An Introduction to the Safety and Justice Challenge

Letter from John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation President Julia M. Stasch

On behalf of the MacArthur Foundation, I congratulate you on being selected for the Safety and Justice Challenge Network, and welcome you to this exciting effort to transform the way America thinks about and uses jails.

Our announcement of the Safety and Justice Challenge earlier this year elicited an overwhelming response from the criminal justice field. A total of 191 applications were submitted, from jurisdictions that spanned 45 states and collectively accounted for roughly a third of the nation’s total

jail capacity. We were gratified by this response, not only because it gave us an unusually strong pool of applicants to choose from. It also confirmed our belief that the country is ready for this challenge, and this opportunity.

Your jurisdiction was selected from among all of these applicants because you made a compelling case of leadership, capacity, and commitment to change. As a Safety and Justice Challenge Network member, you are not only determined to reduce incarceration locally and make your system work more fairly and effectively for all your citizens. You also recognize your responsibility to serve as a leader in the field, and welcome the opportunity the Safety and Justice Challenge will give you to influence the future of criminal justice policy and practice in the nation as a whole.

This is a critical, promising moment in our history. Ordinary people and justice professionals, researchers, advocates, and political leaders of all kinds recognize that our society has placed far too much reliance on incarceration as a response to crime and disorder—that some essential balance has been lost, and that it must be restored if this country is to function as a strong and healthy society. The MacArthur Foundation is investing in the Safety and Justice Challenge because we believe that some part of the solution must be found at the “front end” of the justice system, where incarceration begins.

We are betting, in other words, on you. The success of the Challenge will depend on your success—on achieving in your own communities a better and fairer balance between incarceration and other responses to crime. Our role is to provide resources, technical assistance, and a network of supportive allies, to draw attention to the progress you make and the learning you generate, and to use all of our influence to make change a national imperative.

I look forward, with you, to your success, and to a justice system that is more effective, more just, and more reflective of America’s founding values.

Julia M. Stasch

Contents

The Safety and Justice Challenge ................................................................................................................ 3

The 20 Selected Sites ................................................................................................................................... 6

Planning for Change: A Closer Look at the Next Seven Months .............................................................. 7

Phase 1: Getting Started (May 11-29, 2015) .......................................................................................... 7

Phase 2: Investigate and Understand the Facts (May 30 – July 31, 2015) ........................................ 9

Phase 3: Develop a Reform Response (August 5 – October 8, 2015) .............................................. 10

Phase 4: Implementation Planning (October 12 – December 11, 2015) ............................................ 11

Phase 5: Application for Implementation Funding (December 15, 2015 – January 6, 2016) ......... 11

Data Collection and Research ................................................................................................................ 11

Appendix A: Partner Bios ............................................................................................................................13

Appendix B: Getting Started Checklist ......................................................................................................20

Appendix C: Site Visit Scheduling Tool ..................................................................................................... 22

Appendix D: Communications Toolkit ....................................................................................................... 24

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The Safety and Justice ChallengeCongratulations on being selected to participate in the Safety and Justice Challenge. To help your site hit the ground running, we have prepared this package of introductory materials. It includes:

• An overview of the problem we aim to address through the Challenge, the process that lies ahead, and the conceptual framework that will guide our work together;

• A description of the five-phase planning process that will unfold over the course of the next seven months;

• Descriptions of the partner organizations we have engaged to help guide us along this journey; and

• Helpful tools to help you navigate the first few weeks of work, including a “getting started checklist,” a site visit scheduler, and a communications toolkit to inform your engagement with media.

Overview of the Challenge

America relies on incarceration as a response to crime more than any other country, and the problem begins in local jails. Jail usage has more than tripled since the 1980s, and so have the costs of building and running jails. Jails now hold 731,000 people on any given day, and admit nearly 12 million a year—with devastating impacts on individuals, families, neighborhoods, and the economy. Just a few days in jail can damage health, degrade economic prospects, interrupt education and employment, jeopardize housing, break up families, increase the likelihood and severity of a sentence of incarceration, and even promote future criminal behavior—making jail a gateway to deeper and more lasting involvement in the criminal justice system. And research shows that all these impacts are disproportionately felt in low-income communities and communities of color.

Although an important purpose of jails is to detain people who may be a danger to public safety or a flight risk, they have come to hold many who are neither. Many jails have become warehouses for those too poor to post bail or too sick for existing community resources to manage. Seventy-five percent of those in jail are there for nonviolent traffic, property, drug, or public order offenses. An estimated 14.5 percent of men in jails and 31 percent of women suffer from severe mental illness—rates that are three to six times higher than in the general population.1

It doesn’t have to be this way. Believing that every community in America can safely reduce its use of local incarceration while reserving valuable jail resources for offenders who pose real risks to public safety, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is making a $75 million investment in the Safety and Justice Challenge, an ambitious effort to change the way America thinks about and uses jails.

The centerpiece of the effort is the Safety and Justice Challenge Network: twenty competitively selected jurisdictions committed to making policy, practice, and system changes that will reduce jail incarceration and the disproportionate jailing of low-income individuals and communities of color. With help from experts, each jurisdiction will make its own plan, based upon a data-driven assessment of local problems and opportunities. But all will seek, without compromising public safety, to reduce the flow of people into jail, shorten lengths of stay in jail, and diminish racial and ethnic disparities in the jail population.

1 Ram Subramanian, Ruth Delaney, Stephen Roberts, Nancy Fishman, and Peggy McGarry (February 2015). Incarceration’s Front Door: The Misuse of Jails in America. New York, NY: Vera Institute of Justice, pg. 12. The full report is available for download at: http://www.safetyandjusticechallenge.org/category/resources/

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To advance our knowledge and understanding about the use of jail in America, and to document the experience of local jurisdictions that succeed in building safer, less costly, and more just criminal justice systems, the Foundation is complementing the grants it makes to local jurisdictions with investments in research and data analytics. The Foundation will also invest in a robust communications campaign aimed at elevating jail overuse into an urgent national issue, and generating national demand for a more balanced approach to crime and disorder that uses incarceration only where necessary, and as part of a flexible range of effective alternatives.

