This document provides a series of brief descriptions of Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) programs that have the purpose of supporting correctional facilities and programming through funding, training and technical assistance (TTA), and other methods. Each program listed includes a brief scope note and links to relevant websites.
CSG Justice Center staff spoke with four Second Chance Act (SCA) Innovations in Reentry Initiative grantees—New York City’s Harlem Reentry Court; the Executive Office of the Governor of Delaware’s Individual Assessment, Discharge, and Planning Team (I-ADAPT) Program; the Indianapolis, Indiana, Department of Public Safety Second Chance Act Offender Reentry Project; and the Alameda County, California, Transition Day Reporting Center (TDRC) Demonstration—about their experiences fostering effective partnerships between criminal justice practitioners and the researchers evaluating their programs. These programs span the country and the justice system, serving clients within courts, prisons, jails, and in the community.
NSA’s national initiative to help jails replicate a program of the Genesee County (MI) Sheriff’s Office, that offers comprehensive education, job certification, and post-incarceration work opportunities and assistance to incarcerated individuals. The program, started by Sheriff Christopher R. Swanson, is called I.G.N.I.T.E., which is an acronym for Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education.
The programs on this site are varied in the populations they serve and services provided. This database is intended for correctional stakeholders working across front end decision-making, pre-trial release, jail and prison reentry and covers topical areas such as parenting programs and substance abuse and/or behavioral health. We have found this site to be a resource in correctional case planning, management, and supervision and treatment of women in correctional systems but also as a source of information for those interested in developing programs to serve women.
Jail standards ensure that constitutional and statutory provisions are put into operational practice. These standards ensure a greater consistency across the state in jails’ quality of care, use of resources, and operations. They also provide policymakers with a means of assessing and addressing the needs of inmates in a logical, objective way.
Objective jail classification (OJC) is a process of assessing every jail inmate’s custody and program needs and is considered one of the most important management tools available to jail administrators and criminal justice system planners. An effective system of inmate classification will reduce escapes and escape attempts, suicides and suicide attempts, and inmate assaults.
RAND Corporation and the University of Denver (DU) analyzed insights from a working group of experts with practical expertise in and knowledge of mortality trends.
Correctional facilities are responsible for the care, custody, and control of individuals who are detained while awaiting trial or who have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to a term of imprisonment. The true scope of this mission is much broader than simply protecting the public from those accused or convicted of criminal acts by keeping these individuals behind bars. These facilities also have a constitutional obligation to provide for the health and well-being of those under their charge. Administrators are responsible for not only developing and implementing strategies to prevent violence among the inmate population and inmate self-harm, but also for providing general health care through medical and mental health services.
Project SAFE is Safe Alternatives Focused on Engagement. It is aimed at demonstrating how a multi-discipline team (MDT), with various stakeholders, roles and responsibilities can be an active part of the problem solving that contributes towards both jail and community safety.
Research and experience tells us that women behave differently than men in a correctional environment. Most notably, woman inmates tend to be more relational. This curriculum will equip staff with the knowledge base and skill set to address relationships in women’s facilities and the unique challenges they present to facility operations, communication, and institutional culture.