Update on PEW/SJI Partner Grant on Evidence-Based Practices to Reduce Recidivism
This year, SJI approved a Partner Grant to support the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Public Safety Performance Project. The goal of the overall project is to promote fiscally sound, data-driven policies and practices on sentencing and corrections that protect the public safety, hold offenders accountable, and control correctional costs. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC), the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI), and the National Judicial College (NJC) are working together to provide technical assistance, education, and training to State courts in this vital area.
The objectives of the Public Safety Performance Project are to:
- help states collect and analyze data on who is admitted to their prisons, how long they stay, who returns, and the implications of these practices for public safety and state budgets;
- help states understand how their existing sentencing, release, and community supervision policies, practices and outcomes compare to those of other states; and
- encourage states to use advance reforms that will reduce crime and recidivism, and deliver a solid return on taxpayers’ investments.
The project is currently working in 14 states (with additional partners such as the Council of State Governments and the Vera Institute of Justice) and producing reports on key topics such as One in 100: Behind Bars in America, 2008 .
To date, NCSC activities as part of the Public Safety Performance Project include expert assistance to targeted states, encouraging cross-state learning and collaboration, and raising awareness of and support for sentencing practices reform at the national level.
Specific activities underway or completed include: working with CJI and the Vera Institute to provide assistance to Alabama’s Statewide Steering Committee’s Cooperative Community Alternative Sentencing Project; assisting with the development and presentation of an educational program on risk assessment and evidence-based practices for Vermont; and preparing and disseminating Assessing Consistency and Fairness in Sentencing: A Comparative Study in Three States, which was released in May 2008.
