THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS | 2022 ISSUE 4 THE CSG JUSTICE CENTER CELEBRATES 20 YEARS SPECIAL ISSUE Justice for All Explore the work of the CSG Justice Center Effective Diversion Advancing justice through community-based options Called to Serve Tennessee Commissioner Marie Williams relies on teamwork to make a difference
Dear Friends:
As a legislator, I served on judiciary committees in the Kansas House and Senate, chaired the state’s youth authority and advisory group on juvenile justice and delinquency prevention, was a member of the state sentencing commission and successfully led an effort to enact a comprehensive reform of the state’s juvenile justice system.
All of that shapes my understanding of the complexities of criminal justice issues. I know that for many state officials, as it was for me, the administration of justice can seem like a never-ending labyrinth of challenges. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me that state officials came together 20 years ago to create a resource to help them better navigate those daunting challenges.
reform efforts are more likely to succeed when all three branches are represented at the table. We also know sound, nonpartisan research and solid data, like that provided by the Justice Center, can be a catalyst for consensus.
I am proud of the Justice Center’s incredible staff, partners, and funders, who together, over the last two decades, have worked to forever change the fields of criminal justice and public safety. Their hard work, leadership and investment have been essential to the success of the Justice Center. The center’s first director, Mike Thompson, was the driving force behind the center’s growth and impact. Without his vision and ability, I believe the Justice Center would not exist. Megan Quattlebaum, the center’s second and current director, has built a wide base of support for the work and identified three areas of focus for the future — breaking cycles of incarceration; advancing health, opportunity and equity; and using data to improve safety and justice. She is smart and effective, but more importantly, she believes in her team and is passionate about producing results. On behalf of CSG and the states, I commend both Mike and Megan for their transformative leadership.
For 90 years, The Council of State Governments has helped state officials advance the common good. For 20 of those years, the CSG Justice Center has helped state officials create fairer, safer, healthier and more just states. While I marvel at all that has been accomplished in the last two decades, I can’t wait to see where the journey takes us next.
Yours,
This issue celebrates the impact the CSG Justice Center has achieved in its 20-year journey. I value the friendships of all the wonderful people we have met along the way, and I’m grateful to everyone who has helped lead, worked at, partnered with or invested in the CSG Justice Center.
I know the sting of having votes I made on criminal justice legislation used in attack ads against me, and I am keenly aware of just how potent a force fear is in politics — do you remember the Willie Horton ad in the 1988 presidential race?
As a lawyer, I represented defendants in criminal cases.
David
from csg executive director / fromceo csg executive director / ceo David Adkins
Like many others, I have a personal connection to the work of the CSG Justice Center. I come from a law enforcement family. My dad served 25 years as a Kansas Highway Patrol officer, my grandfather was a state game warden, my brother worked inside a maximumsecurity state prison as a correctional counselor while moonlighting as a local police officer, and my wife prosecuted sex crimes and child abuse cases as an assistant district attorney.
I am convinced only CSG could have successfully built such a resource. CSG is uniquely positioned as a trusted convenor of officials from all three branches of state government, and we know that
I also want to commend the dedicated public servants who have devoted their time and talents to the Justice Center through their service on the center’s advisory board. This group of experts helps determine the priorities and direct the work of the center in a myriad of invaluable ways. Their leadership has helped position the Justice Center as a valued national leader on criminal justice and public safety issues. They are a constant source of inspiration and hope.
Megan Quattlebaum
As state lawmakers and officials, you can look to the CSG Justice Center to support you in finding consensus. Whether it be working across partisan divides, government branches or fields like justice and health, we know that improving outcomes for people who’ve been in the justice system requires optimistic and open-minded collaboration. We view our role as creating spaces where leaders and community members can discover shared understanding of a problem — and shared solutions. In the counsel we provide, we’re guided by what the data and research tell us works. With this approach, the CSG Justice Center has helped state and local leaders achieve their goals of making their communities safer and stronger for the last two decades, and we look forward to supporting you for the next 20 years and beyond.
