Cohort 2022
Gemeinschaft Home
Using Data and Technology to Promote Innovative Jail Diversion and Early Intervention Programming
Rockingham County, VA
Day reporting centers (DRCs), or nonresidential multiservice centers, can be effective in criminal legal reform because they can reduce jail overcrowding and improve cost-efficiency of local and state governments. Research has shown they also improve recidivism outcomes for people placed in the community as an alternative to incarceration. But findings on DRC programs’ impacts are often misunderstood locally, and outcomes associated with people’s self-sufficiency and well-being, particularly among people of color, are often overlooked. People of color are often designated as being at higher risk of recidivating, are given stricter community-supervision requirements, and may therefore be more likely to recidivate, and DRCs are sometimes associated with those negative outcomes.
With Catalyst Grant funding, Gemeinschaft Home will develop a customized data management software for its DRC. The software will serve Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, Virginia (which together make up the fastest-growing and most diverse region in rural western Virginia), and will offer better mechanisms for storing sensitive data and a more sustainable approach for reporting data to government and community partners. The reporting data will be used to help the community inform local DRC policies and procedures and improve outcomes for people of color who are enrolled in DRC services.