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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 won awards for best podcast and audio from the National Association of Government Communicators in 2014, see . We are finalists for two new awards for 2015 for best podcast and audio.

DC Public Safety Television won three awards for public affairs television in 2014 from CTV and DCTV.

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

We received 230,000 visits in 2014.

Page views range from 653,000 to 1.4 million a year.

This is radio show 246.

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

Subscribe to “DC Public Safety” through iTunes.

Current Radio Program:

“Fostering Innovation in Community and Institutional Corrections,” is a new document from the RAND Corporation and the focus of this discussion.

Corrections agencies face major challenges from declining budgets, increasing populations under supervision, problems of equity and fairness in administrating justice, and other concerns. To better achieve its objectives and play its role within the criminal justice enterprise, the sector needs innovation in corrections technology, policy, and practice.

It identifies and prioritizes potential improvements in technology, policy, and practice in both community and institutional corrections. Some of the top-tier needs identified by the panel and researchers include adapting transcription and translation tools for the corrections environment, developing training for officers on best practices for managing offenders with mental health needs, and changing visitation policies (for example, using video visitation) to reduce opportunities for visitors to bring contraband into jails and prisons. Such high-priority needs provide a menu of innovation options for addressing key problems or capitalizing on emerging opportunities in the corrections sector. This report is part of a larger effort to assess and prioritize technology and related needs across the criminal justice community for the National Institute of Justice’s National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center System.

Those interviewed include Joe Russo, a researcher at the University of Denver focusing on technology issues in the corrections sector, and Brian Jackson, Director of Safety and Justice Program and Senior Physical Scientist at the RAND Corporation.

The document is available at http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR820.html.

The website for the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center is http://www.justnet.org.

The website for the RAND Corporation is http://www.rand.org.

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.