During the first decade of the justice reinvestment initiative (JRI), state criminal justice systems saw improvement on certain metrics

The U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance has awarded a $7,500,000 Cooperative Agreement to the Community Resources For Justice, Inc. (CRJ) under the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (CFDA 16.827) to provide technical assistance to two states for developing data-driven criminal justice policies and programs.

The grant aims to support the Justice Reinvestment Initiative's goals of improving public safety, making smarter use of resources, and investing in strategies to decrease crime and strengthen communities. CRJ, a non-profit organization specializing in criminal justice and rehabilitation services, will co-operate the JRI Assessment Center to make technical assistance more accessible to states, address targeted criminal justice system issues, and prepare states for full JRI engagements. The funding will span from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2028.

Prison populations declined. Alternatives to incarceration expanded in the form of problem-solving courts, behavioral health diversion programs, and law enforcement-provider collaborative interventions. And crime continued to decline. However, the onset of the covid-19 pandemic forced major changes to the programs and policies that contributed to the positive trends. Further, surges in certain types of crime, the medias focus on high profile crimes, and inaccurate descriptions of criminal justice policies strained the publics confidence in governments ability to keep them safe. Despite these challenges, JRI continues to be a vital mechanism for state policymakers to improve their systems. Jris foundations of data analysis and research enable state leaders and stakeholders to understand their systems and engage in policy development where data, rather than anecdotes, drives outcomes. Moving forward, the crime and justice institute (CJI) proposes to provide technical assistance to two states through phase i and phase II assistance. In addition, CJI will CO-operate the JRI assessment center to make assistance more accessible, address targeted issues identified by states, and prepare states for a full JRI engagement. JRI paved the way for states to reduce its complexity by focusing on data, system operations and key decision-points to solve an array of criminal justice and related behavioral health problems. Because of jris adaptability, expected outcomes differ based on states goals. These can include, for example, increasing behavioral health options to divert people from the system and support others who are justice-involved, improving pretrial decision-making, easing reentry for people leaving incarceration, and reducing prison and community supervision populations and reallocating savings to benefit communities.