Alaska Justice Forum 34(3), Winter 2018

Alaska Justice Forum 34(3), Winter 2018. A publication of the Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage

 

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Benefit and Cost balanced on the scales of justiceEditor's note: Alaska's evidence-based investment

Evidence-based practices are being employed in Alaska to improve public safety and reduce criminal justice costs. Are they paying off?

Pretrial risk assessment tool developed for Alaska

Pamela Cravez

Bail hearing at Anchorage Correctional Complex Court with Judge Douglas H. Kossler presiding.

Beginning January 1, Alaska courts began receiving information from a pretrial risk assessment tool to assist in bail decisions. The goal is to improve public safety by reducing the number of defendants who fail to appear for trial or commit a new crime while out on bail.

Advantages and limitations of new pretrial risk assessment tool

Geri Fox and Pamela Cravez

Geri Fox, Director of the Pretrial Enforcement Division, Alaska Department of Corrections (left) with Pamela Cravez, editor of the Alaska Justice Forum

Geri Fox, Director of the Alaska Department of Corrections’ Pretrial Enforcement Division, speaks with Alaska Justice Forum Editor Pamela Cravez about the advantages and limitations of Alaska’s new pretrial risk assessment tool.

Benefit vs. cost of Alaska criminal justice programs

Alaska Results First Initiative: Compile — Cost — Compare. This graphic illustrates the three stages of the Alaska Results First benefit-cost process. The "Compile" stage involves compiling a program inventory. "Cost" includes analyzing the programmatic costs and programmatic benefits for each program. "Compare" involves using the benefit cost model to evaluate each program. Courtesy Alaska Justice Information Center, https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/ajic/

The Alaska Justice Information Center’s Alaska Results First analysis shows the monetary return on the state’s investment in evidence-based criminal justice programs, provides tools for assessing how changing the cost structure and delivery method can impact the return on current programs, and can help estimate the benefit to cost ratio for prospective programs.

Expanded view of recidivism in Alaska

Araceli Valle

Figure 1. Cumulative Recivism Rates (2007–2015): Offense-based Cohorts. Recidivism was defined as any new criminal offense that resulted in a conviction. This figure, discussed in the article, shows the percentage of offenders who had recidivated for the first time by a given year over the first eight years following their release from incarceration. Lines representing cumulative recidivism curves are shown for four groups of offenders. In order from highest to lowest rates of recidivism, those groups are: domestic violence, felony DUI, misdemeanor DUI, and sex offenders.

As part of its Alaska Results First analysis, the Alaska Justice Information Center followed offenders for eight years after they’d been released from an Alaska Department of Corrections facility, expanding our understanding of recidivism patterns for a large group of offenders well beyond any prior study.

AJiC Fact Sheet 17-03: Motor Vehicle Theft Arrests Reported in Alaska, 1985–2015 (thumbnail)Motor vehicle theft arrests reported in Alaska, 1985–2015

Random Reamey

The most recent issue of the Alaska Justice Information Center (AJiC) Fact Sheet presents data on motor vehicle theft arrests reported in Alaska from 1986 to 2016. The AJiC Fact Sheet series (formerly Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center Fact Sheet) addresses various crime and criminal justice topics.

Alaska Justice Forum 34(3), Winter 2018 (thumbnail)Winter 2018 print edition

The PDF of the print edition of the Alaska Justice Forum includes full references.

 

PDF of Winter 2018 print edition