Analysis Area 1: Examine state and county criminal justice investments over time to assess how the state’s spending aligns with public safety priorities.
Update: In September, CSG Justice Center staff collected and reviewed statutes, case law, appropriations, and published reports to better understand the state’s criminal justice investments and priorities. CSG Justice Center staff learned that Minnesota has adopted a complex structure—one of the most complex in the country—to fund its probation system, which involves seven different funding streams made up of both subsidies and grants. Because there have been so many complaints about the funding structure, statutes related to it are regularly tweaked and examined but never meaningfully, fundamentally changed. The state has put a lot of time, energy, and resources into improving and streamlining its funding approaches with little progress.
Analysis Area 2: (A) Assess the availability of treatment, programming, and other community resources to improve supervision outcomes throughout Minnesota. (B) Assess the types of programming and treatment available to people in the criminal justice system through prisons and other correctional facilities.
Update: In September, CSG Justice Center staff assessed the mental health and substance use treatment services available in multiple counties in the CCA system—DFO, ARC, Morrison, Hennepin, and Sherburn. Staff observed a range of differing services available in each county. CSG Justice Center staff also met with representatives from the Minnesota Association of County Social Service Administrators (MACSSA) to better understand the degree to which Minnesota’s behavioral health and criminal justice systems collaborate at the local level.
Analysis Area 3: Assess the fidelity of supervision practices (e.g., supervision levels by assessed risk; conditions of supervision most likely to increase successful outcomes and reduce recidivism, revocation, rearrest, or reincarceration).
Update: In September, CSG Justice Center staff assessed five agencies in the CCA system—DFO, ARC, Morrison, Hennepin, and Sherburn. The assessment included meetings with directors and managers in each county to discuss each agency’s philosophies and policies, quality assurance practices, and the training available to staff. Meetings with supervision officers and clients were conducted to identify how risk and needs are assessed in each county, contact standards, implementation practices for evidence-based supervision, client satisfaction, and the outcomes of supervision.
Other Updates:
The DOC finalized the membership of the Delivery System Working Group and that group met on September 28, 2021. At the Delivery System Standards and Funding Policy Working Group meeting, CSG Justice Center staff provided an overview of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative in Minnesota, presented key challenges, and discussed next steps.
The MN Governor’s Office continued to vet members for the Governor’s Council on Justice Reinvestment. The executive order to establish the council is in draft and should be released soon. CSG Justice Center staff continued to draft the project overview report, which identifies the scope of work for the project. CSG Justice Center staff also prepared for the next meeting of the Delivery System Standards and Funding Policy Working Group on October 21, 2021.
Research Monthly Status:
Analyzed felony sentences from 2009 to 2019. Analyzed prison admissions, releases, and standing populations from CY2016 through CY2020, including risk assessment and substance use assessment information.
Research Monthly Log:
• 9/1: Emailed with the Minnesota DOC research director to clarify the values of variables in the probation data set.
• 9/7: Analyzed prison data, examining risk assessment and substance use assessments for prison admissions and releases as well as the standing population. Explored the proportion of admissions to prison for probation violations or supervised release returns.
• 9/10: Analyzed sentencing data, exploring trends among felony sentences including prior criminal history, changes in offense severity and history over time, and probation sentence length.
• 9/13: Began to clean probation data, creating supervision windows based on probation start date and end date.
• 9/17: Provided internal CSG Justice Center team members with charts and graphs for the data analyses.
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