HELPING STATES AND LOCAL JURISDICTION ON BEHALF OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

For the National Institute of Justice, DSG developed a corrections research agenda for Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS). The project included conducting a problem identification and needs assessment through the use of extensive focus group sessions with agency and department personnel. The research design included the development of a database of research objectives prioritized by topic and the development of a policy-driven prioritized corrections research agenda. The methodology entailed conducting seven focus groups and surveys involving more than 40 senior managers and wardens at the DPSCS. Focus group meetings resulted in a consensus on major operational problems facing the divisions in the identification of and ways in which research could address these problems. Surveys elicited research information (at both service and unit levels) on client impact, program operations, and service delivery. Implications for program development and research utilization were presented to NIJ.

Through DSG’s cooperative agreement to provide training and technical assistance for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), for the Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grants Program (JAIBG), DSG conducted a variety of primary and secondary research projects. DSG conducted an Annual Status of the States survey on implementation of the JAIBG program; general and specialized needs assessments for training; and a variety of focus groups on topics such as JAIBG Administrative Issues: Focus Group Recommendations on Implementation, Understanding Treatment and Accountability in Juvenile Sex Offending: Recommendations for the Field, and Information Sharing and Information Technology: Focus Group Recommendations and Findings, and Juvenile Drug Courts. In addition, DSG researched and developed a Guide for the Implementation of Community Assessment Centers (CAC). The CAC manual is “how to” guide for communities that wish to develop a CAC. This project involved talking with program directors of CACs around the country to ascertain their models, review the literature, and construct a useful resource document. 

Under a contract with OJJDP to provide training and technical assistance for Title II Formula Grants, DSG wrote a series of Bulletins on each of the State Challenge Grant Activity Areas. This project involved extensive reviews of the literature and interviews with state and local program directors to determine how states are using their funding. Challenge grants included a wide spectrum of substantive activity areas: alternatives to suspension and expulsion from school, gender-specific programs, access to defense counsel, aftercare, case system reviews, basic system services for incarcerated juveniles, building facilities for violent juvenile offenders, ombudsman services, community-based alternatives to detention and incarceration, and status offenses. Each Bulletin informs readers of the latest research, model programs, resources and tools.

For OJJDP, DSG was the Court Coordination Program (CCP) contractor, helping five local juvenile court systems create and sustain comprehensive, community-based coordinated service programs for court-involved delinquent or dependent youth. CCP emphasizes mental health, wraparound services, and substance misuse screening and treatment—for participating youth in the overall context of synchronized school, family, and community interventions—designed to shorten their participation and reduce recidivism in the justice system. During the first contract, DSG provided targeted technical assistance to the five pilot sites on how to organize and provide mental health and substance misuse services to youth assigned to the CCP. During the second contract, DSG provided training and technical assistance at 12 state and local sites.

In collaboration with OJJDP, DSG developed a 2-day training curriculum for State DMC Coordinators and community planners and trainers to work with communities to implement the five-stage OJJDP DMC Reduction Model. More than 20 state-level people have been trained in the new curriculum and another national training is planned for this winter.

DSG managed the Youth Violence Prevention Training and Technical Assistance project for OJJDP, by brokering, coordinating, and providing relevant training and technical assistance (T&TA) to the 45 jurisdictions OJJDP funded through its three youth violence prevention initiatives—Defending Childhood, the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, and Community-Based Violence Prevention. The work aims to promote the well-being of children and youth, their families, and the communities where they reside, and also to enhance public safety by preventing and reducing violence. Under this cooperative work, DSG works closely with OJJDP, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. In this effort, DSG deploys strategic, coordinated T&TA to OJJDP’s youth violence grantees to help them plan, implement, and sustain their youth violence prevention and well-being work and provides a range of high-quality, cost-effective technical support on topics and reform (community and system change) processes. In addition, DSG provides expertise and resources to help the communities develop professional knowledge and capacity, reform policy and practice, increase effective use of data to inform decision-making, raise public awareness, generate and align and/or reallocate existing resources, enhance community outreach, increase engagement of and collaboration among the full range of stakeholders, and promote collective impact. In addition to this, DSG plans and coordinates national youth violence prevention conferences for OJJDP that provide a range of tools and resources though expert panels/presentations, trainings and peer to peer exercises.

As the national State Advisory Group (SAG) training provider, DSG works on behalf of OJJDP to understand SAG members’ needs and meet those needs through training and technical assistance. SAGs exist in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories and serve to improve the juvenile justice systems within their provinces and work with communities, schools, and families to reduce juvenile delinquency. The SAG in each state sets priority areas and develops a Comprehensive 3-Year-Plan based on an analysis of local crime statistics, gaps in related systems, trends within the state, and identified needs. OJJDP provides grant money to all states that meet the four Core Requirements of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act: 1) juveniles who commit status offenses (offenses that would not be criminal if committed by an adult) must not be placed in secure detention or correctional facilities; 2) juveniles must not be detained or confined in any institution in which they have contact with adult inmates; 3) juveniles who commit nonstatus offenses must not be locked up in an adult institution (even while separated from adults) for more than 6 hours; and 4) efforts must be made to reduce the disproportionate number of members of minority groups who come into contact with the juvenile justice system. Such states are then free to disperse subgrants as they please. Each SAG has from 15 to 33 members, each appointed by the Governor or a senior elected official, with 20 percent of the members being under 24 years old at the time of appointment. At least one member on each SAG must be a locally elected official, and at least three must have been or currently be under the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system. Through individual trainings, technical assistance, and an annual national training, DSG helps SAGs understand the rules by which they must function, develop comprehensive 3-year plans to comply with the four Core Requirements, and in turn help the states make informed decisions on setting juvenile justice priorities based on their state-specific trends and needs.

For OJJDP, DSG managed the Title V Training and Technical Assistance for State and Local Governments contract, which fostered developing and implementing risk-focused comprehensive communitywide delinquency prevention plans. The Title V Program encourages communities to perform multidisciplinary assessments of the risk and resources specific to their communities and then develop communitywide, collaborative plans to prevent delinquency. This project included customized curriculum and resource document development, including a Community Data Collection Manual, Promising and Effective Programs Guide, trainer and participant manuals, reference material, and a newsletter. Title V was built on a research-based comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach, community control and decision making, leveraging of resources and systems, evaluation to monitor success, and a long-term planning perspective. More than 100 training events were provided annually to local communities to guide prevention planning. Four stages of training were offered: Community Team Orientation Training, Data Collection and Analysis Training, Plan and Program Development Training, and Training of Trainers. As the National T&TA contractor, DSG established and maintained a coordinated communication system through collaboration with OJJDP, local communities, and Title V grantees, including public agencies and private organizations serving children, youth, and families.

DSG was the prime contractor, with Abt as a subcontractor, on a SAMHSA contract titled “State-Level Approaches to Building Crisis Response Systems.” Under this contract, DSG convened focus groups, conducted interviews with key informants, did an extensive literature review, and wrote a white paper that summarized all of the above, addressing the current status of behavioral health crisis response systems in selected states in the nation. A draft of the white paper was presented to and discussed at a meeting of national experts on crisis response systems, who were in broad agreement with the white paper, and who offered some suggestions for refinements. The white paper presented findings, which included a set of characteristics of crisis response systems that are promising and that could be considered worthy of emulation and further development.