During the planning stage of the Safety and Justice Challenge, your site will develop an actionable plan for reducing your community’s jail population without compromising public safety. The Foundation has recruited four of the nation’s leading criminal justice organizations to help in this process: the Center for Court Innovation (CCI), the Justice Management Institute (JMI), Justice System Partners (JSP), and the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera). A brief description of each site coordinator organization can be found in Appendix A. A representative of your assigned site coordinator organization will be contacting you in advance of the first meeting of the Safety and Justice Challenge Network. This site coordinator will serve as your guide and support throughout the planning phase, and will help your team:

• Describe your jurisdiction’s criminal justice system using facts and data;

• Identify priority problems that contribute to the overreliance on jails in your jurisdiction;

• Surface and understand racial and ethnic disparities in the way jail is administered or experienced; and

• Develop responsive reform strategies and connect them to measurable impact targets.

At the end of the planning phase, your jurisdiction will have developed a clearly articulated plan for system change, including a compelling logic about how unnecessary incarceration will be reduced and a realistic implementation plan with measurable and time-sensitive goals.

The Foundation will review the plans generated in the first stage of the Safety and Justice Challenge, and identify those that propose the most promising, credible, and ambitious strategies for reducing overreliance on jail incarceration and diminishing racial and ethnic disparities in the way jail is used. In the second stage of the Challenge, to begin in early 2016, as many as ten Network sites will receive grants of up to $2 million per year to support implementation of their jail reduction plans. The Foundation will initially fund implementation for two years, with an option to extend if substantial progress is made. It will also continue to fund the work of the site coordinators, as well as a broader network of experts, peers, and leaders to fortify implementation efforts and leverage specific expertise as needed.

Whether or not they receive implementation funding, all twenty Safety and Justice Challenge Network sites will receive funding to support their continued participation in the Challenge Network in the coming years. As members of an active learning community, they will attend and participate in meetings, share resources and learning, and help advance the reform agenda of the Safety and Justice Challenge.

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Conceptual Framework

The Safety and Justice Challenge’s approach to local reform is grounded in six key concepts that we believe can help our network of grantees succeed:

• Developing the infrastructure for data collection and analysis and using those data to inform decision-making;

• Promoting collaborative decision-making at all levels, from front-line practitioners to leadership, across stakeholders;

• Fostering culture change in systems that have been designed and operate in ways that may conflict with this initiative’s system improvement efforts;

• Mobilizing community ownership of the changes not only among the people working within the system but among those in the community affected by the system;

• Integrating risk and needs assessment as a core tool and practice in the criminal justice system to inform decisions about the right response, for the right person, at the right time; and

• Introducing and strengthening evidence-based interventions that demonstrate that they enhance public safety and realize other desired outcomes most fairly and cost-effectively.

We view this framework as a common foundation for the work we will do together.

Data collection and analysis

Community ownership

Culture change

Evidence-based interventions

Risk and needs

assessment

Collaborative decision-making

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The 20 Selected SitesTwenty sites, drawn from all across the country, have been selected to participate in the planning stage of the Safety and Justice Challenge.

ADA COUNTY, IDAHO

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO

SAINT LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI

CONNECTICUT

PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA

SPOKANE COUNTY, WASHINGTON

MULTNOMAH COUNTY, OREGON

HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

SHELBY COUNTY, TENNESSEE

COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA

MESA COUNTY, COLORADO

PENNINGTON COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

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Planning for Change: A Closer Look at the Next Seven MonthsThe first stage of the Safety and Justice Challenge—beginning with the announcement of your site’s planning grant in May 2015 and concluding with your application for implementation funding in early January 2016—spans approximately seven months. Even though each of the Challenge Network jurisdictions will have its own unique system characteristics, strengths, and opportunities for reform, the Foundation has developed a structured methodology to help each site investigate, analyze, and document an impactful reform plan. The structured planning process will unfold over five primary phases, each of which is described below.

Five Phases of the Planning Process

Phase 1: Getting Started (May 11-29, 2015)The “getting started” phase of the work runs from the time you learned you were selected to participate in the Safety and Justice Challenge, until our national launch and first All Sites Meeting on May 27-29, 2015 in Washington, D.C. At the end of this phase of the work, your site will have: assembled an interdisciplinary planning team; connected with your site coordinator to discuss core activities and scheduling; and attended the Safety and Justice national launch event and first all-sites meeting.

Your assigned site coordinator will contact you by phone during the week of May 11, and will be available, as needed, as you step through the “getting started” tasks described below. We have also included a “getting started checklist,” at Appendix B, to help you organize and track progress during the first few weeks of the Challenge.

Phase 5Application

Dec 15-Jan 6

Phase 4Implementation

Planning

Oct 12-Dec 11

Phase 3Develop a

Reform Response

Aug 5-Oct 8

Phase 2Investigate and

Understandthe Facts

May 30-Jul 31

Phase 1 GettingStarted

May 11-29

MAY JANUARY

Site Visit 1:System mapping

Site Visit 2:Conclude system mapping

Site Visit 3:Prioritize decision points

Site Visit 4:Develop logic model

OPTIONAL Site Visit 5

Site selection

All Sites Meeting #1

All Sites Meeting #2

Proposals for second round funding due

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Assemble a Planning Team

It is critical to assemble an interdisciplinary planning team that will be reliable and responsible for driving your site’s efforts during the planning stage. Although the composition of the planning team is more art than science, we recommend it include the core criminal justice decision-makers from various system points. Most effective planning teams include representatives from, at a minimum, the judiciary, prosecution, defense bar, law enforcement, the jail, and the courts. Effective planning teams may also include community representatives such as service providers, religious leaders, and individuals who have participated in the local criminal justice process or served time. Members of the planning team should be expected to participate in all scheduled site visits, interim planning meetings, and off-site meetings of the Challenge Network.

