20210127-43619-62

Priority Area 1: Establish a Quality Improvement Unit within the Wyoming Department of Corrections.
Background: Wyoming’s Justice Reinvestment legislation, HEA 0062, requires a QI Unit to be created within the Department of Corrections to monitor the administration and use of substance use disorder assessments. This legislation supports hiring and training staff for the QI Unit, the development of policies and procedures specifically related to the assessment process, and training for personnel in both the WDOC and WDH who will be working within the newly developed QI policies.

Update: In December, CSG Justice Center staff continued their work with WDOC and WDH working groups to establish the policy and procedures that will lay the groundwork for the QI Unit established under HEA 0062. This included CSG Justice Center staff working with Alliance for Community and Justice Innovation (ACJI) to define the desired functions of the QI Unit and the preferred competencies of the person that will be hired for the QI Unit. Additionally, a hiring committee composed of WDOC and WDH staff interviewed and offered the position to a highly qualified candidate. The state is working to complete the employment contract as of the date of the submission of this report.
Priority Area 2: Develop standardized, evidence-based treatment guidelines and practices for substance use treatment and programming for people in the criminal justice system.
Background: During the earlier part of Phase II, CSG Justice Center staff completed an assessment of community providers’ treatment practices throughout the state. The assessment found that there were inconsistent practices statewide that could contribute to varying outcomes and costs for clients. To improve consistency, HEA 0062 requires a set of standards to be developed for programs delivering substance use disorder and behavioral health services.

Update: The biweekly meetings with the WDOC, WDH, Wyoming Association of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers (WAMHSAC), and CSG Justice Center staff continue. Throughout December, CSG Justice Center staff worked with ACJI to develop a structured decision-making framework (SDMF) for contracted behavioral health providers to use to monitor treatment matching using assessment results from the DSM-V for substance use disorder severity, the ASAM dimensions, the ASI-MV scales, and a risk/needs assessment. This will enable providers across the state to use a standardized treatment decision-making tool.

Priority Area 3: Expand the sharing and acceptance of substance use disorder, mental health, and co-occurring assessment results between providers and WDOC.
Background: The assessment process completed by CSG Justice Center staff in the initial part of Phase II found that there was a hesitancy, or outright refusal, among some community providers to accept substance use assessments completed by other entities. The new behavioral health legislation, HEA 0062, addresses this with the requirement to improve the portability and acceptance of assessments across the state.

Update: The working group of WDOC, WDH, and providers that have been focusing on release of information has created a new policy guiding the practice of communication between institutional and community providers as well as an MOU that will allow information sharing between providers within the corrections facilities, community providers, and WDOC. Additionally, the state is working with Hazelden to make technical modifications to the ASI-MV program to increase the portability between behavioral health programs.

Priority Area 4: Create a separate contract or separate provisions in the existing contract between WDH and the regional behavioral health providers to ensure consistency and improve outcomes for people in the criminal justice system.
Background: Current contract standards with community providers are compliance based. With the requirements of HEA 0062, there will need to be adjustments to the contracting procedure to allow for greater monitoring and oversight by the QI Unit and to ensure consistency among practices within community providers.

Update: Wyoming remains in a holding pattern while the legislature considers the third round of budget reductions in the state. While contracts cannot currently be renegotiated with WDOC or WDH, discussions have begun about how contracts with behavioral health providers can be revised to include participant outcomes and use of evidence-based standards.

Priority Area 5: Develop data tracking measures.
Background: As part of Justice Reinvestment implementation, states are required to identify and submit regular data tracking metrics to the CSG Justice Center to capture the progress of both the original 4 pieces of legislation, HEA 53, SEA 19, SEA 20, and HB 45, as well as the newest piece of legislation, HEA 0062.

Update: CSG Justice Center staff continue to receive monthly data submissions from WDOC. With a new data share agreement in place, the state has continued to share data for monitoring.

Priority Area 6: Continue to assist the state with monitoring progress, collecting data, tracking outcomes, and addressing challenges with implementation of the priorities associated with HEA 53, SEA 19, SEA 20, and HEA 45.
Background: From March 2019 to March 2020, CSG Justice Center staff completed several implementation projects associated with Wyoming’s first four Justice Reinvestment bills (enacted in February 2019). These included the implementation of the PRISM incentives and sanction system, the use of 90-day sanctions, the use of substance use treatment and cognitive behavioral programming in jails and prisons, the use of early discharge from supervision and capping the length of supervision, and the impact of the expansion of victim compensation periods. Active technical assistance on these projects has wound down, but CSG Justice Center staff continue to monitor their progress and outcomes.

Update: CSG Justice Center staff continue to monitor monthly data submissions to track the progress being made under the initial Justice Reinvestment legislation. Key metrics are reported to the CSG Justice Center with a significant lag time (approximately five months). The metrics that are available to CSG Justice Center do show that there has been an increase in the use of incentives among community supervision officers and a reduction in the use of sanctions. Supervision officers nearly doubled their use of incentives between January 2020 and May 2020 to 2.5 incentives for every 1 sanction as compared to the same time frame in 2019.

Priority Area 7: Engage and educate Wyoming stakeholders on Justice Reinvestment legislation to promote oversight and sustainability.
Background: The Joint Judiciary Committee approved legislation to monitor the implementation of Justice Reinvestment legislation for the first part of Phase II (HEA 53, SEA 19, SEA 20, and HB 45). Additionally, the Joint Labor, Health, and Social Services Committee will receive annual updates on the newly passed behavioral health legislation through 2023.

Update: In December, the governor’s office submitted the last round of budget reductions for the legislature to consider. The state remains in a holding pattern as it develops responses to these reductions.

Other Updates:
Wyoming was awarded a subaward for $73,670.00 in January of 2020. In November 2020, $19,380 was spent on Parole Board computer purchases consisting of 14 laptops each with software, mice, and keyboards. Wyoming is on track to spend the remaining funds on time.