DC Public Safety (Audio)

Category: Interviews with Policy Makers

A Conservative View of Justice Reform-Pat Nolan

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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 . We also won the award for Best Teamwork for 2015.

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 279.

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

Subscribe to “DC Public Safety” through iTunes.

Current Radio Program:

We discussed the conservative view of change within the criminal justice system with Pat Nolan. Nolan is the Director of the American Conservative Union Foundation’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform. Launched in 2014, The Center will inform and mobilize public support for criminal justice reforms based on conservative principles.

Nolan is a leading voice on criminal justice reform, highlighting the skyrocketing costs of prison, fiscal responsibility in the criminal justice system and reforms for non-violent offenders. He moderated a prominent panel on prison reform, featuring Texas Gov. Rick Perry that received widespread media attention. He is a leader of the Right on Crime project— a national movement of conservative leaders supporting reforms to the criminal justice system.

Pat Nolan served for 15 years in the California State Assembly, four of those as the Assembly Republican Leader. He was a leader on crime issues, particularly on behalf of victims’ rights, was one of the original sponsors of the Victims’ Bill of Rights (Proposition 15), and was awarded the “Victims Advocate Award” by Parents of Murdered Children.

Nolan was prosecuted for a campaign contribution which turned out to be part of an FBI sting. He pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering and served 29 months in federal custody.

Nolan is the author of When Prisoners Return, which describes the important role of the Church in helping prisoners get back on their feet after they are released. He is a frequent expert witness at Congressional hearings on important issues such as prison work programs, juvenile justice, prison safety, offender reintegration and religious freedom. He has lectured at many judicial conferences and legal conventions. He has coauthored articles for the Notre Dame Law School Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy and the Regent Law School Law Review.

The website for the American Conservative Union Foundation’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform is at http://acufoundation.conservative.org/center-for-criminal-justice-reform/.

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.

June 7, 2016
Reforming Federal Corrections-Audio Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 274.

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

Subscribe to “DC Public Safety” through iTunes.

Current Radio Program:

We interviewed Pennslyvania Secretary of Corrections John E. Wetzel, who was a member of The Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections. Created by Congress, this nine-person, bipartisan, blue-ribbon task force was mandated to examine challenges in the federal corrections system and develop practical, data-driven policy responses.

The website for the task force is at http://colsontaskforce.org/.

The final report titled, Transforming Prisons, Restoring Lives is available at .

Information on Secretary Witzel is available at http://www.cor.pa.gov/Pages/Secretary-BIO-page.aspx#.Vw6zeZMrLok.

The website for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is at http://www.cor.pa.gov/.

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.

April 14, 2016
Change and Juvenile Justice

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Subscribe to “DC Public Safety” through iTunes.

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.

February 11, 2016
Predicting Criminal Behavior Through Risk Instruments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 266.

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

Subscribe to “DC Public Safety” through iTunes.

See the transcript at http://media.csosa.gov/podcast/transcripts/2016/03/predicting-criminal-risk-and-behavior/

Current Radio Program:

Predicting risk of criminal offending through risk instruments is integral to our understanding of change in the criminal justice system.

We interviewed Mason Burley, Senior Research Associate for the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP), and Zachary Hamilton, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, and Director of the Washington State Institute for Criminal Justice, Washington State University.

We discussed a new report from WSIPP and the larger policy implications of risk instruments. The title of the report is, “Assessing the Risk of Criminal Offense for Washington’s Involuntary Treatment and Forensic Commitment Populations,” which included an assessment of a risk instrument for mental health and convicted populations.

The report is available at http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/ReportFile/1618/Wsipp_Assessing-the-Risk-of-Criminal-Offense-for-Washingtons-Involuntary-Treatment-and-Forensic-Commitment-Populations_Report.pdf.

The website for the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) is http://www.wsipp.wa.gov.

The website for the Washington State Institute for Criminal Justice Research at WSU is https://wsicj.wsu.edu/.

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.

January 14, 2016
Pretrial in America
Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 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 265.

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

Subscribe to “DC Public Safety” through iTunes.

See transcript at http://media.csosa.gov/podcast/transcripts/2016/03/pretrial-pretrial-services/

Current Radio Program:

We interviewed Clifford T. Keenan, the Director of the Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia. Cliff is a nationally known expert on pretrial operations.

The Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia (PSA) has served the Nation’s Capital for more than 45 years with the same important mission: to promote pretrial justice and enhance community safety while honoring the presumption of innocence and each defendant’s right to pretrial release under the least restrictive conditions.

Washington DC is unique in that it is one of the very few jurisdictions that does not use money as a condition of pretrial release. There is no commercial surety taking place, so there are no bail bondsmen operating in DC. There are no persons being detained at the city’s jail because they do not have the money to post “bail,” unlike most other jurisdictions around the country.

PSA is very proud of what the agency has accomplished in nearly half a century of operation, particularly through the development of innovative programs and technologies that distinguish PSA as a leader in the pretrial field. Some of our innovation highlights include:
- Being among the first criminal justice agencies in the nation to develop an automated criminal history database;
- Being the first pretrial program to introduce on-site drug testing of defendants;
- Introducing a state-of-the art paperless barcoding system for drug testing results, which laid the foundation for a comprehensive electronic system that allows judicial officers to access drug test results and detailed chronological records of defendants’ progress in supervision and treatment;
- Launching the D.C. Superior Court Drug Intervention Program – better known as Drug Court – in partnership with the Court and U.S. Attorney’s Office, to provide intensive treatment and graduated sanctions for all defendants in need of substance use disorder treatment;
- Collaborating with the D.C. Superior Court to establish one of the first mental health community courts in the United States and to be the first jurisdiction to expand its community courts across the entire city.
The website for PSA is http://www.psa.gov.

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.
December 10, 2015