Delaware is making significant improvements to how its criminal justice system operates after the state Legislature approved major changes called “Justice Reinvestment,” a research organization reports.
The improvements employ data-driven approaches to criminal justice policy designed to cut corrections spending and reinvest savings into policies that show an increase in public safety, and hold offenders accountable.
Gov. Jack Markell established the Delaware Justice Reinvestment Task Force in the summer of 2011 to conduct a comprehensive examination of the factors contributing to the size of the corrections population, both pretrial and sentenced individuals.
The task force found that the majority of the prison population was made up of individuals waiting in county jails.
A policy-outline was developed to address the factors increasing the in prison population.
The factors pointed to a large number of “probationers” spending time in prison, and “Delaware prisoners served long sentences with limited opportunity to earn reductions in their sentences,” even when they had made significant steps toward rehabilitation.
In analyzing the data, Vera Institute of Justice looked at “who was coming to prison, why were they committed, how much time (did) they receive, and what sort of participation they were involved with” www.vera.org/pubs/justice-reinvestment-delaware-model.
VIJ aided the task force by carrying out wide-range examinations and a thorough review of the procedures and practices at state criminal justice agencies.
The task force learned that three of the main factors were “a large pretrial population, violations of probation, and, long lengths of stay for the incarcerated population.”
Because the (Delaware) DOC has custody of both pretrial and sentenced populations, the VIJ study, after examining core elements of pretrial risk assessments, determined that 14 percent of 2010 detainees could be candidates for release rather than imprisonment while waiting for trial.
“This lower-risk group excludes those who might pose a risk of flight or re-arrest,” VIJ study revealed.
“It demonstrated that there was a clear opportunity in the pretrial arena to reduce the prison population by releasing more people on recognizance or with supervision without jeopardizing public safety.”
The task force made recommendations to reach subsequent goals: “Concentrate detention resources on high-risk defendants, focus supervision and prison resources on high-risk people, hold offenders accountable, reduce barriers to reentry, and protect and support victims of crime.”
They also ensured that limited justice resources were utilized to decrease recidivism and improve public safety.
Based on these findings, VIJ helped the task force develop a policy outline to address “drivers of the corrections population” and ensure that limited justice resources are used to decrease recidivism and improve public safety.
The policy recommendations evolved into Senate bill 226.
The bill served to “make available objective risk and need assessment for judges’ use in sentencing, support improved community supervision practices, and create incentives for those who are incarcerated and under supervision to complete evidence-based programs designed to reduce recidivism,” according to the report. The legislative changes were also designed help judges make informed decisions about pretrial releases.
The legislative changes had strong bipartisan support and led to a near-unanimous passage. It was signed into law, August 2012 by Gov Markell.
The new legislation is expected to reduce the number of people jailed before trial, provide better rehabilitation programs in prisons and improve the monitoring of former prisoners.
The changes are having positive impacts; however, much more remains to be done, according to VIJ’s study. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance sponsored the project.
Delaware’s justice system is a cohesive one, the report states. It is one of a few judicial systems where the state’s prison system has custody of both pretrial and sentenced populations.
The state’s effort is germane not only to other states, but also to local jurisdictions, which are normally responsible for jail populations.
Delaware’s arrest rate for violent crime was 1 in 322, compared with 1 in 529 for the U.S. as a whole.
“The state was ranked fourth in America for its violent crime rate,” stated the VIJ. “This would be cause for alarm even if Delaware’s prisons were not overcrowded.”
While other jurisdictions mull over how best to spend slim public safety dollars, Delaware’s understanding offers a supportive example of what can be achieved through close consideration of information and social science, according to VIJ. All four of Delaware’s prisons are over design capacity even through the prison’s intake has been relatively stable.
However, the state’s department of corrections reversed its five-year trend in 2008 of increasing expenditures and began trimming operating costs.
The study showed that “this had a limited impact on overall correctional spending, without reductions in its prison population; Delaware could not spend less on corrections and still protect public safety.”
Prior to getting VIJ involved, Delaware’s policy makers did not have access to opportune, reliable data regarding its criminal justice system. The state had not measured recidivism—the rates at which those exiting prison commit new crimes.
Without knowing how much crime was committed by repeat offenders, it was not possible to know how much of an effect recidivism was having on high rates of violent crime, and how much to target that population.
The new legislation covers evidence-based practices and targets what actually works by identifying data investigation results such as; implementing pretrial risk assessment; responding to violations of supervision appropriately, and addressing needs of the correctional population to reduce recidivism.
VIJ is assisting the Department of Correction, Justice of the Peace Courts, Statistical Analysis Center, Criminal Justice Council, and Administrative Office of the Courts in effectively implementing the new legislation.
VIJ explains, “There are challenges ahead, but Delaware’s experience… can serve as an example of how to invest resources wisely for better public safety outcomes for both states and counties.”
This cost-saving legislation can result in smaller jail populations, reduce rates of recidivism, and it aims to reduce victimization, increase safety, reduce the long-term prison population.
