In August, CSG Justice Center staff continued to socialize the guidelines and engage key partners in the field, conduct calls for technical assistance (TA) requests, provide TA to select states, conduct a presentation at the American Correctional Association (ACA) conference in Nashville, TN, assist internal colleagues with a virtual site visit presentation centered around the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model, develop presentations and coordinate logistics for upcoming conference sessions, and further identify project next steps.
The project team attended a virtual call with members of the Community Supervision Resource Center (CSRC) to walk through the final draft of the upcoming webinar presentation set for September 26. The project team will await confirmation from CSRC in September if the presentation was approved by BJA or feedback and attend one final walkthrough prior to the webinar.
CSG Justice Center staff held virtual follow-up calls with members of the Arizona Supreme Court and Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RI DOC) to discuss their self-assessment results and begin mapping out their technical assistance needs. An additional follow-up call will be scheduled in September to solidify a technical assistance strategy for both requesting sites.
CSG Justice Center staff held a call with the senior policy advisor at BJA to discuss an update about TA for the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJ DOC) and the statewide hiring freeze. CSG Justice Center staff provided email updates on TA for other states, along with past and upcoming calls for new requests for TA, the status of scheduled conference and webinar presentations, and the upcoming and current items under BJA review.
Technical Assistance (TA) States:
Massachusetts Probation Service (MPS)
Due to scheduling difficulties, the project team continues to work with MPS to schedule outstanding focus group meetings with 3 jurisdictions, which will include line-level probation officers and discussion centered on the strengths and limitations of the Ohio Risk Assessment System (ORAS) instrument, along with the challenges associated with administering the assessment and implementing the results through case planning. The new expectation is to schedule these meetings next month to occur in late September or in-person in October. Additionally, the next working group meeting will be scheduled for late September or in-person in October.
Minnesota Department of Corrections (MN DOC), Minnesota Association of Community Corrections Act Counties (MACCAC), and Minnesota Association of County Probation Officers (MACPO)
CSG Justice Center staff participated in Minnesota's Community Supervision Advisory Committee (CSAC) virtual meeting alongside representatives from the MN Department of Corrections (DOC), MACCAC, and MACPO. During the meeting, each working group provided updates on their projects and outlined next steps. The CSAC also discussed and approved recommendations for governance of the committee, and the Domestic Violence Steering Committee presented reunification principles. At the next meeting, subcommittees will provide updates on their progress, attendees will review and approve both the CSAC charter and operating procedures and the draft request for proposal for the workload study, and CSG Justice Center staff will continue work to finalize recommendations due to CSAC on October 29 around the use and validation of risk and needs assessment instruments.
MN DOC reported they plan to award a contract to the Nebraska Center for Justice Research (NCJR), led by the University of Nebraska at Omaha in response to the request for proposals to conduct the validation of the LS/CMI instrument. The validation is critical for ensuring the instrument's effectiveness in assessing risk and needs in Minnesota, aligning with national standards. CSG Justice Center staff is working with the MN Phase II working group to apply for this funding through the JRI Phase II subaward process.
Due to scheduling conflicts, the risk and needs assessment working group's virtual meeting was rescheduled from August 21 to September 5.
New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJ DOC)
In August, CSG Justice Center staff decided to recommend all TA initiatives be paused indefinitely with NJ DOC, due to their statewide hiring freeze and TA progress becoming stagnant. CSG Justice Center staff will redirect resources to other states requesting TA. An official formal request will be sent to BJA in September to approve pausing TA until the statewide hiring freeze is lifted and NJ DOC is able to restart its work. The NJ DOC team will then be notified.
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