In 2002, the CSG Justice Center released our first publication — the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project report — which brought together a group of criminal justice and health stakeholders and thought leaders to highlight the overrepresentation of people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system. At the time, the CSG Justice Center was still a project of CSG East. But the report struck a chord with federal, state and local partners, who wanted to work with us to put our ideas into action.
As director of the CSG Justice Center for the past four years, I’m very aware of the amazing fortune and responsibility of leading our organization’s current chapter. I have the privilege of working with an exceptional team that collaborates with our members across all three branches of state government to reduce cycles of crime, incarceration and victimization. As you’ll read in this issue, together, we have advanced equitable access to behavioral health services, housing opportunities, economic mobility and support for people returning to their communities from prison or jail. We have also guided states to provide a rich array of supports to victims of crime.
Twenty years later, we can point to jurisdictions across the country that have made tremendous strides in connecting people with mental illnesses to treatment and reducing their contact with the justice system — with benefits for both public safety and budgets. And the CSG Justice Center has evolved from a small but dedicated team within CSG East into an organization of 120 researchers, practitioners and policy experts who develop strategies that increase public safety and strengthen communities.
We’re incredibly thankful to CSG Executive Director/CEO David Adkins and Director of Communications Blair Hess and her team for the opportunity to bring you this issue of CSG Capitol Ideas, where you will encounter stories and resources that I hope you’ll find both useful and inspiring. You’ll read about the CSG Justice Center’s impact over the past 20 years; our Advisory Board Chair Marie Williams, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services; some of our initiatives and how you can get involved; diversion resources to reduce justice system involvement for youth and adults who need mental health support; and much more.
from csg justice center fromdirector csg justice center director
Together, we can ensure our justice system lives up to its highest ideals. I know I speak for our entire team when I say we are grateful for the opportunity to work with you to meet this vital goal.
It is an honor for the CSG Justice Center to spearhead this issue of CSG Capitol Ideas as part of our 20th anniversary celebration.
Sincerely, Megan
Dear CSG Family:
Explore facts, figures and key milestones in the development of the Justice Center.
CSG JUSTICE CENTER BOARD CHAIRS
26 Making an Impact
13 Get to Know the Justice Center
The Justice Center works with state and local leaders across the country, responding to their needs. What Justice Center staff hear on-theground in states informs the development of initiatives that work to increase public safety and strengthen communities.
The Justice Center has 120 staff members, each with their own inspiration for why they do this work. Some have been with the CSG Justice Center for more than a decade, while others just joined — but what they all have in common is a commitment to building safer, stronger and healthier communities and ensuring second chances for all.
24 Key Initiatives
10 Leading with Purpose:
22 From the Staff
THE CSG JUSTICE CENTER / ISSUE 4 / 2022 20
ADVISORY
16 PublicationsGroundbreaking
The origin of the CSG Justice Center centered on the fundamental idea that leaders needed a space to help find consensus on how states could tackle complex issues of safety, health and justice. Two decades later, the organization has grown into a group of 120 researchers, practitioners, policy experts and writers with an advisory board representing a cross-section of key leaders shaping criminal justice policy across the country.
The CSG Justice Center has created nearly 600 print and digital publications. Each of them is centered on what the Justice Center does best: bringing together key leaders from various impacted systems to reach consensus on evidence-based policy and practice recommendations.
Rep. Pat Colloton Kansas 2011–2012
6 Celebrating 20 years
Justice Center Director Megan Quattlebaum brings experience and passion to her role in advancing sound criminal justice policy and practice across the country. Hear from Megan about her experience as director of the Justice Center, what she recounts as some of her most significant accomplishments and what has her excited about the future of the Justice Center.
Honorable Sharon Keller Texas Court of Criminal Appeals 2008
20 Following Her Calling
For 20 years, the CSG Justice Center has used data and research-driven practices to make diversion from the justice system more effective.
