Topic: Community Engagement

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The Sandy Krasnoff Criminal Justice Council, the Jail Population Management Subcommittee and the City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee have been actively leading initiatives that have manifested system change in New Orleans to date. Stakeholder buy-in has been instrumental in successful implementation of many of the Safety and Justice Challenge reforms.

New Orleans’ Average Daily Population in the jail has been further impacted by initiatives to reduce the average length of stay for low-risk felony defendants, increase the use of Release on Recognizance (RORs), facilitate risk-based decision making, invest in first appearance advocacy, and conduct bond reviews. This strategy led to a 40% increase in RORs for lower-risk defendants at first appearance, and a 47% increase in the proportion of lower-risk defendants released within three days.

Remaining Challenges

New Orleans is focused on addressing its remaining challenges in its local justice system.

In New Orleans, COVID-19 brought many challenges, while also illuminating and creating an environment that encouraged further and more inventive and adaptive system reform. During the pandemic, the New Orleans jail population dropped to historic lows, which demonstrated that incarceration could be successfully minimized, and without sacrificing public safety.

The strategies have shifted as the pandemic has progressed. The pretrial services program enrolled more individuals, most individuals successfully completed the prosecutorial diversion program, and the 2021 Diversion Program expanded eligibility criteria to divert more people. The public defenders and criminal court judges continue to work to ensure that more individuals are released on no- or low-bond amounts, and stakeholders have regularly met on a monthly basis to continue to respond to new challenges, such as court case backlogs due to COVID-19 prohibiting jury trials.

The city’s challenge now is to sustain positive measures beyond the immediate crisis.

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Due to improvements made to pretrial services, the county experienced a massive 593% growth in the number of individuals placed on pretrial supervision. Before having access to supervision and the appropriate interventions, nearly 70 percent of offenders placed in detention and charged with a low-level, nonviolent felony reoffended and cycled back through jail.

This drop in recidivism was due to the risk assessment tool successfully implemented by the Harris County Courts, as well as the new Responsive Interventions for Change (RIC) docket. Since October 2016, over 21,000 cases have been filed in the docket. Specifically, between October 2016 and early 2021, the county diverted 6,125 (85%) people to supervision and treatment, with only 15% of cases ending in conviction and incarceration. The RIC Docket completely reversed sentencing disposition from four years earlier when 79% of defendants charged with a state jail felony chose incarceration over diversion to supervision and treatment.

Finally, Harris County has taken multiple steps in working toward racial equity in its justice system. In addition to re-instituting the Racial and Ethnic Equity Standing Committee and establishing a micro-grant program to support community-based organizations, a new Racial Equity Index was built, which, upon completion, will be a dashboard open to the community and the public.

Remaining Challenges

Harris County is focused on addressing its remaining challenges in its local justice system.

The county has faced several crises over the past few years with major impacts on the criminal justice system. Its biggest challenge remains trying to sustain a jail population reduction while dealing with the criminal case backlog created when courthouses were closed during Hurricane Harvey, followed by the limited capacity for dockets due to Covid-19. The courts are working to address the backlog, with three emergency response dockets for pre-trial hearings, three emergency response dockets for jury trials that focus on the oldest and most serious cases, and continue to operate jury assembly operations and voir dire at NRG Arena that follow CDC and public health guidelines. Justice Administration Department and the Office of Management and Budget Department are working with stakeholders to identify additional strategies and resources needed to address the backlog.

People of color also continue to be over-represented in the justice system. To expand on the work underway, the county is in the process of searching for new community engagement opportunities and will be moving forward with a comprehensive study of racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system.

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Lake County achieved a modest reduction in their average daily jail population as they began implementing their SJC strategies. The initial planning and implementation work paved the way for a quick system response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020 and sustained efforts into 2021. Since the pandemic began, Lake County has maintained an average monthly ADP around 18% below their baseline.

In order to look outside the system to the community impacts, Lake County partnered with community researchers to conduct preliminary outreach and learn about the issues most important to the community. This initial effort prompted the Lake County Equity Team to look deeper at data to identify potential intervention points in the pretrial phase. The Team decided to explore existing data around failures to appear for court hearings and has partnered with researchers to learn more about the reasons why people don’t appear, in order to identify potential policy and practices changes that best support hearing attendance.

Participation in the Safety and Justice Challenge also increased collaboration and connection between criminal justice system actors and the community in Lake County’s efforts to rethink its justice system.

Lake County recognized it was critical to meet people’s behavioral health needs to help them avoid more system involvement or keep them out of the system entirely. To that end, Lake County worked tirelessly to launch the Living Room Wellness Center and expand the COAST program.

The Wellness Center will be open 24/7 with clinical staff available, many of whom have lived experience with the justice system, and will serve as both a walk-in facility and police-drop off for crisis intervention services. It is an exciting program that centers the justice-involved person and seeks to provide a holistic approach. The COAST program is also expanding to include a peer support specialist who works with the social worker and sheriff’s deputy to provide follow up support after a person has an opioid overdose or is in a mental health crisis and has a law enforcement encounter.

A critical component to the future success of the Wellness Center was crisis intervention team (CIT) training for Sheriff’s deputies. Between 2018 and 2021, 99% of deputies were trained in CIT to best position officers to effectively communicate and de-escalate situations with individuals in crisis.

Remaining Challenges

There are always challenges when implementing system reform efforts and Lake County is focused on meeting the challenges head on. Criminal justice system partners will continue to address concerns about how best to keep the community safe, while valuing every person’s rights and human dignity.

