CJI will assist DOC implement the pretrial reforms included in SB91. Alaska hasn't had a pretrial division before, so implementation will include the creation of a division and hiring of staff.
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In November, CJI staff continued to support Alaska as it begins to plan for the implementation of pretrial policies put in place by SB91. This included working with the state to obtain necessary data to develop a pretrial risk assessment tool, participating in a pretrial stakeholders meeting via telephone, and helping to answer questions that emerged following that meeting. CJI received data in November and has begun the process of cleaning that data and preparing for an in-state file review to capture additional necessary data on Failures to Appear. CJI also helped to answer questions expressed by judges and the Courts about the new pretrial system, and created a memo summarizing implementation outcomes from other states that had implemented similar reforms. (See deliverable attached.)
In December, CJI worked to assemble data sets that were shared by ADOC and the Alaska Court Systems for use in developing a pretrial risk assessment tool and sent follow-up data requests to each agency. CJI also attended (by telephone) a pretrial stakeholders meeting run by ADOC and answered numerous questions about the tool development that arose from that meeting.
This spring, CJI continued to clean and analyze data sets that were shared by ADOC and the Alaska Court Systems for use in developing a pretrial risk assessment tool. CJI also participated in several conversations with in-state stakeholders to sort through issues in obtaining and interpreting key data elements.
By April, CJI had received all the necessary data from the various Alaska agencies and is now working on cleaning and coding the data. CJI has also participated in several calls with the vendor who will be designing Alaska’s pretrial database and case management system to explain the tool development process and talk through the IT infrastructure needed to support the work.
In May, CJI staff continued cleaning and analyzing data related to the development of the state’s pretrial risk assessment instrument. At this point, all data that is needed and available has been provided to CJI, and the tool draft is scheduled to be delivered to Alaska in mid-June.
In June, site lead Melissa Threadgill and members of CJI’s pretrial team traveled to Alaska to deliver a presentation on the risk assessment tool CJI created for Alaska’s pretrial population to two groups of stakeholders. CJI has been working to develop this risk assessment tool for many months, which will be used by Alaska’s pretrial department when the pretrial reforms kick off in January 2018.
After presenting a pretrial risk assessment tool and receiving feedback from Alaska pretrial stakeholders, in July CJI worked to prepare various training and educational documents regarding the use of the tool, such as a training for staff and a scoring guide.
Following the development of a two-scale risk assessment tool, Alaska stakeholders needed to decide the best way to align the tool with the statutory framework that originally envisioned a one-scale tool with only 3 levels. CJI staff worked with Alaska Criminal Justice Commission staff to develop a plan for addressing this issue, and provided ideas for potential approaches, guidance from research where available, and feedback on various approaches they are considering.
On a site visit to Alaska in January 2017, site lead Melissa Threadgill attended a Pretrial Stakeholders meeting, hosted by the Department of Corrections, which is focused on communicating coming changes to pretrial and involving stakeholders as DOC develops a Pretrial Services Division, including the pretrial risk assessment tool CJI is helping Alaska develop. Threadgill also met separately with Pretrial Services Director Geri Fox to discuss planning and implementation efforts.
After the Stakeholders meeting, Threadgill and attended a meeting between Director Fox and Brendan Babb, the Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Alaska and head of the Anchorage Code for America brigade. (Code for America is a non-profit, volunteer driven group that partners with government agencies to develop user-friendly technological solutions.) The purpose of the meeting was to discuss possible technological collaborations, including a court hearing text message reminder system and a case management application.
CJI researched and provided AK DOC with examples of relevant pretrial agency policies (e.g. supervision policies, assessment policies) from other jurisdictions.
In preparation for fall judicial and prosecutorial conferences, CJI connected AK stakeholders with representatives from the Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI). PJI is helping Alaska identify appropriate speakers (e.g. a judge from a jurisdiction that has implemented pretrial reforms) who could attend AK’s fall conferences in advance of the pretrial reforms rolling out in January 2018.
After creation of the Alaska pretrial risk assessment tool - the AK-2S - CJI began to train key pretrial stakeholders on the use of the tool.
In August, CJI prepared and presented a webinar for judges to train members of the judiciary on the use of the tool. (A recording of the webinar can be viewed at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/1467307448127263490).
