Criminal Justice Improvement and Recidivism Reduction through the State-Level Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI)

The purpose of the FY 2013 Criminal Justice Reform and Recidivism Reduction Competitive Grant Program is to implement a Justice Reinvestment model. "Justice reinvestment" refers to a data-driven model that: (1) analyzes criminal justice trends to understand what factors are driving the growth in jail and prison populations; (2) develops and implements policy options to manage the growth in corrections expenditures, generates savings in public revenues and increases the effectiveness of current spending and investment to increase public safety and improve offender accountability; and (3) measures the impact of the policy changes and reinvestment resources and holds policymakers accountable for projected results.

The Community Resources for Justice, Crime and Justice Institute's (CJI) project strategy will focus on providing resources to states to implement policies and programs designed to help those jurisdictions manage the growth in spending on corrections and increase public safety. This assistance will enable the state to: (A) fund programs that provide training and technical assistance (TTA), develop risk-based programs that focus on persons most likely to reoffend, and improve offender accountability; (B) reinvest saved/averted corrections costs identified by prior data analysis and policy development into high-performing programs that enhance public safety by strengthening the criminal justice system; and (C) provide the capacity to measure performance of policies and programs enacted or established and the reinvestment of cost savings.

CA/NCF