Designate a Planning Liaison

You should, at the start, identify a “Planning Liaison” to serve as the primary point of contact for your jurisdiction’s Challenge activities. The Planning Liaison will be responsible for communicating and coordinating with your assigned site coordinator, including the scheduling and managing of site visits, conference calls, planning meetings, and the iterative review of the planning phase work products. The Planning Liaison should also serve as the Foundation’s point of contact, taking responsibility for administrative tasks such as the preparation of grant reports, budgets, and other due diligence materials, as well as responding to Foundation inquiries during the grant period.

Select your Site’s Washington, D.C. Delegation

The national launch of the Safety and Justice Challenge, and the first convening of the Challenge network, will take place in Washington, D.C. on May 27-29, 2015. You should select 4-7 representatives from your site to travel to Washington, D.C. for these meetings. The public launch event will take place on May 27 at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001 from 4:00—7:30 p.m., and will be followed by a celebratory reception.

The planning stage of the work begins in earnest on May 28 and 29. This “kick-off” meeting will strive to achieve a number of goals including: introduce the 20 site teams to Safety and Justice Challenge partners and their assigned site coordinator; provide an overview of the planning phase, including scheduled activities, expected deliverables, and criteria for advancing to the implementation phase; begin to cultivate a productive learning network and community of practice; and send your team home prepared and ready to work.

Please notify the Pretrial Justice Institute by May 13th (via Jeanine@pretrial.org and mauro@pretrial.org) of the attendees your site will send to the May 27-29 events. While lodging is being provided by the Foundation, your teams’ travel arrangements will be covered by your grant funds. You should plan to book your teams’ travel as soon as the team is identified.

Schedule on-site planning meetings

During the planning stage of the Challenge, each site will receive a minimum of four site visits by their site coordinator—with an optional fifth visit if helpful—lasting roughly two to four days each. Given the range of teams, partners, and participants involved, it will be important to get the site visits calendared before the end of May. To help facilitate this process, we have attached a “site visit scheduling tool.” Using this tool, your site’s Planning Liaison will coordinate with the members of your planning team and indicate your team’s top scheduling choices. The “site visit scheduling tool” can be found at Appendix C.

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Participate in Communications Orientation

While your site’s selection as a member of the Safety and Justice Challenge Network should not be a matter of public comment until the official announcement on May 27, you will need to prepare to communicate the news and field inquiries from the press at that time. To assist you, a communications toolkit has been included in this packet (Appendix D). In addition, we will be arranging a call with Meredith Klein, the Foundation’s communications lead for the Challenge, and BerlinRosen, our communications partner for this work. They will reach out to you to arrange the call, during which you’ll have the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about communications protocols. If you have any inquiries in the meantime, please contact Meredith Klein at mklein@macfound.org or BerlinRosen at MacArthurJails@berlinrosen.com.

Phase 2: Investigate and Understand the Facts (May 30 – July 31, 2015)During June and July, the planning process will take off at full steam. Your planning team will work closely with your site coordinator to develop an empirical picture—or augment existing analyses—of how your local criminal justice system operates and performs. At the conclusion of the second phase of the work, your planning team will have a firm, data-driven understanding of how the local criminal justice system operates in your jurisdiction, and will have surfaced the most promising opportunities to reduce jail use without compromising public safety.

System Mapping

One of the most effective ways for your planning team to identify opportunities for significant, safe jail reduction is to develop a map that charts the course of justice system operations from the point of arrest through post-conviction supervision. System mapping highlights current policies and practices at each decision point that may be contributing unnecessarily to the local jail population. Once identified, this knowledge provides a solid basis from which to develop viable, safe jail reduction strategies.

Importantly, by collecting information about how people and cases flow through the criminal justice system and their characteristics, system mapping is an invaluable tool for identifying where there may be racial and ethnic disparities and provides direction for deeper dives into the relevant practices, policies, and decisions.

Our system mapping process will be anchored in the seven key decision points listed in Table 1 below. We understand that some sites may have previously completed an analogous system mapping exercise through participation in another initiative or planning effort. We will meet you where you are and build on existing planning efforts and materials, as appropriate. We will describe the system mapping process more fully when we convene in Washington, D.C.

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Table 1. Seven Key Decision Points

Decision Point Definition

ArrestPoint of contact with law enforcement where a decision is made not to intervene, to divert for services, or if probable cause exists, to cite and release or arrest and book an individual.

ChargeDecision by a prosecutor to formally charge an individual with a crime. Can also include probable cause review by a magistrate or other; indictment by a grand jury; or prosecutorial diversion.

Assignment of counselPoint at which counsel is assigned, and the interaction between counsel and defendant pre- and post-conviction. Includes the availability of indigent defense.

Pre-trial releaseOne or a series of administrative or judicial decisions to release a defendant outright; set terms of release (financial or non-financial); or detain an individual. This decision point also includes responses to violations of pretrial release.

Case processingThe series of touch points with the court between arraignment and disposition, including the time standards for each and the extent to which those standards are adhered. Includes docketing options and specialty courts.

Disposition/sentencingPoint at which a judge or jury makes a determination of guilty or not guilty, or a plea is accepted, and the judge determines terms for release, supervision, and/or incarceration.

Post-conviction process/supervision

Post-dispositional incarceration, supervision, and/or programming. Includes time in jail, reentry, and any sort of correctional control in the community.

As your planning team builds, or fortifies, a data-driven understanding of your criminal justice process, you will schedule two on-site planning meetings with your site coordinator. The focus of both of these visits will be completing the system mapping exercise and homing in on the aspects of the system that offer the best opportunities for reform. During one of these visits, your site coordinator and planning team should expect to take a tour of a local jail.

