CASE STUDY
Reducing Revocations Challenge
LOCATION
Nationwide
ISSUE
Promoting Opportunity
ACTIVE
2014-present
An ongoing project to help cities around the country measure and understand disparities faced by marginalized groups and communities, through the development of local equity tools.
Challenge:
Growing consensus among practitioners, policymakers, and the public suggests far too many people are under correctional control in the United States. Consider: In 1980, 1.8 million adults were in prison, jail, or under community supervision; by year-end 2022, that number had grown to over 5.4 million. While many large-scale initiatives have targeted the reduction of jail and prison populations, there remains a significant gap in reform related to community supervision. Currently, one in 77 adults is under supervision, representing nearly 1.6 times the size of the jail and prison population combined.
Community supervision was designed as an incarceration alternative, yet revocation rates among people on probation are alarmingly high, with revocations from probation alone driving almost one in four jail and prison admissions. To counter these trends, evidence-based supervision strategies—such as risk- and needs-based supervision and graduated responses—have emerged. Yet, we’ve historically had limited knowledge regarding the significant factors, circumstances, and behaviors that drive revocations to jail or prison. This knowledge is needed to inform strategies to reduce revocations and encourage successful outcomes without over-punishing less harmful behavior.
Approach:
To fill these critical knowledge gaps and support fundamental transformation of the approach to probation, ISLG partnered with Arnold Ventures to launch the Reducing Revocations Challenge. Phase I of the Challenge supported action research in 10 jurisdictions across the country to explore in-depth the drivers of unsuccessful exits from probation and use that information to identify new policy and practice solutions. This innovative research was undertaken by each site’s Action Research Team (ART), composed of a research organization and a local probation agency. Phase II of the Challenge supported planning and implementation of the solutions they had identified in a subset of four sites.
Progress:
Since the start of the RRC, we’ve overseen the ARTs and provided technical assistance and support, as well as facilitating peer learning events including an early 2021 cross-site summit where we shared findings and discussed policy and practice implications, and a community supervision summit looking at what’s been learned across a broader range of projects and jurisdictions. At the end of Phase I, ART released research reports laying out the drivers they have identified and how they might be addressed through targeted solutions:
Cook County, IL: Loyola University and the Cook County Adult Probation Department
Denver, CO: University of Wyoming and Denver Adult Probation
Harris County, TX: Justice System Partners and the Harris County Community Supervision & Corrections Department
Monroe County, IN: Indiana University and the Monroe Circuit Court Probation Department
Niagara County, NY: Niagara University and the Niagara County Probation Department
Pima County, AZ: Urban Institute and the Adult Probation Department of the Superior Court in Pima County
Pulaski County, AR: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Community Corrections
Ramsey County, MN: Robina Institute and Ramsey County Community Corrections
Santa Cruz County, CA: Resource Development Associates and the Santa Cruz County Probation Department
Spokane County, WA: ideas42 and the Spokane Municipal Probation Department
An overview of the findings across the sites is described in the research brief Pathways to Success on Probation: Findings from the First Phase of the Reducing Revocations Challenge.
In fall 2021, four counties—Monroe, Pima, Ramsey, and Santa Cruz—were selected to begin implementing site-specific strategies following the Action Research Teams’ recommendations. All four sites incorporated efforts towards internal culture change and utilized collaborative, multi-stakeholder approaches to both shape and put into place new policies and practices. Moreover, there was considerable overlap in the drivers of revocations targeted, strategy components, and implementation methods among the four sites. The process and progress of probation reform across sites is documented in the 2024 report, From Research to Action to Successful Outcomes, and brief, Action Research as a Model for Change, capturing the innovative researcher-practitioner partnership used in this process.
For more information on the Reducing Revocations Challenge, please contact Victoria Lawson, Research Project Director, at Victoria.Lawson@islg.cuny.edu.
Learn more on the Equity Indicators site, or contact Victoria Lawson, Director of the Equity Indicators, at Victoria.Lawson@islg.cuny.edu for more information.
