Reforming Sentencing and Corrections Policy: The Experience of Justice Reinvestment Initiative States

R E S E A R C H R E P O R T Reforming Sentencing and Corrections Policy The Experience of Justice Reinvestment Initiative States Samantha Harvell, Jeremy Welsh-Loveman, and Hanna Love with Julia Durnan, Josh Eisenstat, Laura Golian, Eddie Mohr, Elizabeth Pelletier, Julie Samuels, Chelsea Thomson, and Margaret Ulle Nancy La Vigne (Principal Investigator) December 2016 (Revised March 2017) J U S T I C E P O L I C Y C E N T ER A B O U T T H E U R B A N I N S T I T U T E The nonprofit Urban Institute is dedicated to elevating the debate on social and economic policy. For nearly five decades, Urban scholars have conducted research and offered evidence-based solutions that improve lives and strengthen communities across a rapidly urbanizing world. Their objective research helps expand opportunities for all, reduce hardship among the most vulnerable, and strengthen the effectiveness of the public sector. Copyright © March 2017. Urban Institute. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to the Urban Institute. Contents Acknowledgments iv Executive Summary v Errata xiii Introduction 1 The Justice Reinvestment Initiative 2 The JRI Model 4 JRI Policy Reforms 8 Amending Sentencing Laws 8 Reforming Pretrial Practices 13 Modifying Prison Release Practices 18 Strengthening Community Corrections 23 Ensuring Sustainability 27 Performance Measurement and Outcomes 32 System-Level Trends 32 Policy-Specific Measures 47 Policy Assessments 50 Expanding the Use of Evidence-Based Practices and Promoting Cultural Change 52 Challenges and Lessons Learned 55 Codifying Change: Challenges with Policy Development and Legislation 55 Putting Policy into Practice: Implementation Challenges 57 Engaging Outside Systems and Community Perspectives in JRI 65 Justice Reinvestment as an Iterative Process 68 Conclusion 70 Notes 74 References 80 About the Authors 83 Statement of Independence 84 IV A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S Acknowledgments This project was supported by Grant No. 2015-ZB-BX-K005, awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a component of the Office of Justice Programs which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the US Department of Justice or the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of Urban experts. Further information on the Urban Institute’s funding principles is available at www.urban.org/support. The authors thank Director Denise O’Donnell, Ruby Qazilbash, Juliene James, and Heather Tubman-Carbone at the Bureau of Justice Assistance for their continued leadership of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. We are also grateful for the collaboration of the technical assistance providers (The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Council of State Governments Justice Center, the Crime and Justice Institute, and the Vera Institute of Justice), who provided a wealth of information about states’ Justice Reinvestment Initiative experiences and reviewed and commented on this publication. We thank the many state stakeholders who shared their data and insights about implementing justice reinvestment and tracking outcomes. Finally, we thank Jenifer Warren for her editorial contributions to the report as well as Fiona Blackshaw and Daniel Matos for editorial support and Joy Grayson for creating the timeline and map graphics. E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y V Executive Summary After four decades of soaring prison growth and stubbornly high recidivism rates, the United States is rethinking its heavy reliance on incarceration. Individual states, recognizing that the fiscal and human costs of widespread imprisonment largely outweigh its public safety benefits, are leading this shift. Many state leaders are embracing a fresh approach to corrections guided by data and anchored in evidence about what truly works to change criminal behavior. Tough-on-crime rhetoric is being eclipsed by calls for a more data-driven criminal justice system that delivers increased public safety at a lower cost. The Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) is a response to these calls and has been a strong catalyst for state reform. A public-private partnership between the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and The Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew), JRI was formally launched in 2010 to help states fully understand their unique correctional trends and adopt policies and practices to better manage their corrections populations. This report updates the findings presented in the Justice Reinvestment Initiative State Assessment Report released in January 2014 and summarizes what has happened in the 28 states that engaged in the JRI pr