In May, CSG Justice Center staff officially launched post-enactment technical assistance activities in North Dakota and conducted two site visits to facilitate implementation planning. On May 4, North Dakota was approved to receive Phase II implementation technical assistance by the Justice Reinvestment Steering Committee. Subsequently, the eight-member Justice Reinvestment Oversight Committee (JROC) met for the first time to jumpstart the Phase II process and discuss ameliorating barriers to implementation. At this meeting, the committee voted that Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Directo and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair become co-chairs of the committee. They also set an bi-monthly meeting schedule. In addition to committee structure, meeting attendees discussed the the community-based behavioral health program implementation timeline, data collection and tracking efforts, and potential BJA subaward funding items.
Additionally, CSG Justice Center staff met directly with the governor to discuss the behavioral health program, IT systems and areas for potential for private funding support. Governor Burgum remains a big supporter of justice reinvestment policies and the behavioral health reinvestment in particular, and agreed to lend his ongoing support to benefit implementation.
Throughout May, CSG Justice Center staff conducted numerous in-person meetings and phone calls to forward community-based behavioral health implementation planning. A core implementation team of agency staff was established, including the Director of Behavioral Health at DOCR, the Director of Behavioral Health at the Department of Human Services (DHS), and the new JR coordinator. This team has set an aggressive implementation timeline featuring three waves of roll out: 1) 2-4 pilot sites to begin in September, 2) additional sites beginning January 2018, and 3) state-wide implementation by July 2018. This core implementation team also began to work with additional agency staff to define the target population, elgibiilty criteria, the service array, contractor payment structure, and local case coordination. The team narrowed down locations for the initial pilot sites. CSG Justice Center staff continued to meet with key stakeholders and spent a day in at a potential pilot site meeting with community members in order to encourage local-level support for the program. Additionally, CSG Justice Center staff began to meet with agency IT and research staff to help North Dakota think through IT system and data collection capacity for the behavioral health program and general state monitoring activities.
Please check the box next to the following questions if the answer is 'yes'.
Please enter the applicable Event Date if there is an Event associated with this TTA.
When entering an Event Date, the Time is also required.
If the TTA is targeted to a particular audience or location, please complete the questions below.
Milestones are an element, activity, work product, or key task associated with completing the TTA (e.g. kick-off meeting, collect data from stake holders, deliver initial data analysis).
Please complete the fields below, if applicable, to create a milestone for this TTA.
• Grand Forks Herald, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum: Expect ‘Bold Steps to Challenge the Status Quo’, http://csgjusticecenter.org/jr/north-dakota/media-clips/north-dakota-go…
• The Bismarck Tribune, Legislative Session Opens Pathways to Change, http://csgjusticecenter.org/jr/north-dakota/media-clips/legislative-ses…
• Meeting with DHS Director of Behavioral Health and about 10 DHS staff to review BH recommendations from an outside TA provider.
• Meeting with DOCR Director of Behavioral Health and JR Coordinator (DOCR) to discuss the behavioral health framework and creating a shared vision for implementation.
• Meeting with DOCR Director to check-in on implementation planning progress.
• Meeting with DHS Director of Behavioral Health and DOCR Director of Behavioral Health, and JR Coordinator (DOCR), to plan for the behavioral health implementation.
• Meeting with DHS Director of Behavioral Health and DOCR Director of Behavioral Health, and JRI Coordinator (DOCR), and probation and parole supervisors to discuss the behavioral health implementation and get feedback on planning.
• Meeting with General Counsel (Office of the Governor) to check-in on implementation planning and discuss the role of the governor's office.
• Meeting with the Governor, General Counsel (Office of the Governor), DOCR Director, DOCR), DHS Director of Behavioral Health, and JR Coordinator (DOCR) to update the governor the behavioral health implementation.
• All day meeting with DHS Pam Sagness (Director of Behavioral Health and DOCR Director of Behavioral Health, JRI Coordinator, DHS Assistant Director of Behavioral Health, and DHS Treatment Administrator to plan for the behavioral health implementation.
• First meeting of the justice reinvestment implementation oversight committee meeting with members General Counsel (Office of the Governor), DOCR Director, DHS Director, DHS), DHS Director of Behavioral Health, North Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice, ND House Appropriations Committee member, Judiciary Committee Chair, and a designees from the Attorney General's office, along with JR Coordinator (DOCR). The committee designated DOCR Director Berstch and Senate Judiciary Chair to become co-chairs, set their ongoing meeting schedule, and discuss implementation planning.
• Meeting with General Counsel (Office of the Governor) to check-in on implementation planning and discuss the role of the governor's office.
• Meeting with DOCR Director to check-in on implementation planning progress. Meeting with JR Coordinator (DOCR) to go over project management and plan for upcoming site visits.
• 5/1: Call with Legal Counsel (Office of the Governor) to discuss upcoming the first meeting of the justice reinvestment implementation oversight committee.
• 5/8: Call with JR Coordinator (DOCR) to debrief from the prior week's site visit and discuss next steps.
• 5/11: Call with DOCR Clinical Director, DOCR Behavioral Health Division Director, and JR Coordinator (DOCR) to plan for the next week's site visit and full day behavioral health implementation work session.
• 5/12: Call with North Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice to prepared for the first meeting of the implementation oversight committee.
• 5/15: Call with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair to prepare for the first meeting of the implementation oversight committee.
• 5/15: Call with ND House Appropriations Committee Member to prepare for the first meeting of the implementation oversight committee.
• 5/22: Call with Heidi Smith Program Manager (North Dakota Criminal Justice Information Sharing Program) and Director (North Dakota Criminal Justice Information Sharing Program) to discuss data collection.
• 5/24: Call with IT programmer (North Dakota Supreme Court) to discuss data collection.
• 5/24: Call with DOCR Business Analyst to discuss data collection.
• 5/26: Call with DOCR Director Bertsch to update her on the JR project and to discuss implementation plans.
In May, CSG Justice Center research staff focused on finalizing the statistics reported in the Final Report and briefing Phase II staff on data sources and elements for state monitoring:
• 5/3: Project call with BJA and Pew to discuss legislation passed by North Dakota regarding JR
• 5/17: Review 4-pager report to verify population and cost projections.
• 5/22: Call with Phase II research staff to discuss data sources and elements for state monitoring
Please respond to the Performance Metrics below. The Performance Metrics questions are based on the TTA Type indicated in the General Information section of the TTA.
Please submit a signed letter of support from your agency’s executive or other senior staff member. The letter can be emailed to or uploaded with this request. The letter should be submitted on official letterhead and include the following information:
- General information regarding the request for TTA services, i.e., the who, what, where, when, and why.
- The organizational and/or community needs specific to the request for TTA services.
- The benefits or anticipated outcomes from the receipt of TTA services.
By submitting this application to BJA NTTAC, I understand that upon approval of this application for TTA, the requestor agrees to keep BJA NTTAC informed of any circumstances that may impact the delivery of the TTA, including changes in the date of the event, event cancellation, or difficulties communicating with the assigned TTA provider.
Please call [site:phone] if you need further assistance completing this application.