CJSPC Projects

Current CJSPC Projects

Criminal Justice Planning Staff Document the Ongoing Benefit of Having a Staffed Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee in Jefferson County

Criminal Justice Planning Staff maintains a detailed listing of the current and historical initiatives, accomplishments, and products of the Jefferson County Criminal Justice Strategic Planning Committee and the Criminal Justice Planning Unit.  This listing provides a running record of the benefit to the citizens of Jefferson County of the Committee and the staff who support it.  For more information, please contact Mike Jones or Tim Schnacke.



The 2008 Jefferson County Detention Facility Use Plan Is Implemented

The Jefferson County Sheriff and the First Judicial District Chief Judge, with assistance from the Criminal Justice Planning staff, implemented in early 2008 a plan for how the local detention facility (jail) will be used in upcoming years. Since this time, the detention facility has not been crowded, and it has continued to meet the needs of local justice system agencies. Please contact Mike Jones for more information. 





Colorado Improving Supervised Pretrial Release (CISPR) Project

The Jefferson County Criminal Justice Planning staff continues to lead the 10-county initiative to develop evidence-based policies and practices for pretrial service programs in Colorado. There are two main components to this project: (1) the development of a validated pretrial risk assessment instrument, to be called the Colorado Bonds Conditions Assessment (COBCA), to replace the various, more subjectively derived risk assessment instruments currently used in each county; and (2) evidence-based supervision protocols that match pretrial release supervisory techniques to each defendant?s specific risk profile to lessen that risk. Upon completion of this project, pretrial service programs will be able to make research-based recommendations about conditions of bond to judges and magistrates who set these conditions. This initiative has the potential to benefit all pretrial supervision programs in the state. The CISPR project is partially funded by an Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistant Grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. The CISPR project is described in some detail in the National Institute for Corrections' recent publication on evidence-based practices in pretrial services.  For more information, please contact Mike Jones or Melinda Kraus.

Criminal Justice Trends Analysis

Jefferson County Criminal Justice Planning performs an ongoing analysis of criminal justice and juvenile justice trends in Jefferson County, and periodically publishes a report summarizing crime rates, arrest rates, court case filings, jail population data and other indicators. Analyses track changes in the indicators over time and compare Jefferson County to similar neighboring counties. The analysis provides empirical information that policymakers on the local criminal justice coordinating committee use to make data-driven policy decisions. Furthermore, the data assist in the analysis of system rates using the seven major justice system decision points.  The current trends report (pdf) is available for viewing.  For more information on this ongoing project, please contact Sue Ferrere or Mike Jones.

Criminal Justice Planning staff has also created an Eight-Year Juvenile Justice Trends Report (pdf) that describes trends in important Jefferson County, Colorado, juvenile justice indicators over an 8-year period. The report includes juvenile population, juvenile arrests, court case filings relevant to juveniles, juvenile probation, and Division of Youth Corrections data for the years 2000 to 2008. Local youth systems decision-makers can use the report to guide planning and decision-making about policy, future needs, and resource allocation. For more information, please contact Mike Jones or Sue Ferrere.

Criminal Justice Planning staff, as part of its support of the Jefferson County Criminal Justice Strategic Planning Committee, started an annual tradition in 2005 of listing events that may have already had or may in the future have an impact on the criminal justice system in Jefferson County.  These events include policy/procedural changes in justice agencies, changes in elected or appointed officials, significant agency budgetary changes, the creation or deletion of specialized units within agencies, significant court cases or rulings, new statutes or ordinances.  The purpose of the chronicle is to provide CJP staff and CJSPC members with an accurate and updated list of factors that likely caused or contributed to observable increases or decreases in the local justice system's workload, as measured by the number and type of offenses, arrests, cases processed, persons jailed, probation or parole clients, etc.  If you have any questions or comments about the Chronicle of Events, or if you would like to suggest an item for inclusion, please contact Mike Jones or Tim Schnacke.

Last Modified: Feb 28, 2011 12:49 PM