Our Projects

National Advocacy and Technical Assistance Work

Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program

Pretrial Technical Assistance, Training, and Assessment Project

Evidence Based Decision Making for Local Criminal Justice Systems

Public Welfare Foundation's Investment in Pretrial Justice

Working Directly With Communities

Coconino County, Arizona

Maricopa County, Arizona

 

 

National Advocacy and Technical Assistance Work

Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. The Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI) will provide technical assistance on pretrial services for the mentally ill as part of a consortium of service providers that are seeking to address the planning and capacity-building needs of pretrial services programs. In addition to PJI, the consortium includes the Council of State Governments Justice Center (CSG) and the National Association of Counties (NACo). The project will involve a national training event, distance-learning seminars on relevant topics and state-based targeted technical assistance.  For more information, please contact John Clark at Ask a Question.

Pretrial Technical Assistance, Training, and Assessment Project. The pretrial release decision involves and impacts virtually every criminal justice system actor.  Accordingly, PJI has taken a multi-faceted approach.  The work proposed will reach pretrial practitioners, judges, prosecutors, defenders, corrections officials, and county governments with training and technical assistance tailored to their needs.  Criminal justice systems must become invested in safer, more transparent, and less racially biased alternatives.  This can be accomplished through collaborative program development utilizing evidenced based practices such as risk assessment instruments, cross-disciplinary training, and the creation of consistent and clear outcome measures within the confines of local law.

PJI, in partnership with JFA Institute (Dr. James Austin) and NAPSA, is pleased to announce the start of a new project for Pretrial Training and Assessment. The goal of this project is to raise state and local pretrial justice policies and practices to an evidence-based platform aligned with the national standards.  This goal will be met by the following activities:

• Provide training and technical assistance on bail issues and pretrial release;
• Identification of research findings and lessons learned regarding effective pretrial risk assessment processes;
• Develop pretrial services online resources center; and,
• Provide Corrections Options Technical Assistance in partnership with JFA.

Click here to view the June 2010 Progress Report.

Evidence Based Decision Making for Local Criminal Justice Systems. In June 2008, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) awarded the Center for Effective Public Policy, in partnership with the Pretrial Justice Institute, the Justice Management Institute, and The Carey Group, a cooperative agreement to address "Evidence-Based Decision Making in Local Criminal Justice Systems." The goal of the initiative is to build a system wide framework (arrest through final disposition and discharge) that will result in more collaborative, evidence-based decision making and practices in local criminal justice systems. The initiative seeks to equip criminal justice policymakers in local communities with the information, processes, and tools that will result in measurable reductions of pretrial misconduct and post-conviction reoffending. The first phase of this effort has resulted in the development of A Framework for Evidence-Based Decision Making in Local Criminal Justice Systems (“the Framework”). The Framework identifies the key structural elements of a system informed by evidence-based practice.

Public Welfare Foundation's Investment In Pretrial Justice

The Public Welfare Foundation, located in Washington, DC, made a significant investment in pretrial justice by awarding both a general operating grant and a project grant to support media and advocacy efforts. The mission of the PWF is to support efforts to ensure fundamental rights and opportunities for people in need. With these funds, PJI will continue to actively support rational pretrial justice policies and practices across the country, working closely with strategic partners at the federal, state and local level.

Working Directly With Communities

Coconino County, Arizona PJI is currently working with Coconino County’s pretrial services program to validate their risk assessment instrument. Coconino County pretrial program staff have submitted data on all defendants interviewed and assessed by the program over a 12-month period in 2009 and 2010. Once the data analysis is complete, the most efficient predictive models will be identified and used to design a new, validated instrument for the county. PJI will be working with the pretrial program staff to implement the new validated instrument, which is expected to be in place by the end of 2010.

Maricopa County, Arizona PJI is working with Maricopa County to validate their risk assessment instrument. Maricopa’s pretrial program staff are working to complete a database of all 19,300 defendants processed through first appearance court between January 1, 2010 and June 30, 2010. The data is expected to be ready for analysis by October 2010. PJI will then work with pretrial staff in Maricopa County to successfully implement the new instrument once it is designed.