The Tennessee Criminal Justice Policy Advisor (CJPA) and State Administrator (SAA) received information about training and technical assistance (TTA) options available to states to help them prepare for the new FY19 Byrne JAG strategic planning requirements. The CJPA attended the Institute for Criminal Justice and Public Safety Executives, hosted by the NCJA and National Governors Association in December, 2017. Outreach was made to the SAA during an interview with staff about the state's Byrne JAG expenditures that was part of the NCJA's biennial study of Byrne JAG spending.
Jennifer Brinkman, the director of tthe Tennessee Office of Criminal Justice Programs (TN OCJP) submitted an online request for TTA on April 12, 2018. Brinkman cited sought assistance to address several issues: limited staff to retrieve statewide data and analyze the overall patterns and match will feasible EBPs; developing a stakeholder survey to determine priority JAG areas; wanting to continue focus on domestic violence; to develop an all-inclusive strategic plan since the TN OCJP administers numerous grants; to moderate their annual stakeholder meeting; and to address changing administrations.
Outreach was made from the SAA on June 11, 2018 regarding strategic planning budgeting and estimate for TTA support for related projects outside the JAG funding opportunity.
Between April and May, 2018, the NCJA worked with the TN OCJP staff to develop a 23-question on online stakeholder survey. As part of this engagement strategy, the OCJP sought input from traditional and non-traditional partners across the state on: 1) identifying the most challenging issues within the eight JAG Federal Purpose Areas; 2) prioritizing JAG funding by Federal Purpose Area; 3) identifying technology and information sharing needs; and 4) awareness of JAG solicitations and status of previous applications, if any.
The survey went live on June 11, 2018 and initially closed on July 2, 2018 with 477 responses. The NCJA then analyzed the data and drafted a summary report for the TN SAA. The SAA requested to re-open the survey in the hopes of receiving more responses from lesser represented stakeholder groups. An additional 13 responses were received before the survey was again closed on Jun 27, 2018.
The NCJA team summarized survey findings in a report. Analysis focused on finding consensus around the federal Byrne JAG purpose areas in greatest need of limited funds, determining which initiatives in each purpose area were viewed as most critical to Tennessee’s state and local criminal justice systems, and prioritizing initiatives within these priority areas. The survey was designed so that data could be analyzed by respondent role, type of agency, and areas served by respondent agency. Findings were presented in a report to the TN SAA in preparation for the OCJP's roundtable meeting, held September 14, 2018 in Franklin, TN and attended by the NCJA Program Manager and Program Assistant.
State administrator, Jennifer Brinkman, joined the Leadership Academy as part of the Class of 2019 cohort. In addition, an MOU was developed for the JAG PMT data utilization pilot project on May 28, 2019. This MOU was circulated among partners for a team discussion of data collection needs for the JAG PMT data project. Each partner will provide a data set for analysis. An executed copy of the MOU was provided to the team on June 3, 2019. The JAG PMT project was aborted due to an inability of project partners to complete assigned tasks.
Jennifer Brinkman continues to participate in Leadership Academy Sessions.
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