Agenda, Scope, and Goals

The MDRC Center for Criminal Justice Research has a robust portfolio of current and recent projects focusing on pretrial reforms, diversion from police contact and alternatives to incarceration, fines and fees justice, reentry programs for citizens returning to the community after incarceration, and programs for young people involved in the justice system.

Pretrial Reforms

Intensive Case Management in NYC’s Supervised Release Program: A Technical Assistance Pilot Program. The MDRC Center for Criminal Justice Research is providing technical assistance guided by data to the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and Supervised Release providers as they develop an enhanced program model intended to serve clients with high levels of need who have exhibited persistent patterns of failing to appear for court dates or incurring new arrests while awaiting trial. These clients often struggle with unstable housing, mental health issues, and substance use. The cross-agency team will conduct cycles of random assignment tests, iterating until we identify the most effective components and finalize the model.

New Jersey Criminal Justice Reform Advancing Racial Equity (NJ CARE) Study. In January 2017, the state of New Jersey implemented a sweeping set of reforms to its pretrial justice system to improve fairness in decision-making while also protecting public safety and making sure people with open cases still appear in court. This mixed-methods study will assess the New Jersey reforms' impacts on racial disparities in pretrial outcomes and explore the experiences of individuals navigating the pretrial system as defendants following the reform, including their perceptions of fairness and equity in the system. The study also includes two participatory elements: a Photovoice study in which directly affected individuals used photography to examine the effects of the pretrial system on their health and well-being, and a lived experience advisory group, which advised the MDRC researchers on research design and the interpretation of findings throughout the study.

The Pretrial Justice Collaborative. A diverse group of eight jurisdictions across the United States teamed up with MDRC’s Center for Criminal Justice Research and Justice System Partners (JSP) to form the Pretrial Justice Collaborative. The goal of the Collaborative was to build and disseminate reliable, usable evidence about the most effective strategies for reducing pretrial detention, minimizing conditions of supervision as cases are adjudicated, and reducing racial and economic disparities, all while maintaining court appearance rates. The MDRC-JSP team worked with jurisdictions to conduct process studies of their existing pretrial practices, analyze arrest rates, release conditions, and court appearance rates, among other measures, and assess racial and ethnic disparities throughout the case-processing pipeline. A subset of the jurisdictions advanced to a second tier of research that included additional racial-equity analyses as well as experimental and nonexperimental impact analyses of the comparative effectiveness of different approaches to pretrial supervision, with a focus on court appearance rates.

New York City Supervised Release Evaluation. MDRC conducted a process and impact evaluation of a citywide pretrial Supervised Release program that offers judges an alternative to bail for people awaiting trial. Supervised Release aims to reduce the use of money bail and pretrial detention while ensuring individuals’ appearance in court and maintaining community safety. The evaluation described the operations of Supervised Release and assessed its effects on cash bail, pretrial detention, court appearance rates, new arrests, and case resolutions.

Pretrial reforms that include the Public Safety Assessment. MDRC evaluated pretrial criminal justice system reforms that included the Public Safety Assessment (PSA), a risk-based decision-making tool designed by Arnold Ventures. Used in over 38 jurisdictions nationwide, the PSA seeks to provide courts and judges with objective data to inform decisions about whether an individual facing criminal charges can be safely released while awaiting trial and whether that individual will return to court. The main research questions were whether the reforms reduced costly jail stays, whether detention targeted people the PSA deemed “high-risk,” whether individuals showed up to court hearings, and whether they were arrested for new crimes. The evaluation examined these research questions for Mecklenburg County, NC, and the State of New Jersey.

Diversion from Police Contact and Alternatives to Incarceration

Tucson Mental Health Diversion. MDRC’s Tucson Mental Health Diversion (TMHD) project is a five-year, retrospective evaluation of the 911 dispatch diversion program in Tucson, Arizona. In collaboration with Margie Balfour of Connections Health Solutions and the Council of State Governments Justice Center, the study compares the criminal-justice-contact and treatment-engagement outcomes of people whose 911 mental health crisis calls are handled in Tucson’s jurisdiction with the outcomes of those handled by Pima County: Tucson has an integrated mental health and 911 crisis call center, while Pima County has a traditional 911 response. A combined suite of impact, benefit-cost, and process studies of an emerging 911 dispatch diversion model, TMHD’s findings will offer important guidance for policymakers seeking to understand “what works” in the field of prearrest diversion of people with mental and behavioral health issues.

Evaluation of the Manhattan Felony Alternative to Incarceration Court. With funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, MDRC is conducting an evaluation of the Manhattan Felony Alternative to Incarceration Court (ATI Court). The evaluation’s goal is to assess the impact of the ATI Court on justice system outcomes, including sentencing, new criminal charges, and incarceration. Additionally, for ATI Court participants with substance use disorders, the evaluation will include outcome analyses of well-being indicators such as housing stability, employment, education, and treatment engagement, using program data. MDRC will also conduct qualitative research and program data analysis on the planning and implementation of new peer-supported recovery services to assess how they may facilitate treatment engagement.

Fines and Fees Justice

Jefferson County Equitable Fines and Fees Project. Established as a research-practice partnership among MDRC, Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the 10th Judicial Circuit Court of Alabama, the JEFF project employs a mixed-methods approach to examine the assessment and collection of legal financial obligations in Jefferson County, Alabama.

The analysis incorporates longitudinal, case-level data alongside interviews and focus groups with directly affected people to guide decision makers as they explore a series of local and statewide changes to address the efficacy of how legal fines and fees are assessed and the concentration of the resulting debt in low-income communities of color.

Returning Citizens

Los Angeles County Reentry Integrated Services Project. The purpose of this project, supported by the Los Angeles Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department, is to assess the implementation and effects of six reentry-service models and to make recommendations that will strengthen reentry services for people involved in the criminal legal system, including those on adult felony probation and those with mild or moderate mental health or substance use disorders. The reentry models provide a range of services, including care coordination and links to support services clients need to meet their goals, cognitive behavioral interventions, employment services and skills training, and housing support. 

Returning Citizens Stimulus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Center for Employment Opportunities (which provides subsidized employment and other services to people who have recently returned home from incarceration) partnered with Blue Meridian Partners and a variety of reentry-service providers to issue conditional cash transfers to citizens released from incarceration in multiple jurisdictions throughout the United States. This study examined how the payments affected beneficiaries’ financial stability, engagement in services, economic mobility, physical and mental health, incarceration, and involvement in the criminal justice system for up to one year following the last payment.

Young People Who Have Been Involved in the Justice System

Roca. Roca delivers services to young men in Baltimore who have been involved in the justice system and who are identified as being at high risk of participating in violence or being affected by it. Young men served by the program have endured substantial trauma, including trauma related to poverty, systemic racism, and violence. Roca uses a multiyear, cognitive behavioral intervention model that aims to help young men address the trauma they have faced and learn skills that help them regulate their emotions and behaviors. MDRC partnered with Roca to conduct an evaluation of the program participants’ outcomes.