Institute Intelligence, Spring 2024: College in prison, reflecting on reform, and more
By Carla Sinclair, Senior Communications Associate
Springtime is emerging, but CUNY ISLG did not hibernate this winter. In the past few months, we've been working across the country on a range of projects, from working with the City of Tampa on its budget structure to keeping the conversation going on making New York's criminal legal system more equitable.
While these issues are often complicated, our data-driven approach to making governments and public institutions work better (for all) continues to distill the facts and keep the needle moving forward. Check out our updates below, and stay in touch on LinkedIn and X (and sign up for our newsletter) for upcoming announcements and research on restorative justice, crime trends, and more.
Promoting Opportunity
Creating a Blueprint for Meaningful College in Prison - Starting in New York
Last summer, reinstatement of federal and state funding for incarcerated students ushered in a new era for college-in-prison programs. But many policymakers, educators, and corrections stakeholders face an uphill battle with the challenges of creating and implementing programs.
A partnership between CUNY ISLG, the Manhattan DA's Office, NYS Governor's Office, and more, the College-in-Prison Reentry Initiative (CIP) infused $7.3M into creating college-in-prison programming across New York from 2017-2022.
Across 17 prisons, CIP served 931 students, 84% of who had never been enrolled in college courses before. In our report, we dig into how corrections staff, education providers, and other stakeholders implemented the program, as well as highlight how future programs can plan to provide high-quality postsecondary education to students while incarcerated.
On Our Blog: CUNY ISLG researchers Pavithra Nagarajan, Neal Palmer, and Kristen Parsons wrote a suite of blogs on what we learned, including recommendations for stakeholders, the importance of in-person instruction, and how to ensure students were prepared for reentry.
Supporting and Learning from Community-Based Organizations
The Criminal Justice Investment Initiative - our $250M investment partnership with the Manhattan DA's Office - continues to fund community-based programs supporting folks across Manhattan, and we continue to distill the lessons learned from these wide-ranging and meaningful programs.
On our blog, we've written about the New York City Health Justice Network, which connected people returning home from incarceration with peer-led connections to medical supports; how a learning community in East Harlem is spreading knowledge of trauma-informed practices; and how one organization is filling the much-needed gap for reentry programsthat address the unique needs of women.
On Our Blog: See more about CJII-funded work and evaluations here.
Advancing Justice
How Reforms to Discovery & Appearance Tickets Impacted New York’s Criminal Legal System
In April 2019, New York legislators passed sweeping reforms to its criminal legal system, significantly changing the process around bail, discovery, and appearance ticket reforms. Five years later, what have they achieved, what obstacles emerged, and what should State and local leaders do next?
Building off our 2023 report that dug into the on-the-ground experiences of bail reform, we partnered with the Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College to put together a two-part series to explore the legislation’s impact, five years after its passage in 2020. The first event featured researchers and practitioners discussing the implementation of reforms to bail reform and pretrial services, its impact on crime and recidivism, and next steps for a fairer and more equitable system of pretrial justice in New York.
The second panel focused on how the legislation overhauled evidence-sharing between prosecutors and defenders—known as discovery—and standardized when and how police should issue “desk appearance tickets,” which allow people to return to court on their own in lieu of pre-arraignment detention.
On Our Blog: Watch recordings of both panels here.
Reflecting on Almost 10 Years of Developing New Ways to Collect, Manage & Harness Local Data
Since 2015, the Safety + Justice Challenge has worked in dozens of cities, counties & states to safely reduce the size of local jail populations and to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in local legal system contact. CUNY ISLG plays a key role in the infrastructure of the SJC, serving as its national intermediary & primary data and analytic partner.
This multi-year, system-wide, case-level data collection effort laid the foundation for crafting locally tailored strategies, monitoring progress, and identifying and disseminating lessons learned for the broader criminal legal field.
In our latest SJC report, we provide an overview of how we did it, including what kinds of data were captured, how data were mobilized for change, and lessons learned when using administrative data for policy design and evaluation.
New to the CUNY ISLG Website: As part of role as the primary data and analytic partner of the SJC, we manage the SJC Research Consortium, a group of pre-qualified researchers that carry out SJC research projects. Learn more about it here.
Keeping the Conversation Going on Closing Rikers
In the News: Our Executive Director, Michael Jacobson, and Research Project Director, Victoria Lawson, wrote two pieces for Vital City's special issue on Rikers Island on the dramatic increases in the average amount of time people are kept in NYC jails - up to a whopping 104 days - and why it matters, and the importance of good jail projections in driving and monitoring reform efforts.
For the same issue, our friend Michael Rempel at the Data Collaborative for Justice wrote an overview of "dozens of strategies capable of safely and significantly shrinking the city’s use of jail."
See the whole issue here.
Optimizing Government & Institutions
Working Up & Down the East Coast to Create Efficient, Effective Budgets
Our Operations team continues to partner with local governments and higher education institutions to address budget priorities and create long-term financial stability. In addition to working on the CUNY Strategic Plan, this includes:
Partnering with The New School to analyze New York State expenses and revenues from New York City residents and workers, to determine how much NYC contributes to the State budget
Working with Buffalo to assist in analyzing their budget, providing comparisons with other communities, and developing policy options to maintain necessary City services and strong financial management.
Working with Baltimore on a range of issues, including the financing and implementation of its plan to address the city’s numerous vacant properties;
Assisting Tampa in developing a broad analysis of their budget structure based on comparisons with other cities in Florida as it manages its rapid growth.ifference.
Celebrating the Fourth Cohort of Kriegel Fellows
Congrats to the 2024 Kriegel Fellows! Learn more about their cohort and how they got to flex their policy, leadership, and networking skills.
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