Before helming Tennessee’s entire mental health apparatus, Marie Williams spent 25 years working with people experiencing mental health crises, addiction and homelessness, working her way up from caseworker to the state’s highest-ranking mental health professional.
Secretary John Wetzel Pennsylvania Department of Corrections 2017–2018
Commissioner Marie Williams Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services 2022
Q&A with Megan Quattlebaum
Rep. Michael Festa Massachusetts 2006–2007
Honorable Michael Boggs Georgia Supreme Court 2019–2021
Undersecretary Michael Lawlor Connecticut Office of Policy and Management 2015–2016
Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry New York 2009–2010
Superintendent Thomas Stickrath Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation 2013–2014
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CSG CAPITOL IDEAS, ISSN 2152-8489, ISSUE 4, Vol. 77, No. 1 – Published five times annually by The Council of State Governments, 1776 Avenue of the States, Lexington, KY 40511-8536. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Council of State Governments nor the views of the editorial staff. Readers’ comments are welcome. Subscription rates: in the U.S., $42 per year. Single issues are available at $7 per copy. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Capitol Ideas, Sales Department, The Council of State Governments, 1776 Avenue of the States, Lexington, KY 40511-8536. Periodicals postage paid at Lexington, Ky., and additional mailing offices.
Sen. Lou D’Allesandro HAMPSHIRE East Co-Chair
Georgia Launches Initiative to Improve Outcomes for People Who Have Frequent Contact with Health and Justice Systems
Following a 50-state study conducted in 2021 by the CSG Justice Center and The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the CSG Justice Center recently released a new comprehensive report revealing that most states do not have dedicated juvenile court judges and only a few states require these judges to have any specialized training, expertise or experience. The report offers five recommendations to help states strengthen their juvenile court systems to ensure that youth justice systems are efficient, effective and equitable.
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Rhode Island Uses Justice Reinvestment Approach to Improve Responses to Domestic Violence
With the help of the CSG Justice Center and support from Arnold Ventures, Georgia recently launched a new initiative — States Supporting Familiar Faces — to build on local and community efforts to improve public safety and better serve people with serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders who frequently cycle through jails, crisis services, homeless shelters and hospitals. Community leaders in Georgia will receive 18 months of intensive support from the CSG Justice Center including recommendations for policy change based on analysis of local data and best practices in Georgia and nationally.
While Rhode Island has made progress in improving services for people who commit domestic violence and remains dedicated to supporting victims and survivors, the state has continued to face programmatic and systemic challenges such as fluctuating funding and gaps in services. To improve responses to domestic violence, state leaders recently worked with the CSG Justice Center to launch a bipartisan, interbranch effort to analyze available state data and develop policy recommendations by 2023. The effort uses a Justice Reinvestment Initiative approach and will include focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders led by the CSG Justice Center.
On July 16, 2022, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration implemented the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, a 24/7 dialing code for people to call, text or chat with trained crisis counselors if they or someone they love is experiencing issues related to suicidal thoughts, substance use, mental health or emotional distress. Following this, the CSG Justice Center, working closely with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, organized a broad group of national organizations involved with criminal justice, behavioral health crisis response and reentry to raise awareness during a digital Day of Action on July 20, 2022. Messaging focused on how 988 is an opportunity to shift people in crisis toward appropriate care and ideally minimize contact with law enforcement and the justice system. This September, all three organizations continued to raise awareness through a week of dedicated social media engagement and will be hosting a national advisory convening to develop a long-term roadmap for the use of 988.
