Archives for February 2016

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DC Public Safety Radio won the 2015 awards for best podcast and best audio from the National Association of Government Communicators.

DC Public Safety Radio and Television won the Government Customer Service Community of Practice (Cgov) 2014 Overall Excellence and Best Use of technology Awards. See conta.cc/1qiBV74  .

DC Public Safety Television won two top awards for public affairs television in 2015 from DCTV and three additional first-place awards in 2014

Welcome to “DC Public Safety” – Radio and television shows, blog and transcripts on crime, criminal offenders, and the criminal justice system.

For FY 2013 through FY 2015, we recorded 218,700 unique visitors, 633,000 visits and 1,924,300 page views (excluding robot searches).

This is radio show 267.

The portal site for “DC Public Safety” is http://media.csosa.gov

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See the transcript at http://media.csosa.gov/podcast/transcripts/2016/03/juvenile-justice-crime/

Current Radio Program:

There has been significant change in juvenile justice policies and trends throughout the last decade. To summarize and explain this transition, we interviewed Jake Horowitz,  the policy director for the Public Safety Performance Project at The Pew Charitable Trusts. Jake oversees Pew’s work to advance data-driven, fiscally sound policies and practices in the criminal and juvenile sentencing and corrections systems that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable, and control costs.

A growing body of research demonstrates that for many juvenile offenders, lengthy out-of-home placements in secure corrections or other residential facilities fail to produce better outcomes than alternative sanctions. In certain instances, they can be counterproductive. Seeking to reduce recidivism and achieve better returns on their juvenile justice spending, several states have recently enacted laws that limit which youth can be committed to these facilities and moderates the length of time they can spend there. These changes prioritize the use of costly facilities and intensive programming for serious offenders who present a higher risk of reoffending, while supporting effective community-based programs for others.

Before joining Pew, Jake worked at the National Institute of Justice (U.S. Department of Justice), in the U.S. House of Representatives, and at Eckerd Youth Alternatives. Jake graduated from Reed College and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government

Some of the data and policy options (see underlined links) discussed includes:

The big picture trends in juvenile crime and commitment rates;

What does the research say about the impact of juvenile commitment on recidivism?

States taking action (Georgia, Kentucky, Hawaii);

The promising models (aligning fiscal incentives,);

Key stakeholders on these policies including judges and prosecuting attorneys;

What does the public want when it comes to juvenile justice reform?

See Pew’s website at http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/collections/2014/11/juvenile-justice-research

Special Announcements:

A top priority for the Department of Justice is to invest in scientific research to ensure that the Department is both tough and smart on crime. The Office of Justice Programs’ CrimeSolutions.gov website shapes rigorous research into a central, reliable, and credible resource to inform practitioners and policy makers about what works in criminal justice.

A new website lists and evaluates prisoner re-entry programs nationwide. Launched by the Urban Institute, the Council of State Governments, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Prisoner Reentry Institute, the “What Works Clearinghouse” can be seen at http://nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/what_works.

The National Reentry Resource Center is a project of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice. Please see the Center’s website at http://www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/. Please see “Federal Interagency Reentry Council Launches Website, Releases Myth-Buster Series” on the front page of the site (see announcements). CSOSA is a member of the Council. Several requesters have asked for national research on reentry.

The Office of Justice Program’s National Institute of Justice reentry research portfolio supports the evaluation of innovative reentry programs. To access these studies and NIJ’s entire reentry research portfolio visit www.nij.gov/nij/topics/corrections/reentry/welcome.htm .

The Office of Violence Against Women offers stalking response tips for corrections, prosecutors, judges, law enforcement, victims and victim advocates. They are posted on OVW’s website at www.ovw.usdoj.gov .

The National Institute of Corrections Information Center is one of the largest repositories for corrections research and information in the country. See  www.nicic.gov/Library.

Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency:

We welcome your comments or suggestions at leonard.sipes@csosa.gov.

The website for the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency is http://www.csosa.gov/.

The program is hosted by Leonard Sipes. The producer is Timothy Barns.

Comments offered on “DC Public Safety” television and radio programs are the opinions of participants and do not necessarily represent the policies of CSOSA or other government agencies.