Phase 3: Develop a Reform Response (August 5 – October 8, 2015)Using the system map as a starting point, your planning team will work with your site coordinator to develop a concrete reform response. At the end of Phase 3, your site will have prepared a preliminary logic model, which will summarize the evolving reform strategy and include numeric impact targets.

During this phase, you will have one on-site visit with your site coordinator. Your planning team will work with your site coordinator to identify the challenges to be prioritized for reform, and begin the critical conversation about setting targets. Planning teams will begin to develop a logic model at this time. A logic model helps lay out the shared understanding of what resources are available, what activities and changes will occur, what these activities and changes will produce, and the intended long-term impacts that the initiative is expected to have. The logic model succinctly depicts your site’s theory of change, providing a road map of what steps need to be taken in order to produce desired impacts.

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During this phase, there will be a second convening for all 20 planning stage sites on October 7-8 in Chicago. The goals of this gathering will include: facilitating networking and the exchange of ideas among sites; supporting the development of innovative approaches and strategies; and continuing to provide training and information about best practices.

Phase 4: Implementation Planning (October 12 – December 11, 2015)As we near the end of the planning stage, your team will turn toward developing a detailed implementation plan. The implementation plan will provide an operational roadmap for your site’s proposed reform strategies and will be the basis for your proposal for implementation funding.

Sites will use a standard template to develop and present the implementation plan. The template will prompt site teams to think practically about the resources needed to implement key strategies, the leadership and partnerships that will ensure effective implementation, performance metrics that will document progress, and the appropriate timeline for completing tasks.

You will have one on-site visit with your site coordinator during this phase. With help from your site coordinator, your planning team will ensure proposed activities are clearly linked to specific outputs, milestones, and deliverables and to the objectives defined in the logic model.

Phase 5: Application for Implementation Funding (December 15, 2015 – January 6, 2016) At the culmination of the planning stage, your planning team will work iteratively with your site coordinator to finalize the implementation plan and application for implementation funding. Although the details and format of the second stage selection process are yet to be confirmed, sites will, at a minimum, be expected to submit final implementation plans and the deliverables produced during the planning phase. These written submissions will be due to the Foundation by January 6, 2016. Sites selected for implementation funding will be notified in February 2016.

Data Collection and Research As a Safety and Justice Challenge Network site, you are participating in a process that will be transparent and data-driven. To assist with performance management, we have engaged the City University of New York’s Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG). To oversee a larger evaluation of the initiative, we have engaged RTI International. In addition, the Foundation intends to fund research that will take advantage of the numerous opportunities for learning presented by Safety and Justice Challenge Network activities. Your jurisdiction and its planning team will be expected to work constructively with ISLG, RTI, and any additional research partners as part of an active and engaged learning community.

Initially, as you generate plans and set goals for the changes you want to make, ISLG will work with you to assess local data capacity for tracking and assessing these changes, develop concrete outcome measures and targets, and establish data use agreements to secure access to the necessary data. Later, during the implementation phase, when sites put their implementation plans into action, ISLG will formally request the data and use it to track and report progress on a regular basis.

During the planning phase, ISLG will conduct one site visit—or data diagnostic—in all 20 selected sites (all data diagnostics will be completed by September 2015). The purpose of the diagnostic is to assess the capacity of key agencies to meet data needs for the initiative’s research and analysis components (performance measurement, evaluation, jail projections, etc.). During the diagnostic, ISLG will meet with

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data representatives in key agencies to review data systems and capture a detailed picture of what data is available to support performance management during the implementation phase. At a minimum, these agencies will include the police, prosecutor, court, and jail (depending on the locality, they may include other agencies as well). Following the diagnostic, ISLG will provide each site with a written assessment, to summarize core conclusions and inform future planning around criminal justice data collection.

During the implementation phase of the work, ISLG’s role will shift from assessing data capacity to using local data to monitor progress on the key goals and objectives of the initiative. To facilitate this, at the beginning of the phase, ISLG will finalize and sign data use agreements with sites that advance to the implementation stage, and submit formal requests for data necessary to create performance indicators. ISLG will also establish a baseline for each site that reflects the starting point against which progress will be measured. Over the course of the implementation phase, in turn, the organization will track and report performance measures on a regular basis, so that progress toward targets can be assessed and understood ongoing and in real time. This feedback loop will provide sites an opportunity to address challenges as they arise and refine course as necessary.

The Foundation has engaged RTI International, a leading research institution, as an independent evaluator for the Safety and Justice Challenge. RTI’s role will be to baseline and document initiative activities at the site, network, and national levels, and to assess the impact of the initiative as a whole.

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Appendix A: Partner Bios

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Center for Court InnovationWebsite www.courtinnovation.orgMain phone number (646) 386-3100Address 520 8th Avenue

18th FloorNew York, NY 10018

The mission of the Center for Court Innovation is to help create a more effective and humane justice system by designing and implementing operating programs, performing original research, and providing reformers around the world with the tools they need to launch new strategies. The overarching goals of the agency include:

• To prevent crime, improve public safety, and strengthen neighborhoods.• To enhance the legitimacy of the justice system and strengthen public trust in justice.• To expand the use of effective alternatives to incarceration where appropriate.• To help victims of crime or abuse find safety, support, and services.• To encourage the justice system to make more informed decisions in individual cases and in matters

of policy. • To work in collaboration with both government and community partners to advance

meaningful change.

The Center accomplishes its goals in three primary ways:1. Operating Programs. The Center conceives, plans, and operates programs that seek to test new ideas, solve difficult problems, and achieve system change. In so doing, the Center wrestles with thorny planning and implementation challenges. This experience grounds the organization in the realities of how difficult it is to alter the behavior of individuals, communities, and government bureaucracies. Examples of operating programs designed and implemented by the Center include the Midtown Community Court, the Red Hook Community Justice Center, the Brooklyn Mental Health Court, Newark Community Solutions, the Queens Youth Justice Center, Save Our Streets (SOS) Anti-Violence Programs, and Brooklyn Justice Initiatives.

