Author: stagingsjc

Palm Beach County, like many jurisdictions across the country, faces numerous challenges as it seeks to safely reduce its jail population. One of these challenges is addressing the “frequent users” of our system—people who cycle in and out of our county’s jail, hospital, and behavioral health systems. Many of these people are experiencing their own challenges, including housing instability and mental health problems. County leaders recognize that without addressing these issues—poverty, instability, and untreated mental health conditions—we will never address overuse of our local jail.

Palm Beach County also has a long history of collaboration in addressing challenges within the criminal justice system. Our Criminal Justice Commission was created in 1988 and has regularly gathered key system players around the table to bring meaningful improvement and reform to areas such as pretrial services, pretrial diversion, and reentry, among others. We were able to draw upon this history of collaboration as we worked together to develop responses to our county’s frequent system users. Through this process, we created the Palm Beach County FUSE Project (PBC FUSE), which we plan to implement this year.

FUSE is an acronym for Frequent Users System Engagement, a model for addressing homelessness among our most vulnerable individuals. It was developed by the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), a national organization based in New York City, and has now been adopted by more than 20 jurisdictions around the country, including Mecklenburg County, North Carolina and Harris County, Texas, which are also part of the Challenge Network. The goal of FUSE is to break the cycle of incarceration and homelessness by providing stable housing to people who are identified as the most frequent users of jails, homeless shelters, behavioral health crisis services, and hospitals in Palm Beach County.

Implementation of PBC FUSE will reduce our local jail population by decreasing recidivism among program participants. Concurrently, it will lead to an increase in housing stability and a decrease in reliance on multiple crisis services. Permanent supportive housing is a key factor in decreasing a person’s  involvement with the criminal justice system. Nothing stabilizes a person in crisis more than having a home—particularly when necessary services are provided as well.

FUSE participants are identified through data matching. The PBC FUSE Policy Team will develop a list of individuals who were arrested three or more times in the past year. We will then match that list with our homeless and behavioral health crisis centers’ patient lists. (Hospital data will be added later.) After an initial list is developed, these people will be located through a process of “inreach” (homeless shelters, jails, and hospitals) and outreach (streets and parks). Case managers will enlist and engage participants and place them in permanent supportive housing. The managers will then coordinate the procurement of any necessary services. This may include physical and behavioral healthcare (including therapy and treatment), transportation, job training, obtaining identification documents, and accessing benefits.

There has been strong support for PBC FUSE throughout the community from the beginning. Participating organizations are enthusiastic about the project and committed to its success. These include the Criminal Justice Commission, PBC Human Services Department, City of West Palm Beach, Public Defender, State Attorney, Southeast Florida Behavioral Health Network, individual behavioral healthcare providers, agencies that provide housing and services for the homeless, and two of our local hospitals. In addition to the generous funding we’ve received from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, we are working with a local foundation which is supportive of the project. We have also been the recipient of local and federal government dollars. The Lord’s Place, a leading agency working with the homeless in our county, recently received a major HUD grant providing for fifteen individual housing units which will be prioritized for our FUSE participants. We will have an initial pilot project serving 25 individuals in 2018 with plans to expand to 100 individuals within two years.

All our stakeholders are working together to identify PBC FUSE participants and help them stabilize and improve their health and their lives. The unique nature of the FUSE project is a key factor in enabling us to maintain collaboration, enthusiasm, and commitment. FUSE cuts across four major crisis systems: criminal justice, homelessness, behavioral health, and physical health. A successful FUSE project can help numerous individuals reclaim their lives. But there is an additional benefit which makes FUSE attractive to stakeholders. It can produce tremendous cost savings. If participants are able to be housed and stabilized, then jails, hospitals, behavioral health crisis centers, and homeless agencies can save a great deal of money as these individuals will no longer be cycling through their doors.

After months of planning, PBC FUSE is nearing the implementation phase. We are optimistic that our efforts will lead to success for both individuals and the community at large.

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans’s jail population exceeded 6,500 inmates. When we came into office in 2010, we made a commitment to the people of New Orleans to reform our criminal justice system and reduce the jail population.

So we got to work.

We launched initiatives like the NOLA FOR LIFE strategy and the Network for Economic Opportunity to connect people to opportunity. We started focusing on pre-trial risk assessment and supervision, issuing summonses instead of arrest, fast-tracking low-level offenders and working to address the racial and ethnic disparities in the system.

