New National Statistics on Corrections Populations

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has just released two bulletins that examine the numbers of prisoners and individuals under probation or parole supervision in the nation for 2008 and report on related trends—including an overall increase in the number of individuals being released from federal and state prisons.

The bulletins were posted on the National Reentry Resource Center website, which is a new place to find information about reentry.

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New NYC Corrections Commissioner Appointed

Dr. Doar Schriro takes over the reins from Martin Horn. Commissioner Horn worked to create the Rikers Island Discharge Collaborative, among his many innovations. Dr. Schriro has a long resume leading prison & jail systems. Thanks to our friends at the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy for bringing this to our attention.

See the NY Times article about the appointment here.

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Using Technology for Reentry

We were excited to see that the Oregon Department of Corrections has launched the "Oregon Reentry Wiki."

For those of you who are not familiar with Wiki pages, it's a type of website that allows users to add, remove, or otherwise edit and change most content very easily. At Wikipedia, people make these pages on all kinds of subjects, from the "apparent retrograde motion of Mars" to the history of fashion design. As Wikipedia says, it's a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

In Oregon, the idea is that this website will be a one-stop for resource information both for reentrants and for justice system partners. Additionally, community members will be able to learn about reentry and post information about events.

We created a login to test out how it works -- turns out that only certain people have privileges to edit information and create pages (not the general public), but it still a good idea for centralizing information.

What other technologies have you seen criminal justice entities use for successful interaction with the public? We're curious to hear how other jurisdictions are taking advantage of all the tech tools out there.

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Are Drug War Cost Driving Change?

The Nation magazine has an interesting article by Sasha Abramsky entitled, "The War Against the War On Drugs."The article describes the dilemma many states are facing in paying for prisons resulting from the crime control policies of the last 30 years. Ms. Abramsky focuses on the fiscal crisis California is facing which may result in reductions in prison treatment and education programs and the release of thousands of non-violent offenders with very little investment in reentry services. She cites research by the Pew Charitable Trust indicating that California and several other states are now "paying as much or more on prisons than on college."

California, according to Abramsky, might be a model for how not to do reform. While many advocates have long sought changes in drug control policies that invest more in prevention and treatment based on the evidence, in many states the need to reduce cost is emerging as the driving force.

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