In This Issue:

• Center Highlight:
  Updates from JPC’s Human Trafficking Portfolio
  
• Recent Events:
  Justice Reinvestment at the Local Level Initiative: Pilot Jurisdictions Cross-Site Meeting
  
  Offender Employment Retention Forum
  
• JPC on the Hill:
  Director Nancy La Vigne Testifies on the Role of Halfway Houses in Prisoner Reentry
  
• In The News:
  John Roman in The Economist on California's Prison Proposal
  
  Nancy La Vigne quoted in MSNBC.com article on recidivism
  

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In recent years, the Justice Policy Center has vigorously expanded its portfolio of human trafficking research. Currently, JPC Senior Research Associate Bill Adams and Research Associate Colleen Owens, in collaboration with Northeastern University, are working on the design and implementation of a national Human Trafficking Reporting System under a Bureau of Justice Statistics grant. Owens and Adams are also partnering with Northeastern University and Abt Associates on a systematic review entitled Measuring Human Trafficking Victimization, with the aim of improving estimates of the prevalence of human trafficking.

A newer addition to JPC’s human trafficking portfolio is the Identifying Challenges to Improve the Investigation and Prosecution of State and Local Human Trafficking Cases project, also led by Adams and Owens in partnership with Northeastern University. This project is utilizing a multi-method approach to understand the challenges local, county and state officials face investigating and prosecuting human trafficking cases. While the primary focus of the study is in counties where law enforcement has investigated cases of human trafficking, researchers are also examining the experiences in comparison counties where law enforcement has not investigated cases of human trafficking. This approach will enhance understanding of the challenges agencies face in identifying human trafficking cases – a critical first step to investigation and prosecution.

JPC has recently taken its human trafficking research to the international arena. Adams, Owens, and JPC Research Associate Meredith Dank are working in Cambodia, Sierra Leone, and the Philippines in conjunction with a State Department funded project designed to conduct evaluability assessments of international anti-trafficking programs.

JPC researchers working on the Justice Reinvestment at the Local Level Initiative convened the project’s three pilot jurisdictions, Travis County, TX, Alachua County, FL, and Allegheny County, PA, for a cross-site meeting at the Urban Institute from February 22-23, 2010. The meeting, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, enabled sites to share their progress to date, the challenges they have faced, and their strategies moving forward in employing justice reinvestment strategies. A number of renowned criminal justice researchers and practitioners were in attendance, including James Austin of the JFA Institute, Gary Christensen of Corrections Partners, Inc., Kevin Warwick of Alternative Solutions Associates, Inc., John Clark of the Pretrial Justice Institute, Frank Straub, Director of Public Safety for the City of Indianapolis, Mindy Tarlow of the Center for Employment Opportunities and Amy Solomon, Senior Research Associate in JPC. These experts facilitated sessions on tracking local population indicators, engaging stakeholders, managing local corrections populations, developing pretrial release mechanisms, interacting with law enforcement, assessing criminal justice costs and savings, and planning for jail reentry. The Urban Institute’s Justice Reinvestment staff include Nancy La Vigne (principal investigator), Rebecca Neusteter (project manager), and researchers Allison Dwyer, Pamela Lachman, and Carey Nadeau.

JPC was contracted by the National Institute of Corrections to host a forum on Offender Employment Retention from February 3-4, 2010 at the Urban Institute. Over 45 national experts on offender workforce development, including community-based service providers, representatives from state Departments of Correction, and staff from both the Veterans Administration and the Department of Labor attended. The forum, led by JPC Senior Fellow Shelli Rossman, provided experts with an opportunity to provide input on current best practices and discuss the steps necessary to design a curriculum for retention specialists.

JPC Director Nancy La Vigne testified before Congress on February 3, 2010 at a hearing entitled “Half Way Home to the District: The Role of Halfway Houses in Reducing Crime and Recidivism in the Nation’s Capital.” She summarized research on the utility of halfway houses in facilitating the successful reentry of former prisoners, emphasizing that not all halfway houses are effective in preventing recidivism. Halfway houses that work have qualified staff who use such evidence-based practices as needs assessments and tailored, wraparound services. Halfway houses are most effective for medium- and high-risk prisoners. They can actually be detrimental to low-risk prisoners, who would fare better by simply returning directly to their families and communities. This research suggests that the District of Columbia’s halfway houses should be reserved for higher-risk returning prisoners. Read a transcript of her testimony here.

JPC Senior Research Associate John Roman was recently cited in an article in The Economist discussing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to build new privately-run prisons to house state prisoners in Mexico. Roman emphasized that prison privatization is not a long-term solution for overcrowding, and to truly reduce costs, a state would have to cut services to detainees. Unfortunately, these cuts would likely leave detainees less prepared for reentry into the community and more likely to recidivate upon release.

JPC Director Nancy La Vigne was also recently cited in an MSNBC news piece titled “Unable to get jobs, freed inmates return to jail”. The article discussed the potential rise in recidivism among former prisoners who struggle to get jobs in the current economic climate. La Vigne stated that released prisoners need to land jobs early after reentering the community and earn more than minimum wage in order to avoid a return to prison within their first year of release.