2. Advancing Knowledge. The Center conducts rigorous and independent research, documenting what works and what does not in order to advance the field of evidence-based practice as well as to test new ideas where existing evidence may be limited. National-scope studies concern a range of cutting-edge topics, such as prosecutor-led pretrial diversion, police-led diversion, children’s exposure to violence, minority youth violence prevention, the commercial sexual exploitation of children, and separate national studies of specialized drug courts, domestic violence, and reentry courts. The Center is also currently conducting a wide range of research and evaluation projects regarding the use of risk-needs assessment tools to inform criminal justice decision-making; indigent defense reform; and gun violence prevention.

3. Helping Reformers. The Center provides training and assistance to justice reformers inside and outside of government, both domestically and internationally. Experts from the Center help innovators plan and implement new policies, practices, and technologies. The Center both advises on proven evidence-based strategies that have been tested elsewhere and guides the process of experimentation—informed by the Center’s own practical experience implementing real-world operating programs that involve multiple partners. Current national-scope technical assistance projects include the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, the Office of Minority Health (OMH) Minority Youth Violent Prevention initiative; state-level drug court systems; specialized domestic violence courts; and human trafficking initiatives grounded in the justice system.

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City University of New York Institute for State and Local GovernanceWebsite islg.cuny.eduMain phone number (646) 664-3481 Address 10 East 34th Street, 5th floor

New York, NY 10016

AboutThe Institute for State and Local Governance was created in 2013 by The City University of New York. Its mission is to assist current and future leaders in government and non-government organizations, nationally and internationally, by offering research, technical assistance, and training and education to help achieve improvements in the structure, financing, delivery, measurement, and evaluation of critical public services. The Institute works with state and local governments, public benefit organizations, non-profit organizations, public charities, and the private sector.

ExpertiseThe Institute offers methodological and substantive expertise in several areas. Our methodological expertise includes:

• Research that is scientifically rigorous, yet accessible to broader audiences, practical in its implementation, and sensitive to timelines and the political realities within which governments and non-governmental organizations operate;

• Technical assistance to help government and non-governmental organizations implement data-driven and results-oriented practices and improve performance; and

• Training and education for current and future leaders to build successful careers and to improve the management capabilities and the effectiveness of the organizations they support.

The Institute’s substantive expertise covers a range of public policy areas as well. Primary among those areas are criminal justice, health care, governmental budgeting, transportation, infrastructure, and education. As an institute nested within CUNY, ISLG staff have access to and ongoing relationships with leading experts in public policy and social science research.The Institute is led by founding Executive Director Michael Jacobson, whose career in public service includes holding senior positions in the New York City (NYC) Office of Management and Budget, serving as NYC Commissioner of Probation and Corrections, as a tenured professor at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of CUNY, and running the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice (Vera). An active 10-member Advisory Board comprised of professionals in government, academia, and the private sector also provides expert guidance, and ISLG staff consist of research and policy experts with a range of experience in government, nonprofit, and academic settings.

While the Institute is newly formed, its current portfolio of work includes a range of projects at the national and local level, among them the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative, a technical assistance and investment initiative with the New York County District Attorney’s Office; the Safety and Justice Challenge; a Pay for Success (PFS) initiative with The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), in which the Institute will help assess the potential for PFS in three jurisdictions; and the development of inequality indicators for the City of New York.

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Justice Management InstituteWebsite www.jmijustice.orgMain phone number (703) 414-5477Address 3033 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 700

Arlington, VA 22201

The Justice Management Institute (JMI) has provided direct technical assistance (TA) to local justice policymakers and practitioners for 20 years. Our experience is broad-based—working with criminal, juvenile, family, and civil justice systems. We have worked with numerous reform efforts, Including Justice Reinvestment, the Evidence-Based Decision Making Initiative, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change Initiative, the Smart Suite initiatives, and now MacArthur’s Safety and Justice Challenge.

One of JMI’s hallmarks is not only helping justice systems “do the right thing” but also helping them to “do it right.” JMI’s approach is system-oriented, bringing criminal justice stakeholders together around a common purpose and helping each to align its policies and practices. We have become expert at building these multi-disciplinary teams, often called Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils (CJCC), from the ground up. We partner with teams representing the judiciary and court management, prosecutors, defenders, sheriffs and law enforcement, and probation and community supervision to build consensus, to plan strategically for the short and long term, and to build sustainable plans that are measurable and flexible to the changing political and social demands on criminal justice systems. Over the past several years, JMI has written authoritatively about approach to justice leadership and formed the National Network of Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils to continue to develop national understanding of how these collaborations work and are sustained.

Through needs assessment, case studies, system mapping, strategic planning, and process and outcome evaluation, JMI has successfully worked with courts, prosecutors, defense agencies, sheriffs and law enforcement, and probation and community supervision to identify specific, quantifiable goals and realize just, fair, efficient, and equitable systems. We have advised, trained, and provided technical assistance in key areas of evidence-based practice in criminal justice, such as screening and assessment, diversion and deferred prosecution, treatment models with or without accountability courts, and others. Although we often describe our work as fitting into three, interdependent categories, our approach depends on drawing from all three and using each to enhance the others:

Research & Evaluation Education & Training Technical Assistance

We are a learning, thinking organization. Our

original research and evaluation is designed to help leaders, managers, and practitioners make better decisions to reach intended outcomes, respond to cultural and legal issues, and to address both systemic and episodic problems.

Education and training are the cornerstones

of our work. We have a rich history of developing content and delivering transformative learning experiences that empower leaders and practitioners to apply proven practices in their work environment to achieve positive change.

Technical assistance promotes change and improvement.

We collaborate with justice professionals to shape systems that are responsive, outcome-driven, fairer, more equitable, and more efficient by implementing and integrating a variety of evidence-based practices, including proven strategies to reduce jail overcrowding.

