Corrections

Last month, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released a 2020 yearend report detailing data findings from the BJS Annual Probation Survey, Annual Parole Survey, and Federal Justice Statistics Program. During 2020, the number of people on probation decreased from 3,330,200 to 3,053,700 (down 8.3%), the largest annual decline since the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) began the probation collection in 1980. Whereas the number of adults on parole increased 1.3% during 2020, from 851,000 on January 1, 2020 to 862,100 at yearend.

Last month, the National Institute of Justice published a report of the First Step Act (FSA) of 2018 that mandates the development, implementation, and use of the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs (PATTERN) of each person in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. As a risk and needs assessment system, section 3634 in Title I of the FSA requires the U.S. Department of Justice to annually review, validate, and publicly release PATTERN.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance released a "Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) Compliance Guide" this month to offer support to PIECP certification holders. First instituted in 1979, the PIECP encourages state and local governments to create work opportunities in prisons that aim to place justice-involved individuals in real-world environments that encourage meaningful employment opportunities upon release.

This month, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) released a white paper that shares successful international interventions that have been initiated to foster desistance. Since the mid-1990s, there have been regularly sustained research efforts to expand global knowledge of why people stop offending, which have been instrumental for increased awareness of desistance causes. However, a critical gap remains of practical strategies for implementation in crime-prevention practices and sentencing procedures within the criminal justice system.