In August, CJI staff also traveled to Alaska to deliver a Pretrial Training for new pretrial officers. As the pretrial department has just recently been formed as a result of SB 91, many of the staff were very new to pretrial and needed training on pretrial best practices. During this two-day training, CJI also presented the new pretrial risk assessment tool, and trained staff on using the scoring guide. CJI will return to Alaska again later in the fall to deliver this training as a Train the Trainer to ensure sustainability of this information. (The curriculum is attached as a deliverable.)
In September, CJI continued to help Alaska prepare for the implementation of the new pretrial system, which become effective under SB 91 in January. Over the past year, CJI staff have created a pretrial risk assessment tool initially validated on Alaska’s pretrial population, and has begun to train judges and pretrial officers on the new tool. This month, CJI began preparing materials for a Train the Trainer event, in which the pretrial officers trained on the tool in August will be trained as trainers on the material. The Train the Trainer will take place in October, and will help ensure sustainability of the pretrial training. CJI also prepared an update AK-2S Scoring Guide for an Alaska, including more details based on questions that arose at the initial training. (The Scoring Guide is attached as a deliverable.)
In November, CJI provided ongoing support as the state begins piloting its risk assessment tool, including fielding tricky questions about scoring and updating the state’s Scoring Guide when appropriate. CJI is also preparing to conduct an inter-rater reliability (IRR) process for Pretrial Officers trained on the tool, to ensure staff are scoring the tool correctly. This month, CJI prepared materials for the IRR process, which will be conducted over the next few months
In November, the Pretrial Enforcement Division piloted the risk assessment tool. In December, CJI updated the risk assessment Scoring Guide to address questions or concerns expressed by the Officers during pilot testing of the tool in November. This addition – called the Scoring Guide 2.0 – is expected to be released in January as the pretrial reforms take effect.
In December, CJI also prepared and distributed materials for a pretrial risk tool IRR process, to ensure Officers are scoring the new tool consistently and correctly. Officers will have until early January to complete the assessment, at which time CJI will analyze the results and give feedback to the Pretrial Enforcement Division.
As the pretrial reforms of SB 91 took effect on January 1st, much of CJI’s TA work in January focused on helping the state officially roll out full implementation of the reforms. Past months have been spent preparing for this effective date, including creating a validated pretrial risk tool, training Pretrial Officers in the use of the tool, and training judges on the changes coming to the pretrial system.
CJI provided support to DOC in its efforts to educate members of the legislature on the purpose and implementation of the pretrial changes. In preparation for a presentation Pretrial Enforcement Division Director Fox will give to the legislature in February, CJI prepared a PowerPoint outlining the purpose of the legislation, the steps the Pretrial Enforcement Division has taken so far, and the impact other states passing similar reforms have seen.
To support DOC in its continuing efforts to educate stakeholders and the general public on the new pretrial system, CJI prepared a one pager on pretrial changes, and another on why out-of-state criminal history isn’t included on the current tool.
To accompany efforts to educate judges and legislators, CJI created a document summarizing recent and historical lawsuits against jurisdictions that were deemed to have a pretrial system that violated defendants’ rights. DOC requested this document in anticipation of pushback they may receive from judges or the legislature this year; they hope to use the information to put the recent wave of pretrial reforms around the country in context, and help AK stakeholders understand the potential repercussions were AK to reverse course.
In March, CJI continued to provide support to PED Director Geri Fox as she works to educate stakeholders and the general public about PED’s work and Alaska’s pretrial risk assessment. The support included talking through media requests for information, developing various sets of FAQ documents and talking points, and creating graphics to explain early performance data.
In April, CJI continued to provide support to PED Director Geri Fox as she works to educate other criminal justice stakeholders and the general public about PED’s work and Alaska’s pretrial risk assessment. For example, CJI developed an FAQ document about the use of risk assessments, to help Director Fox provide answers to general questions about how risk assessment tools are developed and why they are used. The legislature is currently discussing changes to the use of AK-2S, so Director Fox has been called upon often to discuss the tool and the PED in general.
In May 2018, CJI worked with stakeholders to discuss potential strategies for increasing communication to judges and prosecutors, including working with Director Fox on a road show to answer questions, dispel myths, and collect feedback.
There have been some barriers to this type of outreach to the judiciary previously, as historically all communication with the judiciary has gone through the Administration of Courts, and PED would like to set up more open lines of communication with judges. CJI is working with stakeholders who have influence with AOC staff, in hopes they can persuade AOC of the importance of having more open communication between judges and the PED, especially given the recent changes in legislation.