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Justice System PartnersWebsite www.justicesystempartners.orgMain phone number (508) 297-0584

Address P.O. Box 970South Easton, MA 02375-0970

Justice System Partners (JSP) makes justice systems more effective, fair, and humane to improve the safety and quality of life for system-involved individuals and their communities. Consulting services from JSP are unique due to the considerable experience of its team members in developing and implementing models of technical assistance provision and building long-lasting collaborations, and a commitment to translating the latest research into improved outcomes for public safety systems. As former public sector leaders, JSP team members have seen firsthand the impact of jail population growth. We understand the challenges of comprehensive system reform, and have also been successful at changing policy and practice in local jurisdictions as managers and consultants.

JSP’s team members bring decades of experience in public sector management and system reform consulting. Each JSP team member brings unique experience and specific areas of expertise, but all of our staff are skilled facilitators with broad content knowledge and project management skills and have worked within numerous state and county systems. As a result of the efforts of JSP team members, states have passed evidence-based legislative reforms, counties have promulgated policy to reduce juvenile detention and adult incarceration rates, and agencies have implemented evidence-based reforms to reduce recidivism.

Justice System Partners:

• Educates criminal and juvenile justice systems regarding the efficacy of evidence-based approaches, data-based decisions and practices,

• Implements evidence-based strategies and systems that reduce over-reliance on incarceration,• Assists agencies and jurisdictions who use incarceration to develop and implement programs that

provide offenders the skills needed to reduce their risk of recidivism,• Furthers the improvement of the administration of criminal and juvenile justice by serving as a

resource to public and private sector agencies on policy and program design, implementation, training, research, and evaluation, and

• Promotes and advocates rational public policy and practical strategies for criminal and social justice issues.

JSP accomplishes its purpose by providing consulting and technical assistance to local and state criminal and juvenile justice agencies who desire to improve the effectiveness and quality of their justice programs, or when significant change requires adopting new practices. We work with our clients to incorporate data-driven and evidence-based management techniques and decision-making processes into their organizational processes to support sustainability.

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RTI InternationalWebsite www.rti.orgMain phone number (919) 541-6000

Address3040 East Cornwallis RoadPost Office Box 12194Research Triangle Park, NC

RTI International, established in 1958, is one of the world’s leading research institutes, dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. As an independent nonprofit research organization, RTI’s primary objective is to provide clients with the highest quality research and technical services while adhering to the highest standards of scientific integrity, impartiality, and objectivity. The staff of more than 3,700 provides research and technical expertise to governments and businesses in more than 75 countries in the areas of health and pharmaceuticals, education and training, surveys and statistics, advanced technology, international development, economic and social policy, energy and the environment, and laboratory and chemistry services. RTI has significant experience managing complex multi-state, national, and international projects, including some of the largest studies in the United States (e.g., the Multi-site Evaluation of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being).

RTI’s Center for Justice, Safety, and Resilience is founded on the idea that justice, safety, resilience, and related issues are best understood in the context of the surrounding social ills, systems, and policies. The Center’s staff hold advanced degrees in criminology, psychology, sociology, economics, public health, social work, public administration, and information science and conduct innovative and high-quality research covering a broad array of topics. Drawing on expertise from multiple disciplines and using a broad array of methods, ongoing Center efforts are addressing programs and services for correctional populations, sexual victimization in prisons and jails, arrest-related deaths and deaths in custody, intimate partner violence and sexual assault, human trafficking, police use of data and technology, backlogs in forensic evidence processing, community-based crime prevention and neighborhood revitalization programs, prevention of school violence and student substance use, promotion of positive youth development, and substance use prevention in states and communities.

The Center currently leads major initiatives and evaluations for the U.S. Department of Justice, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. These studies and projects include epidemiological measurement of problems; process and outcome evaluations of prevention and intervention programs; randomized control trials; cost benefit and cost effectiveness analyses; qualitative methods; and complex statistical analysis of primary and secondary data, including processing and analysis of criminal records data and re-analysis of data from previous studies.

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Vera Institute of JusticeWebsite www.vera.orgMain phone number (212) 334-1300

Address 233 Broadway, 12th FloorNew York, NY 10279

For more than 50 years, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) has worked with government and civil society to improve the systems people rely on for justice and safety. Vera has active projects in 48 states and ten countries, assisting local, state, and national government partners with a range of issues, including pretrial reform and jail overcrowding, policing practices, conditions of confinement and sentencing reform, as well as immigration and juvenile justice policy. Vera conducts research and analysis, develops and tests solutions, uses its publications and expertise to engage stakeholders and the public, and collaborates with government leaders and communities to make justice systems fairer and more effective. Vera is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and New Orleans.

Vera’s work to address over-reliance on jail incarceration began in 1961 with the Manhattan Bail Project, which demonstrated that, when guided by appropriate assessment, courts could safely release many defendants without financial conditions and achieve better appearance rates than those released on bond. Since then, Vera has worked with more than 200 jurisdictions to analyze the challenges facing local justice systems and develop practical and transformative responses. More recent work at the local level has included research and recommendations to reduce jail overcrowding and improve jail reentry services in Los Angeles County; the establishment of the first comprehensive pretrial services program in New Orleans; research and analysis to inform Alabama’s Cooperative Community Alternative Sentencing Project; and the creation of a multi-agency database in Washington, D.C. to support treatment services and healthcare coverage for people with mental illness involved in the justice system.

In addition to engagement at the local level, Vera works on the state and national level to provide guidance to government partners on sentencing law and policy, conditions of confinement, juvenile justice, community corrections, and reentry. Vera provides technical assistance to states participating in the federal Justice Reinvestment Initiative, including Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oregon, South Carolina, and South Dakota, and provides research and support for the Governor’s Task Force on Sentencing and Corrections in Tennessee. Other initiatives include the Safe Alternatives to Segregation Initiative, helping state and local jurisdictions reduce their use of punitive and administrative segregation; the Pathways from Prison to Post-Secondary Education, which provides incentive funding and technical assistance to expand access to higher education for people in prison and those recently released; and the Justice Reform for Healthy Communities Initiative, which aims to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities most affected by over incarceration.