New 50-State Report Finds Most Juvenile Court Systems Lack Adequate Resources and Supports to Inform Judicial Decisions
National Implementation of 988 Begins
HAPPENINGWHAT’SHAPPENINGWHAT’SATTHECSGJUSTICECENTERATTHECSGJUSTICECENTER
The Stepping Up Initiative Celebrates Seven Years
Vermont Becomes the First State to Use a Justice Reinvestment Approach to Analyze Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System
Between January and December 2021, the CSG Justice Center conducted an analysis of Vermont’s criminal justice system at the request of the state to investigate patterns of racial disparity over time and provide insight into the causes behind them. Key findings were that Black Vermonters were overrepresented in all corrections populations relative to their representation in Vermont’s general population, and these disparities were most pronounced among sentenced and detained incarcerated populations. An interbranch working group of state officials adopted a set of recommendations to address the findings.
Stepping Up is a national initiative aimed at reducing overincarceration of people with mental illnesses. It was launched in 2015 as a partnership between the CSG Justice Center, the American Psychiatric Association Foundation and the National Association of Counties, with support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. This year, Stepping Up is marking a milestone anniversary and celebrated with a virtual live event on Sept. 8, 2022. Over the last seven years, more than 550 counties have passed a Stepping Up resolution. More than half of the U.S. population lives in a Stepping Up county.
The Tow Foundation @TowFdn ∙ Feb 2, 2022
@DOJBJA ∙ Apr 12, 2022
Captain T. Shelton @HCSO_NPD ∙ Apr 18, 2022
The disparities within the #juvenilejustice system have been problems for far too long. The @CSGJC is committed to providing research-driven, data informed solutions to continue building safer and stronger communities for our youth. https://bit.ly/3zAXCIu #childrensmentalhealth
The US unemployment rate is about 3.9%. For formerly incarcerated people, that figure is higher than 27%. People with criminal records are unfairly barred from many jobs, but especially those that require an occupational license. Read more from @CSGJC: https://t.co/r9lacPjfWY
Bureau of Justice Assistance
Children’s Mental Health Network
Wonderful work from both Senators and their staff. And let’s also give a shout out to @CSGJC, which provided so much of the guidance on the entire JRI package. UP WITH THE JUSTICE CENTER ON SOCIAL
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@CMHNetwork ∙ Jul 6, 2022
Greg Rowe @Gregrowe28 ∙ Jun 13, 2022
Christopher Poulos @chrispouloslaw ∙ Feb 7, 2022 I’m honored to be appointed to the @TheJusticeDept & @CSGJC’s “Justice Counts” National Steering Committee. I’m excited to bring my lens of a policy expert and formerly incarcerated person.
This week our Behavioral Health Training Unit teaches the hour CIT #mentalhealth class. Students will learn about numerous #mentalhealth Astopics.aDOJ @CSGJC Learning Site, we teach to numerous law enforcement agencies. For more info ➡ http://harriscountycit.org.
THEY TWEETED IT
Accurate, accessible, and actionable data is essential to building stronger & safer communities. That’s why @DOJBJA & @CSGJC have been working across the field for more than a year to develop the #JusticeCounts metrics. Learn how to put them to work in your state.
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EARLY DAYS OF THE CSG JUSTICE CENTER
The origin of the CSG Justice Center focused on the fundamental idea that leaders needed a space to help find consensus on how states could tackle complex issues of safety, health and justice. Two decades later, the organization has grown into a group of 120 researchers, practitioners, policy experts and writers with an advisory board representing a crosssection of key leaders shaping criminal justice policy across the country.
The U.S. criminal justice system can evoke complicated emotions.
“To have what’s effectively a 120-person criminal justice think tank attached to a membership organization like CSG and part of that family is very unique,” said CSG Justice Center Director Megan Quattlebaum. “We have staff going out in the field all over the country, which gives them a clear vantage point of what the needs of our members are. That is something special and important.”
Political realities, competing priorities and incomplete or contradictory data can make it incredibly hard for policymakers to fully grasp what’s needed. For decades, state leaders on both sides of the aisle have called for a way to talk about what’s working and what’s not without politics getting in the way.
