CSG Justice Center Provides Michigan Policymakers with Options to Reduce Corrections Spending and Reinvest in Reducing Crime

FEATURES

CSG Justice Center Provides Michigan Policymakers with Options to Reduce Corrections Spending and Reinvest in Reducing Crime

Lansing--The Council of State Governments Justice Center joined Michigan’s leaders to release the results of an unprecedented review of crime and corrections data to determine how the state might reduce corrections spending while reinvesting in measures that will make communities safer and stronger. This work was supported by the Public Safety Performance Project of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Center on the States; the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice; and the state.

Read the press release

Read the report

HILL UPDATE

Congress is continuing to work on an omnibus spending bill for Fiscal Year 2009 and has started working on the spending bills for Fiscal Year 2010. The Second Chance Act is expected to receive funding in both bills, but the level of funding has not been determined. The Department of Justice is scheduled to release the solicitation for the Second Chance Act grants to state and local government (sec.101) on March 23, 2009, with applications due by May 21, 2009. The solicitation for grants to nonprofit organizations (sec. 211) is expected to be released later this spring as well. To help potential applicants prepare for the release of the solicitations, the Justice Center has prepared fact sheets on the state and local grant program and the nonprofit program based on the requirements contained in the Second Chance Act statute. To learn more about the grants to state and local government, click here. To learn more about the grants to nonprofit organizations for mentoring and other transitional programs, click here. For more information about the Second Chance Act, click here.

CSG Justice Center Releases Preview of Employment Blueprint

The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, with support from the Department of Labor, recently released A Sneak Peek: Advice for State Policymakers on Designing Strategies That Improve Employment Outcomes and Increase Public Safety. This concise bulletin provides a preview of an upcoming blueprint, which will be made available with additional support from the Joyce Foundation, on how to promote employment opportunities for people returning from prison or jail and others in neighborhoods that struggle with high crime, poverty, and substance abuse. To view the Sneak Peek bulletin, click here.

PEW Center on the States, Public Safety Performance Project, releases Policy Framework to Strengthen Community Corrections

During 2008, the Public Safety Performance Project of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Center on the States brought together leading policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to discuss community corrections. From these conversations emerged a package of policy-level actions for state legislators and executives. The measures included in this report are part of the initial framework; others may be added as state and local leaders continue to innovate. To view the report, click here.

The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes Treating Drug Abuse and Addiction in the Criminal Justice System

In this report, researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse report that emerging neuroscience has the potential to transform traditional sanction-oriented public safety approaches by providing new therapeutic strategies against addiction that could be used in the criminal justice system. To find out more about this report, click here.

Reentry Policy Council