Resource NCSL Criminal Justice Program Partners

NCSL has partnered with Arnold Ventures to research and provide information to state legislatures on pending and recently enacted state legislation, and state laws on pretrial issues. The project is part of their strategy to promote lasting, systemic change at the front end of the criminal justice system. Arnold Ventures is committed to pursuing research and developing tools to ensure the system is effective in protecting the public, minimizing crime, making wise use of public resources, and administering justice fairly and efficiently.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable organization, dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. The Foundation’s juvenile justice reform agenda is designed to improve the odds that at-risk youth can make successful transitions to adulthood. NCSL’s partnership with the Annie E. Casey’s Juvenile Justice focuses on legislative reforms in the juvenile justice system and educating lawmakers about a system shift away from juvenile incarceration and relies more on proven, family-focused interventions that create opportunities for positive youth development.

NCSL’s partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge focuses on legislative reforms to the front-end of the criminal justice system and educating lawmakers about local innovations coming out of the Safety and Justice Challenge. The Challenge is a national initiative to reduce over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails.

In the Challenge Network, there are more than 50 jurisdictions from 32 states developing and implementing a diverse array of strategies to safely reduce jail populations and address racial and ethnic disparities at all points of contact with their local justice systems. The Challenge provides support and expert technical assistance to help the jurisdictions implement alternatives that make communities healthier, fairer and safer.

The work of the sites is complimented, amplified and supported by Challenge Partners who are producing new research to strengthen the justice reform field, strategic communications and evaluation to track impact and incorporate learning.    

A partnership of NCSL’s Criminal Justice Program and The Pew Charitable Trusts' public safety performance project is designed to respond to the challenges faced by states as they consider sentencing and corrections policies in the criminal and juvenile justice systems that both manage state spending and protect the public. PSPP was launched in 2006 to help states advance fiscally sound, data-driven policies and practices in sentencing and corrections that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable and control corrections costs. PSPP provides expert, nonpartisan technical assistance to states to help achieve better returns on their public safety investments.

PSPP also produces reports on effective policies and practices that can help decisions makers as they face critical choices in developing strategies to improve the public safety return on taxpayer dollars. Notable resources include:

• Probation and Parole Systems Marked by High Stakes, Missed Opportunities, September 2018
• The Effects of Changing Felony Theft Thresholds, April 2017 
• Re-Examining Juvenile Incarceration, April 2015
• Max Out: The Rise in Prison Inmates Released Without Supervision, June 2014
• Public Opinion on Sentencing and Corrections Policy in America National Survey, March 2012
• Time Served: The High Cost of Longer Prison Terms, June 2012
• State of Recidivism: The Revolving Door of America’s Prisons, April 2011
• One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, March 2009