50-State Report on Public Safety: Tools and Strategies To Help States Reduce Crime, Recidivism, and Costs

• NCJ Number: 252126
• Date Published: July 2018
• Length: 1 page
• Grant Number(s): 2015-ZB-BX-K001
• Agencies: BJA-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance); Report (Grant Sponsored); Instructional Material

Annotation

This report is a web-based resource that combines data analyses with practical examples that assist policymakers in developing strategies that address their state's specific public safety challenges.

Abstract

Strategies are suggested for reducing crime and strengthening communities, breaking the cycle of reoffending, and using cost-effective strategies to invest in public safety. Strategies described for reducing crime and strengthening communities include using data to understand crime trends, improving responses to the behavioral health needs of people in local criminal justice systems, helping local government use jail space cost-effectively, and developing crime-reduction strategies that prevent violent crime and strengthen trust in law enforcement. Strategies for breaking the cycle of reoffending include using data to drive recidivism-reduction efforts, ensuring the effective use of risk and needs assessment, improving the effectiveness of supervision to reduce recidivism, and providing people on supervision with the resources they need to succeed. Strategies for cost-effective investments in public safety are the examination of drivers of corrections costs, the development of data-driven policy options to improve public safety, reinvestment in strategies that improve public safety, and tracking results. For each of the aforementioned strategies that address a particular public safety challenge, guidance is provided for implementing the strategy, including action steps.