On-Site Study

Per the Attorney General Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance, "Responsible officials shall ensure that all employees whose primary responsibilities include contact with crime victims and witnesses receive a copy of these AG Guidelines and not less than 1 hour of training concerning the Guidelines and victims’ and witnesses’ rights within 60 days after assuming such responsibilities."

Our agency is looking for at least one hour of victim/witness training to satisfy this DOJ requirement.

Our Drug Court is in transition. Some of the issues are personnel related, i.e.Dept of Public Health staff and the fact that the court has a visiting judge overseeing Drug Court. Some are related to the need for programmatic changes. Overall, we are very interested in improving our graduation rate which resides steadily at 23%.

We are looking for Basic Crime Prevention training and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design training delivered to local police personnel in the Chicago area. This training is not currently available in our area and has not been offered in the area for the last 5 to 7 years.

Violent crime is the number one issue for residents and businesses in Wilmington, and many are making plans to flee the city because of the violent crime there. The Mayor Elect has a pledge from PERF to help revamp the operations and structure of the police department. He has named a new police chief, and hopefully a provider can work with his office and the police department to address this issue.

Tennessee does not currently collect accurate caseload data from its courts. The problem is particularly acute in the General Sessions Courts, where almost all cases originate and where the vast majority are disposed of. The problem is twofold: In some counties, no data is being collected or reported; in other counties, data is being collected and/or reported, but in a format inconsistent with the standard definition of a "case".

Measures for Justice has developed a draft Justice Index that contains about 50 indicators that represent every part of the justice system from arrest to post-conviction and include interests of both victims and defendants. The measures need to be tested for feasibility and utility in order to create a core set of indicators that can be widely replicated in counties across the United States. MFJ is conducting a pilot in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin to examine data capacity at the local level and to hone down the current Justice Index measures so that they can be used nationwide.

The delivery of pretrial services in New York State appears inconsistent although the New York State Office of Probation and Correctional Alternatives has adopted a set of Pretrial Release Standards. The public safety issue is that these inconsistencies create situations where subjective and non-evidence based practices are being used to assist judges in making release/bail decisions.

Assist the Boston Police Department in addressing the release and reentry of potentially 600 to over 1100 inmates due to the tampering with drug evidence and falsifying documents and test results. Deliverables include: (1) GIS maps which depict demographic and contextual data with 90%-95% accuracy based on stakeholder identified data elements and priorities; and (2) recommendations on planning and implementation of reentry strategies and initiatives.

Our discussion centered around the concern that the Sheriff's Office is not able to consistently provide the amount of deputies needed for courtroom (and courthouse) security based on the expectation of some of the Judges and by direct observance from the supervisory staff of the Sheriff's Office.

Creation of an integrated criminal justice database for St. Louis, MO to track persons arrested for offenses involving a firearm. The requested assistance will enable the city to develop, implement, and evaluate the integrated criminal justice data base over a 12 month period.