Cohort 2024
Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia and the CSRA
Assessing the Impact of a Diversion Program with Improved Data
Richmond County, GA
Within the Augusta Judicial Circuit, which serves over 225,000 residents in Georgia’s Richmond and Burke Counties, Black people are disproportionately prosecuted. These disparities are in line with nationwide trends showing that Black communities are subject to overpolicing (PDF) of lower-level crimes. Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia and the CSRA is partnering with the Office of the District Attorney for the Augusta Judicial Circuit and data scientists at Vanderbilt Law School to launch Checks Over Stripes, a diversion program that offers adult education, workforce development, and counseling services to people charged with low-level crimes as an alternative to probation and prosecution.
With Catalyst Grant funding, Goodwill Industries will work with these partners to create a data-collection system that will coincide with the launch of Checks Over Stripes in 2025. This data infrastructure will be used to measure the impact of Checks Over Stipes and identify racial disparities in program acceptances, participation, and outcomes. By improving data-collection capacity, this project will provide a solid foundation for detailed analysis and program improvement to reduce racial disparities in the Georgia criminal legal system.
