The Executive Order calls for a strategy for facilitating successful reentry and lowering barriers to opportunity for people with criminal records, underscoring that such efforts are essential to reducing recidivism and reducing crime. DOJ is committed to facilitating successful reentry and lowering barriers to opportunity for people with criminal records, including by:
Improving community supervision outcomes.
DOJ will support the implementation and evaluation of community supervision models designed to reduce revocations for technical violations and will launch a training and technical assistance center to improve community supervision outcomes and reduce recidivism.
[p. 44] Onerous conditions of community supervision can also create significant barriers for the justice-involved population. Individuals on probation or parole are often subject to a range of requirements–such as frequent appointments with supervision officers, curfews, electronic monitoring, regular drug testing, and payment of fines and fees–which can interfere with their ability to hold down a full-time job, and can contribute to financial instability. Failure to comply with these requirements often results in custodial sanctions or revocation of supervision and re-incarceration. These technical violations of probation or parole account for 25 percent of all state prison admissions, costing states $2.8 billion in correctional costs each year. Reforms designed to promote appropriate and individualized supervision conditions that are differentiated based on risks and needs, limit lengthy terms of supervision, and introduce non-custodial sanctions may reduce rates of re-incarceration and promote reentry success.
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[p. 51] v. Community Supervision
DOJ is also investing in strategies designed to promote success among individuals on probation or parole, including:
- Improving state and local supervision outcomes through federal grants. The Department is leveraging Second Chance Act funding to help state agencies to implement data-driven strategies for improving outcomes for people returning to and supervised in their communities. The Department will pair site-based investments with tailored training and technical assistance designed to help state correctional and supervision agencies deploy data to drive policy change, address racial and ethnic disparities, and create accountability for meeting the needs of the reentry and supervision populations and reduce recidivism. DOJ will also support the implementation and evaluation of community supervision models designed to reduce revocations for technical violations, as part of a new partnership with the University of North Carolina–Charlotte. Through this initiative, three probation and parole agencies will pilot a strategy for transforming organizational culture and operations, with the goal of shifting from a focus on catching violations to an approach centered on facilitating success.
- Launching the Community Supervision Resource Center. DOJ is additionally standing up a Community Supervision Resource Center (CSRC) to provide information and assistance to state, local, and tribal entities responsible for adult probation, parole, and pretrial supervision. The CSRC will translate knowledge into actionable guidance for the field to strengthen supervision outcomes, with a focus on advancing racial equity and centering the experiences of individuals and communities impacted by the criminal justice system.