“In the mid-1990s, it became very clear that if you had a meeting of legislators from different states, or of prosecutors, public defenders, or victims — that people agreed on a vast majority of the things that needed to be done to make the criminal justice system work better. And that was the genesis of what has grown into the [CSG] Justice Center,” said Mike Lawlor, a founding member of the CSG Justice Center advisory board.
Finding a Path to Consensus: The CSG Justice Center Celebrates 20 Years
By Amelia Vorpahl
If you asked people what the ultimate goals of the system should be, most answers would likely include things like reducing crime and recidivism, using public resources effectively, keeping people safe and allowing for a humane system that upholds accountability. However, how we achieve these goals is where much of the difficulty arises.
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“I don’t care if you were a Democrat or a Republican, you didn’t want to be seen as soft on crime,” said Thompson. “But I came from corrections, and those guys weren’t ideological. They just said, ‘This is what needs to happen to run a safe prison and to reduce recidivism.’ So, I saw the mission as framing issues in a way that gets Republicans and Democrats around a table with experts to agree that these were problems we all want to solve.”
For one of its first major projects in 2002, CSG East brought together experts from behavioral health, criminal justice, law enforcement and other key fields to publish the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project, a first-of-its-kind report with policy recommendations to help stakeholders address the needs of people with mental illness who are involved with the justice system. This report launched the type of work that the CSG Justice Center is now known for: gathering expertise from key leaders across impacted systems to promote data-driven and evidence-based policy ideas. Four years after this seminal report, the CSG Governing Board voted to establish the national CSG Justice Center, diverging the work of CSG East’s criminal justice program into a separate organization, still under Thompson’s leadership.
To understand how the CSG Justice Center evolved from its beginnings to its current stature, you can start with one person: Mike Thompson. When 25-year-old Thompson was hired as a criminal justice policy analyst at CSG East in 1997, he was the sole staff member of the only CSG criminal justice program. While working to get the new CSG East program off the ground, Thompson targeted a handful of key justice issues that could earn consensus, including juvenile justice, support for victims of crime, improved responses to mental health needs and racial disparities in the justice system.
While the founding CSG Justice Center team navigated the challenges of building a new organization, they also pioneered entirely new ways of approaching criminal justice policy. Marshall Clement, CSG Justice Center deputy director and one of the early staff members, remembers piloting the groundbreaking Justice Reinvestment Initiative. His small team traveled across the country multiple times a month to gather data, listen to stakeholders and convene working groups using the data to develop policy options that would reduce corrections costs and allow states to reinvest savings in making communities safer. In more than 30 participating states, their efforts through the years have led to a reduction — by thousands — of the number of people behind bars, as well as lower recidivism rates, prison closures and millions of dollars reinvested in community-based treatment and alternatives to Bothincarceration.Thompson and Clement are quick to commend the hard work of the early staff members and to uplift the critical role that the first advisory board members played in getting the organization started. The board’s early leadership and guidance set the stage for the incredible success of the CSG Justice Center over the next 20 years.
Michael Festa, AARP Massachusetts state director and the first chair of the CSG Justice Center Advisory Board, fondly recalled an early board meeting in his Massachusetts garden enjoying a New England clambake when a torrential downpour started. The board members then spent hours on a bus, soaking wet. During the final meeting for the Consensus Project report, Thompson remembered running out of a ballroom with hundreds of top justice and health leaders to crowd around a phone because he was chosen as a friend’s “lifeline” on the television show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” which was taping the same day.
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVOLUTION
By all accounts, the tireless work ethic, grit and drive of the founding CSG Justice Center staff and board members has paid off. The criminal justice policy landscape of 2022 is very different than that of 2002, and Quattlebaum attributes this to the Justice Center’s work over the last two decades along with its partners and members. For example,
Michael Thompson, founding director, CSG Justice Center
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Although these topics sound fairly mainstream today, the late 1990s and early 2000s were challenging times for organizations in the criminal justice space. CSG East had to navigate a political atmosphere that lacked the bipartisanship and consensus on basic criminal justice policies seen today, especially regarding what drives crime and recidivism. Back then, Thompson said there were prevailing thoughts that people could fake a mental illness to get out of responsibility for committing a crime, or that people could be ordered into treatment without consent.