CJI also helped support the pretrial roll out by working with the Pretrial Enforcement Division to prepare to collect and analyze performance measures. This will be an ongoing effort, as performance measures will be vital to ensure the pretrial reforms are having the intended effect.
CJI assisted the Pretrial Enforcement Division with a six month report that included preliminary data from the pretrial risk assessment (January 2018 - June 2018). The report was sent to DOC leadership in November 2018.
This month, CJI worked with PED Director Geri Fox to consider methods of evaluating the effectiveness of the work of the PED. Both CJI and Director Fox consider ongoing quality assurance of these reforms to be highly important. One method of QA CJI will help Director Fox implement is a survey given to pretrial defendants to ensure Pretrial Officers are interacting with defendants in a professional and helpful way (see the survey attached). Director Fox is committed to ensure the various pretrial offices collect surveys from defendants in a secure and anonymous way.
In the past few months, CJI prepared and distributed materials for a pretrial risk tool interrater reliability (IRR) process, to ensure Pretrial Officers are scoring the new tool consistently and correctly. Officers had until mid-January to complete the assessment. In February, CJI began analyzing the results of the IRR process, and presented the results to the PED. CJI prepared two reports presenting the results of the IRR: one scoring memo outlining the percent of respondents that scored the assessment correctly, along with the reasoning for each correct answer, and another with more detail on individual officer responses for PED leadership.
In May, CJI distributed IRR materials to staff and worked to ensure as many staff as possible completed the assessment. At the end of the month, CJI pulled these responses and began initial analysis of the results. CJI is working on planning a booster training webinar on use of the AK-2S, likely in July. CJI is working with Director Fox to set dates and work out logistics.
On November 1, 2018, CJI hosted a training webinar for all pretrial staff that reviewed scoring of the pretrial risk assessment and included several practice activities. The webinar explained the more complicated aspects of the tool and provided an opportunity for staff to ask questions about how to use the tool.
A third inter-rater reliability exercise followed the webinar and was completed at the end of November 2018. CJI analyzed the responses to the activity and will be providing a scoring memo that compares results from all three activities up to this point. The memo will show the progress of staff in scoring the pretrial risk assessment tool accurately and show areas for continued training and improvement.
CJI completed the pretrial risk assessment coaching memo in February 2019 and shared it with Jennifer Winkelman and Delila Schmidt, acting Deputy Director in charge of pretrial supervision. Director Winkelman indicated that DOC Commissioner Nancy Dahlstrom directed her to wait until after legislative session to discuss possible next steps for CJI support of the pretrial risk assessment.
As a part of Alaska Department of Corrections’ change in leadership after the gubernatorial election, pretrial supervision was moved under the Division of Probation and Parole (DPP). CJI spoke with Jennifer Winkelman, Director of the DPP, regarding ways in which we may be able to continue to support pretrial and the implementation of the pretrial risk assessment. Director Winkelman indicated that the new Commissioner of Corrections, Nancy Dahlstrom, has directed her to wait until after legislative session to discuss possible next steps for CJI support of pretrial.
After the 2019 legislative session, CJI discontinued technical assistance in the state.
DOC hired a Pretrial Diversion Coordinator who will be working over the next six months to develop a plan for a pretrial diversion program(s). She will be developing relationships with local stakeholders across the state and investigating promising national models that can be launched in Alaska as well as effective local models that can be taken statewide. CJI is working with the new Coordinator to help get her up to speed on everything that has been happening with pretrial implementation thus far. (Funding for this position is covered by Alaska’s seed funding grant from BJA).
CJI worked with PED to obtain an initial set of “live” assessment data, and used that data to conduct an analysis to to compare the live risk assessment data to the data used to develop the Alaska 2-Scale Pretrial Risk Assessment (AK-2S) to examine:
• Any demographic differences between the two populations;
• Any differences in the risk assessment scoring between the two populations;
• Possible explanations to the differences; and
• What needs to be studied more extensively in the future when more data are available
CJI ran the analysis and developed a 2-month data report for PED leadership.
CJI assisted PED create a 6 month report with risk assessment data from the first 6 months of implementation. CJI sent the report to PED and DOC leadership in November 2018 prior to the administration change in December 2018.
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