In May, CSG Justice Center staff continued working with state leaders to prepare for Phase II of justice reinvestment and continued providing technical assistance to agencies on implementing key areas of Arkansas’s justice reinvestment policy framework, including developing parole guidelines, incorporating administrative sanctions into violation response policies for probation and parole, and establishing crisis stabilization units to divert individuals with mental illness from county jails.
CSG Justice Center staff assisted the Governor’s Office with convening a meeting of state leaders to continue preparing for Phase II of justice reinvestment. State leaders discussed and agreed on an oversight structure to foster communication and collaboration on implementation of key policies. The group agreed to set up a Core Implementation Team of executive-level administrators from agencies to meet monthly to drive implementation progress and plan for quarterly meetings of the Interagency Task Force established in Act 423 to monitor and oversee implementation. The group also agreed to establish six issue-specific teams to bring together agency staff and stakeholder representatives to coordinate on key implementation areas, including crisis intervention planning, county-level planning and data collection, parole readiness and violation response policies, and justice reinvestment data monitoring. Leaders agreed to schedule the first round of issue-specific team meetings in June and July ahead of the first quarterly Interagency Task Force meeting planned for mid to late July.
During the meeting of state leaders, the group reviewed and agreed on subaward funding priorities and discussed plans to prepare the subaward application. Funding priorities include IT programming changes necessary to implement new violation response policies, a part-time JR Coordinator to support implementation efforts across agencies, and staff training in new programming curricula that will be implemented at Technical Violator Centers. The Governor’s Office also announced the hiring of a part-time JR Coordinator to begin assisting the Governor’s Office with coordinating implementation activities, planning for Interagency Task Force meetings, and preparing the subaward application.
CSG Justice Center staff held meetings with agency leaders to continue assisting them with implementation in key policy areas. This included meeting with Arkansas Parole Board (APB) members to discuss a work plan for implementing parole guidelines and identifying the main factors for parole release decision making; participating in a meeting of the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections (ACC) Offender Violation Grid (OVG) Committee to provide input into revisions to the grid to incorporate new 90 and 180 day sanctions; and meeting with the Department of Human Services Division of Behavioral Health (DBHS) to assist agency leaders with developing a plan for distributing the $5 million in reinvestment funds for establishing crisis stabilization units (CSU) and a process for selecting sites to locate the CSUs. CSG Justice Center staff also met with research staff from ACC, ABP ad the Department of Corrections (ADC) to develop plans for collecting and monitoring justice reinvestment data.
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KNWA/NBC: Sebastian County Fights the Jail Overcrowding Issue (https://csgjusticecenter.org/jr/arkansas/media-clips/sebastian-county-f…)
• Meeting with DBHS Assistant Clinical Director, DBHS) and DBHS Assistant Director for Policy and Research to discuss a program and financing model for crisis stabilization units (CSUs) and application process for selecting the CSU sites.
• OVG Committee Meeting - Meeting with ACC Deputy Director of Probation and Parole Services and eleven OVG committee members to discuss the Offender Violation Grid (OVG) modifications, refine definitions, and to problem solve implementation challenges.
• Meeting with ACC Director, ACC Chief Deputy Director to check in on technical assistance plans and subaward needs.
• Meeting with APB Chairman and members of the parole board to review a work plan for implementing parole decision-making guidelines and discuss development of the core factors for parole release decision-making.
• Meeting with ADC Director, ADC Public Information Officer ADC Legislative Liaison, and ADC Assistant Director to discuss Phase II technical assistance and implementation plans.
• Informal Task Force Pre-Meeting - 35th District Representative, Senior Advisor for Criminal Justice (Governor's Office), and JR Coordinator (Governor's Office) to discuss the agenda for the Informal Task Force meeting and next steps for submitting the letter of interest for Phase II technical assistance and beginning the subaward application.
• Informal Task Force Meeting - Meeting with 35th District Representative, Senior Advisor for Criminal Justice (Governor's Office), JR Coordinator (Governor's Office), ACC Director, ACC Chief Deputy Director, ACC Deputy Director of Residential Services, ACC), Executive Administrator (Parole Board), Board of Parole Chairman, DBHS Clinical Director, DBHS Assistant Director for Policy and Research, Prosecutor Coordinator (Prosecutor Coordinator Office), ADC Assistant Director, AOC Interim Director, ADS Research and Planning Administrator, and ADC Research and Statistics Supervisor to discuss and achieve consensus on the implementation oversight structure for Phase II and subaward funding priorities, share agency updates, and discuss performance measures to monitor during implementation.
• Meeting with ACC Director and Board of Parole Chairman and three additional staff to discuss ACC sanction bed capacity and the potential need for ADC to house probationers or parolees who are not eligible for the technical violator centers run by ACC.
• Meeting with ACC Chief Deputy Director and two ACC staff to discuss programming recommendations for the technical violators program.
• Meeting ACC Chief Counsel to discuss the County Planning and Data Collection issue-specific team and next steps for implementing a mental health screening tool across Arkansas counties.
• 5/4: Call with ACC Deputy Director of Probation and Parole Services and eleven OVG committee members to discuss the Offender Violation Grid (OVG) modifications, create definitions, and to problem solve implementation challenges.
• 5/5: Call with DBHS Assistant Clinical Director and DBHS Assistant Director for Policy and Research to check in on planning for the implementation of crisis stabilization units.
• 5/5: Call with ACC Deputy Director for Probation and Parole Services and ACC Assistant Director to discuss the Offender Violation Guide (OVG) Committee and next steps.
• 5/8: Call with Senior Policy Advisor (Governor's Office) to discuss plans for launching Phase II in Arkansas.
• 5/9: Call with ADC Research and Statistics Supervisor, ADC Research and Planning Administrator, ADC) to discuss plans for tracking metrics on Act 423 policies.
• 5/12: Call with Senior Policy Advisor (Governor's Office) to discuss plans for launching Phase II in Arkansas and an upcoming planning meeting of state leaders to discuss implementation oversight structure and subaward needs.
• 5/12: Call with DBHS Assistant Clinical Director and DBHS Assistant Director for Policy and Research to discuss a program and financing model for establishing three crisis stabilization units.
• 5/15: Call with ACC Director and ACC Chief Deputy Director to discuss subaward needs and plans for submitting an initial application for IT changes that need to be in place for the October 1, 2017 effective date for Act 423 policies.
• 5/18: Call with ACC Program Management Administrator, ACC Information Systems Coordinator, ACC Research and Evaluation Administrator, and Executive Administrator (Parole Board) to discuss plans for tracking metrics on Act 423 policies.
• 5/22: Call with 35th District Representative to discuss opportunities to engage private funders to further support Arkansas's efforts to address the prevalence of mental illness in county jails and expand upon the state's investment in crisis stabilization units resulting from Act 423.
• 5/26: Call with ACIC Field Services Manager and ACIC Administrator to discuss current data collected statewide from county jails and plans to develop the capability for ACIC's statewide database to begin collecting mental health screening information from county jails.
• 5/31: Call with ACC Program Management Administrator, ACC Information Systems Coordinator, ACC, ACC Research and Evaluation Administrator, and Executive Administrator (Parole Board) to discuss updates to monthly tracking spreadsheets to monitor key justice reinvestment data.
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