Additionally, New Orleans has made great strides to reduce the jail population with the help of the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge and the Federal Bureau of Justice Assistance. Since the challenge’s implementation in 2016, we have seen successes.

We have launched the Community Advisory Group to hold myself and other local officials accountable for our commitments, and to represent community interests. The Sheriff’s Office hired a Justice System Administrator who is responsible for identifying people who fall through the cracks and stay in jail too long. The Criminal District Court approved a protocol to increase use of Release on Recognizance for defendants who don’t pose a risk to public safety.

Through this hard work and collaboration with a number of agencies across New Orleans, we have been able to reduce the jail population to around 1,400 inmates. While we are proud of this success, the fact is New Orleans remains the most incarcerated city in the most incarcerated state in the most incarcerated country. There is still more work to do.

Specifically, as it relates to offenders with mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders, we have found that our New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officers have few options available to manage this population. In New Orleans, we recognize the challenges that the criminal justice system faces to provide a solution for this population and will launch the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, an alternative to arrest, in 2018.

Modeled after Seattle’s LEAD program, New Orleans’ LEAD program will allow people at risk of arrest or summons to be diverted to wraparound services in lieu of entering the jail. Upon encounter, officers redirect individuals to an intensive case manager who connects them to services such as behavioral and mental health treatment.

Often, jail time for individuals experiencing a crisis can exacerbate the problem without ever getting to the root cause, and lead to repeat jail and hospital stays. By diverting individuals to services that address the underlying issues, LEAD participants become more connected to the community and less likely to reoffend.

As a precursor to LEAD, through the Safety and Justice Challenge, the Vera Institute of Justice assisted the city in coordinating with NOPD, Women with a Vision and other local organizations to reach shared goals for those facing prostitution charges. In May 2017, we released a policy instituting the use of municipal prostitution charges instead of felony or state charges, making the charge eligible for the Crossroads Diversion Program.

In the first 81 days after implementing this policy, arrests for prostitution decreased, with 91 percent of arrests handled in municipal court.

In New Orleans, we are proud to launch the LEAD program because it allows us to connect individuals to necessary holistic, community-based services. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our brothers and sisters in need to ensure they are connected to the right opportunities is the right thing to do. It is how we are building the city of our dreams.

*This post originally appeared on the National League of Cities’ blog, Cities Speak. 

This month, mayors from 12 cities partnered with Center for American Progress to launch Mayors for Smart on Crime, a national initiative promoting fair, just and proportional, and comprehensive approaches to public safety and criminal justice that are driven by evidence and data. With support from the Safety and Justice Challenge, Mayors for Smart on Crime brings together a diverse group of leaders from cities of different sizes and regions, united by their commitment to building safer, fairer communities.

Mayors are uniquely positioned to effect positive change and give voice to the movement against outdated and ineffective “law and order” policies. Traditionally, the responsibility for enhancing public safety has been placed solely on the shoulders of police and other enforcement agencies. This led to an unnecessary growth of the number of people in our jails and prisons. Today, we understand that public safety is not limited only to the enforcement tool in the toolbox. It requires partnerships with members of the community, advocates, social service agencies, and public health entities, just to name a few. This results in both safe communities and an equitable and right-sized justice system.

Across the country, mayors are positioned to lead these multi-faceted approaches and bring comprehensive solutions to bear. In Dayton, Ohio, for example, Mayor Nan Whaley is leading the way to combat the impact of opioid addiction. Whaley was one of the first mayors in Ohio to declare a state of emergency in response to the opioid epidemic, a move that opened up additional resources to support the city’s response. “The declaration of emergency allowed us to do what we call harm reduction,” Whaley said. The city equipped all first responders with the overdose reversal drug Naloxone, and launched a needle-exchange program at three sites across the city. Through needle exchanges, individuals affected by addiction can swap used needles for clean ones, helping to curb the spread of diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C.  Mayor Whaley also views the program as an opportunity to build connections with impacted communities.  “[The needle-exchange program is] an opportunity for us to open the door so we have a relationship—where if someone feels they have nowhere else to turn [then] they have this place,” she explained. “That way, when they’re ready for treatment, we can get them into treatment very quickly.”