Additionally, while the jail population declined under COVID-19, the pandemic continues to have a significant impact on every aspect of the county’s local justice system and uniquely affects incarcerated people. Through their SJC work, Lake has laid a foundation of collaborative, data-driven strategies, including the necessary internal infrastructure and local stakeholders supportive of the work, and positioned the county to respond to the pandemic swiftly and effectively.

Moving forward, Lake County will continue to emphasize the importance of improving data capacity and transparency to inform future system improvements and implement best practices that reduce the jail population while working towards eliminating systematic racial and ethnic disparities.

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Key to the success of the county’s Safety and Justice Challenge work to date has been the creation of the Community Engagement Workgroup (CEW). Community interest in advancing change in the justice system has been high and progress has been made to increase public involvement in this work. The county has increased the representation of community members across workgroups and on councils, intentionally engaging people impacted by the justice system. As of May 2021, the CEW had hosted nine engagement events reaching over 500 participants. As a result of community engagement efforts, the information from these conversations was shared with other workgroups in the justice system and informed the inclusion of the county’s community safety and violence prevention strategy.

To better embed racial equity in efforts to transform the justice system, the Racial Equity Workgroup (REW) has held over 15 educational and training opportunities, both internally and with broader justice system stakeholders and partners. The REW has analyzed disparities across justice system decision points, developed strategies to incorporate a focus on equity, and laid the foundation for the County’s proclamation of Racism as a Public Safety Emergency. The REW developed a Racial Equity Tool to identify policies and practices contributing to inequities, and is designing a local equity curriculum for justice system partners.

Collaboration between the county’s behavioral health and criminal justice partners has focused on screening people in jail for diversion to treatment and supporting planning for re-entry into the community. More specifically, the county was able to enhance its Familiar Faces program for individuals with complex needs to reduce arrests and increase collaboration across service providers. Between January 2020 and January 2021, the Familiar Faces program coordinated care of 15 individuals and clients saw a 45% reduction in arrests and reported increased collaboration across service providers. From July 2020 to March 2021, more than 100 clients were released from jail to treatment through the diversion program for substance use.

With the addition of a re-entry case manager in October 2020, 28 individuals were able to receive additional case management support upon release. Of these clients, 86% engaged in more community-based mental health treatment; 75% were able to establish and maintain stable housing; 75% reported abstinence from and/or a decrease in substance use; and 93% did not experience rearrest within the reporting period.

Finally, thanks to the support of the Safety and Justice Challenge network, strong collaboration in the criminal justice system to-date, and community partners working toward the goal of safely reducing the jail population, the county was able to respond quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic and simultaneously protect public health and public safety.

Remaining Challenges

Buncombe County is focused on addressing its remaining challenges in its local justice system.

While the county has seen progress with safely decreasing its jail population, the proportion of Black people in jail reached its highest levels in July 2020, which was also the point where the jail population was at its lowest level. Moving forward, the county is focusing on root causes of inequities, including investing in and growing the new community safety and violence prevention initiative.

In addition, the limitations of the state-based court reminder system have been a consistent challenge as the county has worked to improve access to reliable court reminders and reduce failures to appear in court. There has also been confusion around who is expected to appear in court during the pandemic. To address this, the county is working to try to coordinate messaging across court partners to communicate with the public about expectations related to appearing in court during the pandemic.

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Between 2018 and June 2021, the Pre-Trial Diversion and Recovery Program has conducted 211 assessments, admitted 153 total participants. Of the total participants, 48 have graduated, and only 14.5% have been rearrested. Additionally, the Pre-Trial team has been able to open new modes of communication, establishing a consistent point of contact for resource connection to the District Attorney’s and Public Defender’s Offices, which wasn’t available before the program began.

As a result of the Expedited Arraignment program, the time it takes the District Attorney to bill a case has been reduced from approximately 8 weeks to 10 days, as of January 2020, which has had a direct effect on lowering the average daily population and the average length of stay at the Parish Prison. There has also been a significant decline in Failure to Appear rates since Expedited Arraignment began.

As a result of the new Rapid Case Assessment Team initiative, individuals had a far better chance at resolving the case early or getting a reduced bond at Call Out. In fact, between the launch of the Rapid Case Assessment team (RCAT) in July through December 2020, defendants at Call Out in Baton Rouge City Court had an 83% case resolution rate. In comparison, the case resolution rate of defendants prior to the implementation of RCAT at Call Out was nearly zero.

The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) formed as a nonprofit organization in January 2019. Since then, the CJCC has selected a board of directors which include the heads of all the major justice agencies in EBR, the Mayor-President’s Office, and community organizations. The results of which have led to increased cross-agency communication and collaboration, unified effort towards reforming justice policies and programs, and enhanced conversations regarding disparities within the local justice system.

Remaining Challenges

East Baton Rouge Parish is focused on addressing its remaining challenges in its local justice system.

While East Baton Rouge has seen a significant decrease (47% on average) in the jail population since joining the Safety and Justice Challenge, it has proven more difficult to realize similar success in reducing racial and ethnic disparities. Looking ahead, East Baton Rouge will be focusing more directly on reducing racial and ethnic disparities at critical points in the criminal justice process, using a lens of equity and inclusion.

East Baton Rouge plans to focus on the data from current initiatives to find and correct disparities, while also working in partnership with people who have lived experience in the criminal justice system.

Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on every aspect of the parish’s local justice system and continues to uniquely affect those incarcerated in local jails. The foundation of collaborative, data-driven strategies, including the necessary structures and collaboration from local stakeholders that are in place to support these strategies, has set the parish up well to respond to the pandemic swiftly and effectively.