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Appendix B: Getting Started Checklist

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Your site coordinator will reach out to you the week of May 11th and will be available as your team steps through the Getting Started activities, all to be completed by May 27th.

✔ Activities

❏ Hold kick-off call with site coordinator

❏Assemble an interdisciplinary planning team that will be reliable and responsible for driving your site’s efforts during the planning stage, including representatives from the judiciary, prosecution, defense bar, law enforcement, the jail, and the courts

❏Identify Planning Liaison to serve as primary contact for your jurisdiction’s Challenge activities

❏ Identify 4-7 representatives of your planning team to attend May 27-29 Launch

❏Notify Pretrial Justice Institute (via Jeanine@pretrial.org and mauro@pretrial.org) of attendees for May 27-29 Launch Meeting by May 13th

❏ Book travel arrangements for attendees

❏ Complete the “site visit scheduling tool” and return it to your assigned Site Coordinator

❏ Ensure all members of the planning team have blocked site visit dates on their calendars

❏ Review the Communications Toolkit provided as part of the Orientation Package

❏Speak with Meredith Klein from the MacArthur Foundation and BerlinRosen regarding communications guidelines

❏ Finalize grant budget by May 15th

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Appendix C: Site Visit Scheduling Tool

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Activity Target Dates

Site Visit #1 June 8-30

Site Visit #2 July 6-31

Site Visit #3 August 10-September 30

All Sites Meeting #2 October 7-8

Site Visit #4 October 19-November 30

Round 2 application deadline January 6

Site visit 1: June 8-30, 2015

Please choose your top three dates for a 2-4 day meeting of your planning team in this timeframe:

1.

2.

3.

Site visit 2: July 6-31, 2015

Please choose your top three dates for a 2-4 day meeting of your planning team in this timeframe:

1.

2.

3.

Site visit 3: August 10-September 30, 2015

Please choose your top three dates for a 2-4 day meeting of your planning team in this timeframe:

1.

2.

3.

Site visit 4: October 19-November 30, 2015

Please choose your top three dates for a 2-4 day meeting of your planning team in this timeframe:

1.

2.

3.

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Appendix D: Communications Toolkit

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Introductory Note

This toolkit provides materials to support Safety and Justice Challenge sites for the initiative’s public announcement on May 27. Please note that the news that you have been selected as a Safety and Justice Challenge site is confidential until the MacArthur Foundation’s public announcement at 12:01am ET on May 27. These materials are intended to assist your communications efforts and help prepare you for your interactions with the press and public. In the pages that follow, please find:

• Media Protocols: Reporters may contact you before and after the public announcement of the grantees. These protocols indicate what you should do if a reporter reaches out to you, what information is public at what time, and the timeline for press outreach. Please review the protocols to ensure that you are prepared if you receive a press inquiry.

• Frequently Asked Questions/Initiative Talking Points: These talking points provide suggested responses to questions that you may receive from journalists and members of the public. The talking points include information about the Safety and Justice Challenge and how the Challenge works.

• Sample Digital Language: The sample digital language is intended to be a guide for announcing the news about being a Safety and Justice Challenge site on or after May 27. We have provided sample text for you to tailor for your location, including: sample tweets, a sample Facebook post, and language to use on your website, in newsletters, and in email announcements.

• Template Press Release for Local Media: The Foundation is conducting outreach to national press and some local press, but we encourage you to contact your local media outlets as well. To aid in that outreach, we have provided a template press release with placeholders for you to fill in information tailored to your location. It would be appreciated if you would run your release by your site coordinator prior to distribution. Please do not contact any members of the press until after the public announcement at 12:01am ET on May 27.

To further assist your communications outreach and help prepare you for possible interviews with press, we will be arranging a call for you with Meredith Klein, the Foundation’s communications lead for the Challenge, and BerlinRosen, our communications partner for this work. They will reach out to you to arrange the call, during which you’ll have the opportunity to ask any questions about communications protocols. If you have any inquiries in the meantime, please contact Meredith Klein at mklein@macfound.org and BerlinRosen at MacArthurJails@berlinrosen.com.

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Media Protocols

The news that you have been selected as a Safety and Justice Challenge site is confidential until the public announcement at 12:01am ET on May 27. Please refrain from communicating the news of your selection until that date. Doing so will help ensure a successful public announcement.

Please note that because a handful of top-tier press outlets will receive embargoed information about selected Challenge sites in advance of the announcement, the Foundation or its communications partner, BerlinRosen, may be in touch with you before May 27 to arrange media interviews. If you receive a media request before May 27 that has not been arranged by the Foundation or BerlinRosen, please alert Meredith Klein immediately and refrain from responding until you hear from her or from BerlinRosen.

After May 27, please contact Meredith Klein if you receive a media request from a national outlet. Doing so will ensure that the Foundation and BerlinRosen are aware of media activity in progress and can coordinate with other sites, if appropriate. If you receive a media request from a local outlet, please handle internally as you see fit and alert your Site Coordinator via email as you’re arranging local media interviews.

If you have any questions about incoming press requests, please contact Meredith Klein at mklein@macfound.org and BerlinRosen at MacArthurJails@berlinrosen.com.

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Frequently Asked Questions & Initiative Talking Points

What is the Safety and Justice Challenge?The Safety and Justice Challenge is a major new initiative supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation aimed at reducing over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails. Through the Challenge, the Foundation is making an initial five-year, $75 million investment in local reform, research, experimentation, and communications support. The goal is to improve local criminal justice systems in jurisdictions across the country and safely reduce jail incarceration—particularly the disproportionate incarceration of low-income individuals and people of color.