Mayor Michael Hancock of Denver, Colorado is another vocal advocate for smart on crime approaches. His city has embodied these principles with recent sentencing reforms. Previously, all violations of city ordinances carried a maximum sentence of one year in jail, regardless of the severity of the offense. That meant petty infractions, such as public urination, were subject to the same punishment as assault, domestic violence, and other serious crimes. In May 2017, the Denver City Council unanimously approved a comprehensive overhaul of sentencing laws, which established proportional responses to city-level offenses. Under the new structure, the most serious crimes are still punishable by a maximum of 365 days in jail. But for minor violations, the maximum sentence has been reduced to 60 days. “With this ordinance, we will ensure punishment fits the severity of the offense,” Hancock said.

These reforms represent a major step towards protecting all of Denver’s residents, including immigrants, refugees, and those experiencing homelessness. Notably, federal law stipulates that ICE must be notified whenever an immigrant is convicted of a crime that carries a maximum sentence of one year or more, even if the individual receives a lesser sentence. Under the new sentencing structure, less serious offenses will no longer trigger ICE notification – and by preserving the 365-day maximum for violent crimes, the sentencing structure will continue to hold serious offenders accountable.  Mayor Hancock called the reforms a “critical step” towards keeping families intact and “ensuring low level offenses, like park curfew, are not a deportation tool.”

Mayors for Smart on Crime will give mayors the opportunity to share strategies and benefit from the collective knowledge of their peers. Reflecting on her experiences in Gary, Indiana, Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson emphasized the importance of comprehensive public safety approaches. “If we continue to use law enforcement-centered solutions, we will get the same mixed results,” she explained, “and we will continue to lose valuable human potential.”

Mayor Jim Kenney of Philadelphia reinforced this principle, explaining that incarceration “doesn’t solve the problem.” Instead, Kenney takes a holistic view of crime prevention efforts, focused on addressing the root causes of criminal involvement. “When you see wasted potential and wasted talent, and you recognize that if that person had a different experience in life, and a different educational experience and a different opportunity for work experience, that they would be contributing much more than they are now,” he says. “There are no such thing as throw away people. Everyone has a chance to redeem themselves.”

Learn more about Mayors for Smart on Crime and see full list of participating mayors.

The initial decision to detain or release an accused person, either with or without financial and other conditions, is made by a judicial officer—usually pretty quickly, and often with a minimum of information. But this quick decision can have serious long-term consequences, and not just for individual detainees.

So why not take a second look?

Eight Safety and Justice Challenge sites have instituted procedures for revisiting initial detention and bail decisions on a routine basis. From a system point of view, it’s about “saving bed days”—finding ways to minimize unnecessary pretrial holding. For individual defendants, though, second looks like these can save a lot more—jobs, families, even lives. Some of the second-look approaches being taken by Safety and Justice Challenge jurisdictions are simple; some are highly complex and collaborative. Lucas County, Ohio’s is both.

It’s called the Population Review Team: about ten people as a rule, including representatives of the Toledo Legal Aid Society (which represents indigent defendants) and the City of Toledo Law Department (which prosecutes them), along with the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office, Pretrial Services, the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, and other local agencies and providers. They meet every week for a couple of hours, combing page by page through a fat printout showing charges, criminal histories, risk assessment scores and other details on Lucas County’s entire pretrial jail population.

They’re looking for deals: good candidates for a modified bond, release on appropriate conditions, or expedited case resolution. They concentrate on defendants who were recommended for pretrial release by the county’s risk instrument, the PSA Court, but who for one reason or other were held anyway, as well as defendants charged with low-level offenses but not recommended for release because of past criminal activity or failures to appear. They don’t just rely on what’s in the printout: each of the participants has access to sources of additional information about defendants—affidavits and incident reports on file, needs assessment results, community service histories, active cases in neighboring court systems, etc.

Sean McNulty, the Toledo Legal Aid Society’s Chief Public Defender and a frequent participant in Population Review Team meetings, says that “if we can predict the likely outcome of a case at the next court event, then this review provides us with an opportunity to reach that outcome in two days, not two weeks. It helps the system become more efficient, but it also affords our clients a chance to be released from custody earlier-—thereby decreasing the likelihood that their lives will further destabilize while they remain incarcerated.”

