Monday, December 9, 2013 at 1:30-3:00 p.m. (eastern time)
FREE Registration: http://tinyurl.com/kswsqbj
Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 12:00-1:30 p.m. (eastern time)
FREE Registration: http://tinyurl.com/lc3nfga
Faculty:
- William Dressel, President, The National Judicial College
- Elaine Nugent-Borakove, President, The Justice Management Institute
- Tim Murray, Executive Director, Pretrial Justice Institute
- Carl Wicklund, Executive Director, American Probation and Parole Association
Audience: Judges, attorneys, treatment providers, pretrial services, probation officers, law enforcement officers, court administrators, any criminal justice practitioner.
The National Judicial College (NJC) and its partners the Pretrial Justice Institute, the Justice Management Institute, and the American Probation and Parole Association, will hold two webcasts to discuss its newest publication, Principles of an Effective Criminal Justice Response to the Challenges and Needs of Drug-Involved Individuals, a conceptual framework for criminal justice systems grappling with growing and high-need populations of addicted and substance using individuals, and its compendium piece, the Criminal Justice System Matrix that provides practitioners with a guide to assist them with potential responses based on an individual’s level of substance abuse and his or her likelihood to reoffend.
These products were made possible by funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Principles was a collaborative effort among a diverse group of criminal justice experts and leaders. Yet, the report emerged from the feedback, review, and knowledge of a cross-disciplinary panel of experts to define a systemic approach for criminal justice practitioners to do the right thing . . . for the right people . . . using the right interventions . . . at the right time.
The Principles report outlines ten operating guidelines that define highly-successful system-level responses to address the needs of drug involved individuals. And the needs are staggering—with estimates as high as 60 percent of arrestees in jail with positive drug tests and fragmented service networks in the highest need communities, the responsibility to treat and rehabilitate drug-involved defendants and offenders has fallen squarely on criminal justice systems. While some systems have had notable successes in meeting these challenges, others continue to struggle. Principles provides a roadmap for leaders and practitioners with guidance like how to identify how severe the substance use is among defendants and offenders, address the diagnosed drivers contributing to the substance abusing behavior, and how to determine the level of intervention based on severity of substance use and on risk to reoffend.
The Criminal Justice System Matrix provides practitioners with a guide to assist them with potential responses based on an individual’s level of substance abuse and his or her likelihood to reoffend. A responsive criminal justice system uses each decision point in the case processing continuum as an opportunity to ensure that case disposition and sanctions are tailored to the individual in a way that will reduce future criminal behavior. A key assumption, based on the research about effective strategies for intervening with drug-involved individuals, is that the most intensive and costly interventions are reserved for those who will benefit most.
The webcasts will showcase the Principles and Criminal Justice System Matrix and will demonstrate how these tools can be used in practice. For more information about the tools or with questions about the webcasts, contact Joy Lyngar, Chief Academic Officer, National Judicial College, at 1-800-255-8343 or lyngar@judges.org.
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* This project is supported by Grant No. 2011-DB-BX-K003 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the Office of Sex Offender, Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Point of view or opinions herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.