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Institute Intelligence
Insights, case studies, news, and updates from ISLG’s good governance research and action.
Institute Intelligence, Spring 2024: College in prison, reflecting on reform, and more
We’ve put together a snapshot of the work we’ve done and are doing toward our goals of advancing justice, promoting opportunity, and optimizing state and local governments across the country.
WATCH: Criminal Legal Reform in New York, Five Years In
The talk series brought together researchers and on-the-ground stakeholders from across the criminal legal field—including advocates, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and service providers—to reflect on New York’s sweeping changes to its criminal legal system, five years after the legislation has passed.
How Long People Stay is the Problem
Over the past two decades, the average length of stay in New York City jails has increased 136%, from a low of 44 days among those discharged in FY 2001 to 104 days in FY 2023. While much of the blame for this increase has been placed on the COVID pandemic — and certainly the pandemic exacerbated issues, as it did around the country — that is far from the whole story here.
What Jail Population Projections Tell You About a Government’s Aspirations
Put another way, if policymakers smartly address the underlying forces that shape admissions and length of stay, they can not only predict future jail populations, but help control them.
Redefining Community Safety in Three Local Counties
Allowing communities to define what safety means to them enables them to tailor this definition to their needs and values. It allows them to identify their own priorities for action, helping to advance the goal of safety for all.
Backed by Data and Community Input, Counties Work Toward Increasing Successful Exits from Probation
The RRC is a national initiative that aims to increase success on probation through the identification, piloting, and testing of promising strategies grounded in a robust analysis and understanding of why revocations occur.
To Make Pretrial Reforms Work, Listen to Workers in the Justice System
Though policymakers are responsible for establishing the policy frameworks, local agencies and practitioners — court officials, law enforcement, prosecutors, service providers and defense attorneys — are ultimately the ones who carry them out. Their buy-in during the legislative process can ensure policies in theory reach their intended goals in practice.
Institute Intelligence, Fall 2023: Bail reform, supporting Manhattan’s youth, and more
We’ve put together a snapshot of the work we’ve done and are doing toward our goals of advancing justice, promoting opportunity, and optimizing state and local governments across the country
How We Conducted On-the-Ground Research During a Global Pandemic
New York’s sweeping criminal legal reforms went into effect just three months before the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought about its own unique set of challenges. As part of a qualitative process evaluation of how changes were implemented on the ground, we had to quickly adapt our methods to safely and meaningfully interview practitioners as well as interpret data that was now more nuanced.
New Landmark Report by CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance Details Firsthand Experience of Agencies Tasked with Implementing the New York State 2019 Criminal Justice Reform Act
The study includes feedback on how provisions have shaped policies and practices, along with learned lessons to inform comprehensive legislative reform development.
Supporting Staff and Participants Amid Influx: Lessons from New York’s Reforms to Pretrial Services
Changes to New York’s criminal legal system in 2019 involved multiple provisions that touched many facets of the system, but its expansion of pretrial services as an alternative to pretrial detention precipitated significant policy and operational changes. Pulling from a process evaluation of its implementation, here are some recommendations for pretrial service providers to manage the shift.
Discovering how to Deal with Discovery: Lessons from New York’s Reforms to Evidence-Sharing Practices
As part of the overarching goal of creating a fairer and more equitable criminal legal system, the 2019 New York Criminal Justice Reform Act made sweeping changes to how evidence was shared between prosecutors and defenders. Pulling from a process evaluation of its implementation, here are some recommendations for prosecutors to manage the shift.