief about the second working group meeting and discuss judges’ perspectives about the state’s probation system.
• (9/24) Call with working group co-‐chair, to discuss stakeholder engagement strategies and to provide an update about the progress of the justice reinvestment project.
• (9/25) Call with Assistant Public Defenders about their extensive experience in courtroom 9 where all alleged felony probation violators are processed and to better understand the circumstances around probation violations.
• (9/25) Call with and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Social Impact Bond Technical Assistance Lab to discuss the school’s reentry employment-‐ programming project with RIDOC.
(9/30) Call with, Office of the Governor; Chief of Staff, General Counsel, and Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff, to discuss stakeholder engagement strategies and to provide the governor's office with an update on the progress of the justice reinvestment project.
• Meeting with working group co-‐chairs, Supreme Court Chief Justice and (Superior Court Associate Justice (ret.) to receive their feedback about the second working group presentation and to discuss the possibility of having public comments at the working group meeting. Supreme Court State Court Administrator also attended the meeting.
• Meeting with RIDOC Acting Asstistant Director of Community Corrections, and RIDOC Assistant Administrator of Community Corrections to discuss organizing focus groups with probation and parole officers and to access administrative policies related to probation and parole supervision.
• Meeting with Chair of the House Committee on Finance to introduce the justice reinvestment project.
• Meeting with Office of the Governor - Deputy Chief of Staff, Deputy Counsel, and Special Assistants to the Chief of Staff - to provide an update of our stakeholder engagement, plan for a group meeting with community advocates, discuss the political climate, and discuss the next steps of the justice reinvestment project.
• Second meeting with the 28-‐member Justice Reinvestment Working Group to introduce recidivism reduction techniques, analyze the pretrial system, and begin the discussion on probation trends.
• Observed the Superior Court’s Drug Court, to better understand eligibility criteria, conditions of probation as a drug court participant, and results after an individual completes the drug court program.
• Meeting with Superior Court Magistrate to ask follow-‐up questions from
• our observations about the Superior Court’s Drug Court and to discuss the draft working group presentation.
• Meeting with U.S. District Court Judge to debrief about the second working group meeting.
• Meeting with OpenDoors Program Coordinator to debrief about the second working group meeting and request OpenDoors to be a co-‐host for the community advocates meeting.
• Meeting with Executive Office of Health & Human Services Senior Behavioral Health Program Manager and Executive Office of Health & Human Services Chief of Family Health Systems, to discuss the impact of Medicaid reforms on quality and delivery of behavioral health services.
• Meeting with Supreme Court State Court Administrator to provide an update about the status of the justice reinvestment project and to better understand what the courts would like to see come out of this project.
• Presented at the Criminal Defense Lawyers Association's Executive Committee to introduce the justice reinvestment project and to discuss key findings in the pretrial and probation systems as well as sentenced admission trends to the ACI.
• Observed Courtroom 9 at the Superior Court to see the daily calendar call, felony probation violations court procedures, and to gain further information about “wrap ups” and dispositions.
• Conduct focus group with victim advocates to gain their perspective about what is working in the state's probation and pretrial systems and where there is room for further improvement.
• Conducted a focus group with probation officers who have a general caseload to learn about their probation practices.
• Conducted a focus group with transitional officers to learn about their role and interaction with RIDOC’s probation department.
• Conducted a focus group with probation officers who have specialized caseloads. Specialized caseloads include: (1) Sex offenders (2) Domestic assault offenders, (3) Youthful gang members/ violent offenders, (4) Seriously mentally ill offenders, (5) High risk female offenders, and (6) Drug court participants.
• Conducted a focus group with probation and parole administration/supervisors to get their perspective on what does and does not work well in with the probation system.
• Conducted a focus group with parole officers to learn more about their daily
• responsibilities and practices.
• Meeting with Probation and Parole Association Union President to discuss the appetite for changes in probation standards and practices.
• Meeting with RIDOC Assistant Administrator, RIDOC Associate Director, and RIDOC Assistant Director of Rehabilitative Services to debrief about the five focus groups conducted with the probation and parole unit.
In September, CSG Justice Center research staff focused on slide development for the second working group meeting. The presentation highlighted data findings in three key areas: reducing recidivism, probation, and pretrial. Additionally, CSG Justice Center research staff received and conducted initial analyses on parole decision files from the RIDOC. CSG Justice Center also received District Court sentencing data. After cleaning and formatting the District Court data, CSG Justice Center research staff combined the District Court and Superior Court sentencing files into one large sentencing dataset. In preparation for the next working group meeting that will focus on sentencing and probation, the CSG Justice Center research staff continued conducting analyses on probation and sentencing datasets and developing relevant slides with key findings.
• (9/14) Data exploration of District Court sentencing file and follow up about discrepancy in the number of filings out of the District Court.
• (9/15) Returned to analysis of Superior Court sentencing data.
• (9/16) First look at parole decision data provided by RIDOC and continued work with Superior Court sentencing data.
• (9/16) Emailed follow up questions to Director of the Judicial Planning Unit, Supreme Court.
• (9/16) Conducting initial exploration of parole decision files from the RIDOC.
• (9/22) Revised District Court data received from the Supreme Court, cleaning and formatting.
• (9/23) Continued work with sentencing data.
• (9/24) Preliminary look at programming data received from RIDOC, submitted a follow-‐up request. Continued work with sentencing data.
Providence Journal - Heavy Load at Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institutions Intake Center (September 10, 2015)
Providence Journal - Analyst Tells Raimondo Panel Probation Excessive in Rhode Island (September 13, 2015)
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