When the meeting is over and the team’s release recommendations have been recorded, the defender representative typically heads straight across the street to meet with clients in the Lucas County Jail, explain the Population Review project, and present the proposed offers. If clients agree, their cases come before a Toledo Municipal Court judge at an expedited hearing a day or two later, and they are released.

Regular deep dives into the county’s pretrial population have given Population Review Team members a chance to spot trends, detect bottlenecks and snags, and come up with simple policy fixes for chronic problems. The project has engendered useful habits of interagency collaboration and information sharing, and created a sense that there are certain basic goals and values—efficiency, proportionality, common sense—that everyone in the justice system ought to own.

Lucas County has plans to expand its Population Review Team approach in 2018, hoping to get similar benefits with a new target population: people being held for felonies who have an identified need for mental health or substance abuse treatment. The hope for the expansion—led by the Toledo Legal Aid Society and dubbed the Opportunity Project—is that a connection to services at the pretrial stage can improve court and other outcomes for a behavioral health population.

Long a global leader in incarceration rates and the subject of federal consent decrees looming over both the police department and the sheriff’s office, New Orleans is making major efforts to reduce its jail population as part of the Safety and Justice Challenge. One of these key strategies is pre-booking diversion. New Orleans will launch a Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program in early 2018. New Orleans LEAD, which is modeled after Seattle’s successful program of the same name, will allow people at risk of arrest or summons to be diverted into intensive case management and services instead of going to the Orleans Parish jail.

One of several charges that will be eligible for diversion is prostitution. Since 2014, people facing prosecution for prostitution in New Orleans have had the opportunity to be diverted out of the criminal justice system through Crossroads, an innovative, harm reduction-based diversion program. However, this opportunity depends entirely on the discretion of the arresting officer, and on whether he or she issues a municipal or a state charge. Municipal charges are made under the municipal court jurisdiction, whereas state charges are made under the criminal district court jurisdiction.

Until recently, most people were charged with state misdemeanor or felony prostitution—which prevented them from accessing the social services and other assistance Crossroads provides. Despite Crossroads’ proven track record of reducing re-arrest and failures to appear—and improving participants’ health and wellness—officers continued to use the state and felony charges, making people ineligible for the program.

Two years after local law enforcement, the public defender, and community advocates collaborated to launch Crossroads—and while New Orleans was still in the planning phase for LEAD—the Vera Institute of Justice sought to help the city align the objectives established in Crossroads with those of pre-booking diversion. We convened the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and local organization Women with a Vision, and our three agencies set about examining the arrest trends, drafting a new policy, and wrestling with the most appropriate and effective ways to respond to people engaged in sex work.

On May 12, 2017, The NOPD’s Superintendent released a policy directing officers to use the municipal prostitution charge instead of harsher felony or state misdemeanor charges.

Since this policy’s release, New Orleans has seen a significant reduction in both arrests and lengths of stay in the jail for prostitution charges. In the 81 days before the policy was implemented, there were 57 arrests for prostitution, an average of 0.7 arrests per day. Only two percent of those cases went to municipal court, while a striking 98 percent went to criminal district court. On average, each person spent 21 days in jail.

In the 81 days after implementation, prostitution arrests dropped to a total of 33—an average of 0.4 arrests per day. Of those, 91 percent went to municipal court and just 9 percent went to criminal district court. The average length of stay dropped to eight days in jail.

The total number of “bed days,” a measure sometimes used to better understand the various populations in a jail, for prostitution arrests went from 1,220 down to 270; or an average of 3.3 beds each day, down from 15.

Because of the collaborative efforts between Vera, Women with a Vision, and NOPD, the post-implementation period saw a 95 percent reduction in prostitution cases going to the higher court, and a 62 percent reduction in the average length of jail stay for persons facing prostitution charges.

When the LEAD pilot launches, municipal prostitution will be eligible for diversion to intensive case management earlier in the process, before a person is taken to jail. The promising results of the recent shift from misdemeanor and felony charges to municipal charges gives us hope for continued progress through LEAD. With the support of the Safety and Justice Challenge, Vera will continue to work with local leaders to reduce the harm of arrest and provide an effective, community-based intervention to improve public health, safety, and order in New Orleans.