Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/JenniferCastro

The Judicial Oversight Demonstration (JOD) was designed to test the feasibility and impact of a coordinated community response to intimate partner violence (IPV) that placed the courts and justice agencies in a central role. The Urban Institute conducted a detailed process and impact evaluation in three sites. The demonstration received mostly positive responses from justice system agencies, service providers, offenders, and victims. However, reductions in repeat violence did not occur in all sites. The mixed results indicate that the most effective justice system responses to IPV must include a focus on protecting victims, close monitoring of offenders, and rapid responses with penalties when violation of court-ordered conditions are detected.

The SafeFutures Program to Reduce Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Violence was a five-year six-site demonstration supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), U.S. Department of Justice. SafeFutures sought to prevent and control juvenile crime and victimization through a continuum of prevention, intervention, and treatment services to meet the needs of at-risk and delinquent youth. The At-Risk and Delinquent Girls component was intended to provide services to meet the unique emotional and developmental needs of young women. This report examines the programs targeted to at-risk girls in each site. The report also includes a brief overview of some promising national programs. The report then focuses on the efforts of the six SafeFutures sites in developing and maintaining programs targeted to at-risk and delinquent girls.

The Judicial Oversight Demonstration (JOD) in Milwaukee featured domestic violence courts, probation review hearings, expanded victim services, additional batterer intervention services, and enhanced probation supervision. This process evaluation documents and assesses program implementation for program planners and policy makers. The impact evaluation compares offender supervision, probationer compliance, and rearrest for domestic violence among samples of domestic violence offenders sentenced to probation before and during JOD. JOD was found to increase offender accountability at the cost of higher rates of probation revocation and subsequent incarceration.

An ever-increasing number of prisoners need substance abuse treatment, yet state and federal governments continue to cut funding for prison programs. This increased need coupled with reduced service availability leads to the crucial question: Are limited drug treatment resources being targeted to those with the greatest needs? Through an analysis of pre- and post-release data collected from 251 prisoners in Illinois, this research brief examines the degree to which prisoners with self-reported drug problems receive in-prison substance abuse treatment services, and then receive post-release treatment as well. We find minimal evidence of treatment matching and/or continuity of treatment from pre- to post-release. Yet, we also note that the timing of our data collection precedes Illinois's establishment of the Sheridan National Model Drug Prison and Reentry Program in January 2004, which has since become the largest fully dedicated drug treatment prison in the nation. We offer a number of policy and practice suggestions for improving correctional service delivery of substance abuse treatment.

This research brief presents findings from the Returning Home study in Chicago, Illinois. The first phase of the Urban Institute's Illinois study analyzed where former Illinois prisoners settle after release and found that many returned to a handful of hard-pressed Chicago neighborhoods. The second phase focused on prisoners' expectations for life after prison and found that most were confident they would succeed. The third phase--"Chicago Prisoners' Experiences Returning Home"--followed 205 men who returned to Chicago, examining factors that may help or hinder successful reintegration, including employment, substance use, attitudes and beliefs, health status, criminal histories, and family and community contexts. [View the corresponding press release]

In 2001, researchers at the Urban Institute launched a pilot study in the state of Maryland for a four-state, longitudinal research project examining prisoner reentry. The first stage of the pilot involved self-administered surveys with 324 prisoners in the 30 to 90 days prior to their expected release. This paper describes the research procedures that were employed to obtain this baseline data and presents some preliminary findings from the survey of soon-to-be-released prisoners. The results presented include descriptive information on prisoner demographics, criminal histories, substance use, and family relationships, as well as correlation analyses of prisoner attitudes and expectations for life after release.

In 2001, researchers at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., launched a pilot study in the state of Maryland for a four-state, longitudinal research project examining prisoner reentry. The first stage of the pilot involved self-administered surveys with 324 prisoners in the 30 to 90 days prior to their expected release. These surveys presented many research challenges, including designing a self-administered instrument that would be accessible to the prison population, developing appropriate sampling and recruiting methods, and conducting research in a prison setting. This paper describes the research procedures that were employed to obtain this baseline data and presents some preliminary findings from our survey of soon-to-be-released prisoners. The results presented include descriptive information on prisoner demographics, criminal histories, substance use, and family relationships, as well as correlation analyses of prisoner attitudes and expectations for life after release.

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