“A TRAIN GOING 400 MILES AN HOUR”
Michael Festa says he feels blessed to have been one of the first board members and credits its focus on “bipartisanship, evidence-based policies, finding a path to consensus, and perhaps just as important, doing all of it with mutual respect and genuine affection.”
Renée Brackett, executive assistant to senior management and he Justice Center’s longest-serving employee, called the early days “a train going 400 miles an hour.” She spoke about being a “one-man shop” while planning a conference for 1,000 people during her first year on the job. “I can still remember the dates because I didn’t sleep the entire Christmas break,” she said.
The staff and board members from early years describe the formation of the CSG Justice Center as having energy like that of a startup company, with the freedom, flexibility and hustle of having to build a program from the ground up. Everyone did everything, from hiring to budgets, to writing and even leading high-level meetings with federal and state leaders. There was no infrastructure and no rulebook to work from. Thompson laughed as he compared the CSG Justice Center to a “lemonade stand” in those early years. As with most startups, everyone has stories of mishaps and adventures they still love to retell.
ago, co-response programs in law enforcement departments were not something you’d find in jurisdictions across the country. Twenty years ago, the national recognition of a bipartisan consensus around criminal justice policies just wasn’t there,” said Quattlebaum. “We know the criminal justice system needs collaboration with the housing system, with workforce development, with mental and behavioral health systems and with education. From our earliest days, we had staff whose expertise came from the health side and not the criminal justice Clementside.”agrees and said he’s proud of the major evolutions that he has seen take place at the CSG Justice Center over his 17-year tenure, including the growth of the organization and staff itself, the impact of its work in transforming the criminal justice and behavioral health fields and the rise in public awareness of necessary reform to our systems of safety and justice.
“The work of the CSG Justice Center over the last 20 years has been the work of a lot of people. You’d have to fill up the entire magazine with names if you really want to do it justice,” said Quattlebaum. “So many people’s ideas and effort have gone into making us what we are today. I can’t say enough how grateful we are to everybody who has been a part of this incredible project.”
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“Twentyprograms.years
So, where does the CSG Justice Center go from here?
LOOKING AHEAD
A DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH
- michael lawlor CSG Justice Center Advisory Board chair (2015-2016)
Quattlebaum says that the organization’s commitment to consensusbased work won’t change, but one example of its new direction is found in its prioritization of racial equity. Internally, staff are having candid
she argues that there is an increasing recognition of how outcomes on community supervision drive prison admissions and populations, crediting the Justice Center’s research division and its Confined and Costly 50-state revocations report for helping make that case. She’s also seen states focus more on how they can better respond to people with mental illness and behavioral health conditions by reducing justice system contact and expanding access to treatment, including through innovative ideas like co-responder teams and community responder
Although the CSG Justice Center’s work touches on every facet of the justice system, a throughline is the focus on data and research. From the beginning, the Justice Center pioneered a bipartisan, data-driven approach to criminal justice reform in red and blue states alike that was unprecedented in the justice policy landscape. The key to this success,
spanning the past 20 years, has been the Justice Center’s ability to uplift its members to speak firsthand about the needs in their communities.
In the mid-1990s, it became very clear that if you had a meeting of legislators from different states, or of prosecutors, public defenders, or victims — that people agreed on a vast majority of the things that needed to be done to make the criminal justice system work better. And that was the genesis of what has grown into the [CSG] Justice Center.”
