Corrections

PIRE's work with respect to the criminal justice system has focused primarily on prevention and early intervention. A secondary focus has been on illegal substance use that either leads to or occurs during incarceration.

PIRE has done several pieces of research and consultation on rehabilitation and re-entry of incarcerated individuals, including those previously addicted to drugs. In addition, for the State of Maryland, PIRE did a major study of the State's residential juvenile corrections system, recommending major changes, recommendations that were take some ten years after PIRE's final report. PIRE remains interested juvenile corrections reform. Recently, PIRE administered a major conference on correctional education, with an emphasis on performance measures and data management.

Recently also, PIRE has  been asked to study prison systems and jails.  The increase in the incarceration rate over the past few decades attributable to the "war on crime" has resulted in widespread overcrowding of inmates in jails and prisons.  Consequently, PIRE has been asked to assist Kentucky corrections planners in developing strategies to manage the increasing number of lower risk felons, the majority of which are convicted of non-violent drug related offenses.  County jails have always temporarily housed convicted felons waiting to be sent to a prison facility (controlled intake) and parole violators.  However, in 1992, the Department of Corrections entered into a partnership with the local and regional county jails in Kentucky that would allow lower risk felons to be housed in these local and regional jail facilities to serve out their entire sentences instead of serving out their sentences in state level institutions. These lower risk offenders are typically serving sentence lengths of one to five years.

Subsequently, in the year 2000, this partnership was extended to include higher risk felons classified for community custody.  This change in policy has not been implemented without significant strain on county jails.  State corrections planners recognize that inmates housed in county jail facilities are pushing jail capacities to the limit of both monetary and physical capabilities.   In 2004, the Department commissioned a study aimed at evaluating the problem and assessing ways in which the state could provide additional funds to jails as part of an incentive system that would reward better managed jails through achievement of specific performance criteria.   In collaboration with the University of Louisville, Department of Criminal Justice, PIRE conducted the evaluation and produced a report with recommendations for how the State could develop and implement such an incentive system.  

PIRE is currently working with the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky Center for Business and Economic Research on a follow-up study that will examine three possible jail management strategies as alternatives that should be considered as potentially more cost effective approaches for the state and county governments to address the problem of jail overcrowding. 

See also

• Courts and Sentencing