Why is the Safety and Justice Challenge focused on local jurisdictions?The Safety and Justice Challenge is focused on local criminal justice systems because that is where most people’s contact with the justice system starts. Despite growing national attention to the large number of Americans confined in state and federal prisons, significantly less attention has been paid to local justice systems, where the criminal justice system primarily operates and where over-incarceration begins. The initiative will stimulate, support, and spread locally generated, practical solutions.

How does the competition work?The Safety and Justice Challenge competition will unfold in two rounds. We were chosen out of nearly 200 applications for the first round, along with 19 other sites, to receive a grant of $150,000 to support an intensive planning process to improve our local justice system and to safely reduce our jail population. Beginning in 2016, as many as 10 of the selected sites will be chosen for a second round of funding of up to $2 million per year to support the implementation of their plans.

How will you use the grant money?The $150,000 grant will be used to support an intensive six-month planning process. We will be working with an expert technical assistance partner to develop an actionable plan for reducing the community’s jail population without compromising public safety.

What happens if [Grantee] is not chosen for a second round of funding?Whether or not [Grantee] is chosen for the next round of funding, we are committed to stopping the misuse of jails and to improving our local justice system, and will continue to work to find effective and cost-efficient ways to do so.

Will the MacArthur Foundation control how jails are run at each site?No. The [Grantee] jails system will continue to be run by the [city/county/state/tribe name], as it always has been. The Foundation’s funding is simply being used to support a planning process for local justice system improvement.

Where can I find more information about the Safety and Justice Challenge?Please visit the initiative website for more information: www.SafetyAndJusticeChallenge.org.

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Sample Digital Language

Template email, website and newsletter languageWe are proud to announce that [Grantee] is one of twenty jurisdictions selected to participate in the Safety and Justice Challenge, a major new initiative supported by the MacArthur Foundation to address over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails. [Grantee] was chosen from among nearly 200 applicants from 45 states.

Our selection in the Challenge will allow us to focus on local justice system reform and to be an important piece in nationwide momentum for change. Over the next six months, we’ll use the $150,000 grant from the Foundation to develop a plan for reducing our jail population without compromising public safety. Throughout this process, we will have the support of expert technical assistance partners and independent evaluators.

This grant is an opportunity for us to create a fairer and more effective justice system in our town/county/city. We are excited to be a part of the Safety and Justice Challenge and look forward to sharing our progress with you.

To find out more about the initiative, please visit www.SafetyAndJusticeChallenge.org.

Suggested tweets

• [Grantee] selected as 1 of 20 @safety_justice Challenge sites nationwide [link to press release]

• [Grantee] is excited to work with @MacFound and @safety_justice to safely improve our local criminal justice system www.SafetyAndJusticeChallenge.org

• With @safety_justice, [Grantee] will work to create a fairer, more effective local criminal justice system [link to press release]

• It’s time to safely reduce jail incarceration. @MacFound’s selection of [Grantee] for the @safety_justice will help us get there

Suggested Facebook posts

• [Grantee] is honored to have been chosen for the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, which will allow us to safely improve our local criminal justice system. www.SafetyAndJusticeChallenge.org

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Template Press Release for Local Media

For immediate release: May 27, 2015

[GRANTEE] WINS MACARTHUR FOUNDATION SUPPORT TO REDUCE THE USE OF JAILS

Grant is part of MacArthur’s $75M Safety and Justice Challenge, which supports innovation in local criminal justice systems

[CITY, STATE] – The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today announced that [Grantee] is one of 20 jurisdictions selected to receive a $150,000 grant to create a fairer, more effective local justice system. The grant is a part of the Safety and Justice Challenge, the Foundation’s $75 million initiative to reduce over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails. [Grantee] will use the support to [describe overarching goal of the proposal in 5-10 words].

[Grantee] was chosen following a highly competitive selection process that drew applications from nearly 200 jurisdictions from 45 states. The Safety and Justice Challenge competition supports jurisdictions across the country seeking to create more just and effective local justice systems that improve public safety, save taxpayer money, and yield better outcomes. The 20 jurisdictions selected will work with expert consultants to develop a plan for local justice system improvement. In 2016, as many as 10 of these jurisdictions will receive a second round of funding – between $500,000 to $2 million annually – to implement their plans over two years.

“Nearly 200 diverse jurisdictions responded to our challenge, reflecting nationwide interest in reducing over-incarceration,” said Julia Stasch, President of the MacArthur Foundation. “Each of the sites selected has demonstrated the motivation, collaboration, and commitment needed to make real change in their local justice systems. We hope their local efforts will model effective and safe alternatives to the incarceration status quo for the rest of the country.”

[Insert grantee quote (e.g., expressing how the support will allow the jurisdiction to improve public safety, save taxpayer money, and/or lead to better social outcomes).]

Despite growing national attention to the large number of Americans confined in state and federal prisons, significantly less attention has been paid to local justice systems, where the criminal justice system primarily operates and where over-incarceration begins. Jail populations have more than tripled since the 1980s, as have cumulative expenditures related to building and running them. According to recent research from the Vera Institute of Justice, nearly 75 percent of the population of both sentenced offenders and pretrial detainees are in jail for nonviolent offenses such as traffic, property, drug, or public order violations. Further, low-income individuals and communities of color disproportionately experience the negative consequences of incarceration.

In [Grantee], [If possible and appropriate, insert local data or key points about the state of local incarceration. Then explain the potential goals/desired impact of the jurisdiction to address these issues.]

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Information about the selected jurisdictions, as well as news, research, and events related to the Safety and Justice Challenge, will be published on www.SafetyandJusticeChallenge.org.

About the MacArthur FoundationThe MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, the Foundation works to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology affects children and society. More information about the Foundation’s work, including in the justice field, is available at www.macfound.org.

Contact: [Grantee contact name, email address, and phone number]