Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2017, $749,885)
The Second Chance Act, signed into law on April 9, 2008, provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of people who are released from prison and jail and returning to communities, including resources to address the myriad needs of these offenders to achieve a successful return to their communities. As a complement to the Second Chance Act programs, the fiscal year (FY) 2017 Smart Supervision Program (SSP) seeks to improve probation and parole success rates and reduce the number of crimes committed by those under probation and parole supervision, which would in turn reduce admissions to prisons and jails and save taxpayer dollars. Funds can be used either to implement evidence-based supervision strategies or to innovate new strategies to improve outcomes for supervisees.
BJAs Smart Suite of programs invest in the development of practitioner-researcher partnerships that use data, evidence, and innovation to create strategies and interventions that are effective and economical. This data-driven approach enables jurisdictions to understand the full nature and extent of the crime challenges they are facing and to target resources to the highest priorities. The Smart Suite of programs, which includes the Smart Supervision Program, represents a strategic approach that brings more science into criminal justice operations by leveraging innovative applications of analysis, technology, and evidence-based practices with the goal of improving performance and effectiveness while containing costs.
The goals of this program are to develop and test innovative strategies to implement evidence-based probation and parole approaches that improve supervision success rates, thereby increasing community safety, and reduce violent and other crime by effectively addressing individuals risk and needs and reducing recidivism.
The Judiciary Courts of the State of Arizona will use grant funds towards the Expansion of the Implementation, Improvement and Impact Study of EPICS-II Program in the Arizona Adult Probation System. The goals of this program are to provide further training and comprehensive evaluations to probation staff in order for all 15 counties to build capacities in EPICS-II, ensure understanding of basic evidence-based principles, development of quality assurance to ensure fidelity of EPICS-II, as well as to determine the impact that probation officers fully trained in EPICS-II have had on probationer outcomes in Arizona.
CA/NCF