NCJ Number
238127
Date Published
April 2010
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This report by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP), the nonpartisan research arm of the Washington State Legislature, resulted from a contract with an independent research organization whose purpose is to identify fiscally sound, data-driven policies and practices in sentencing and corrections that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable, and control corrections' costs.
Abstract
This progress report focuses on efforts to develop an analytical tool for Washington State to use in identifying evidence-based policy options that will reduce crime rates and lower the costs of the criminal justice system. This report describes progress as of April 2010. The full report on the analytical tool was scheduled for August 2010. This progress report briefly describes the status of the three project elements. The first element is the development of a general benefit-cost tool for examining potential sentencing policy options. The second element is the application of the tool to the sentencing policy effort currently underway in Washington State. The third element is the development of software that will enable the tool to be used by other States. The draft model of a sentencing tool is presented in this progress report, but it does not contain final estimates; rather, the progress report describes the structure of the tool being developed. The model uses a number of inputs, and the contractor has not yet settled on a set of factors that have the most empirical support.