While the CSG Justice Center has helped reform criminal justice policy in the United States, the organization is increasingly seeing the need to look further upstream to prevent justice system involvement altogether. This includes helping communities build more robust crisis response systems that prevent arrests and jail stays for people with behavioral health needs as well as a focus on front-end diversion in juvenile justice systems. Reentry and diversion systems also face challenges in growing to scale, and the Justice Center has prioritized ensuring that there is a baseline level of services across the country while helping states tailor supports to individual needs.
“In order to build possibilities, you have to have a lot of perspectives at the table so that you’re really understanding the problem in its fullest dimension,” said Quattlebaum. “You have to have the courts and the executive and legislative branches at the table if you really want to see justice systems become more efficient and fairer. All those folks need to be in the conversation.”
“I think a lot about how policy and practice changes can be sustained over time. We assist policymakers to build a wide and deep base of support so that the reforms states enact are deeply embedded and sustainable moving forward. It’s important to think about how it lasts.” Quattlebaum said. “At some basic level, you have to be playing the long game.”
[The Justice Center focuses on] bipartisanship, evidencebased policies, finding a path to consensus, and, perhaps, just as important, doing all of it with mutual respect and genuine affection.”
Building Momentum for Change in All 50 States
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- michael festa
The CSG Justice Center is a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that brings together representatives across all 50 states to develop strategies that increase public safety and strengthen communities. Our staff work with leaders from all three branches of government to drive the field forward with original research, building momentum for policy change by providing expert assistance and in-depth data analyses. This 50-state map highlights work done in each state to help leaders advance data-driven policy reforms, support reentry best practices and promote alternatives to incarceration.
conversations about policies and practices that will ensure that the Justice Center is a transparent, fair and welcoming workplace. In its external work, there is increased focus on helping states directly tackle racially disproportionate outcomes in their justice systems. This focus has come directly from member requests.
Looking ahead, the CSG Justice Center is focused on three big areas in which it sees broad bipartisan support, including breaking cycles of incarceration; advancing health, opportunity and equity; and using data to improve safety and justice. State and local leaders are focused on the shortcomings of safety and justice systems and are interested in ways to transform these systems to increase public safety at less cost. By ensuring its work is grounded in the presentday challenges of leaders on the ground, the Justice Center is moving the field forward with ground-breaking research and building capacity to develop innovative and practical tools while scaling up how it helps state and local leaders across all 50 states.
AARP Massachusetts state director and first chair of the CSG Justice Center Advisory Board
Leading with
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Founding directors are tough acts to follow, and Mike Thompson even more so than most. I think everyone who knows Mike thinks he’s brilliant. With that in mind, I figured I had two choices: selfconsciously compare myself to Mike and worry about whether I was measuring up or try to release the idea that measuring up to Mike was the job. I’m proud of myself for choosing the second path — at least 95% of the time — I’m human! I try to remember that his job was to build the organization we have today, while my job is to enrich and sustain it.
What was it like starting in your position at the CSG Justice Center, and how have you seen the organization evolve over time — both internally and in its external work?
Asked Answered&
You came on as director succeeding someone who founded the organization as it exists today and had been in the position for more than 15 years. How did you make that role your own?
Every day, I try to picture two specific people in my mind: first, a person I know who has been involved with the criminal or juvenile justice systems — including those who have been victimized by a crime or committed one or worked in the system — and second, a person who works for us. For the former, I try to make sure that we are giving everything we have to supporting the systems they’re in to be the best they can be. Lives depend on it. For the latter, I try to make sure we all remember that the most impactful career in service is not the one that burns hot for a few years and then burns out. We need to support people to do this work for a lifetime. And that means supporting them to support themselves — to take breaks, to spend time with family and friends, to enjoy this life.
with Megan Quattlebaum, director of the CSG Justice Center
One thing that was exciting to me was being part of a membership organization with active participation from all 50 states. For many types of policy, but especially criminal justice, the states are central to what can and will happen. I also appreciated that CSG is a three-branch organization because each branch has a vital role to play in the conversation about criminal justice policy and practice. Even if you’re talking about legislation, you need the folks who are going to implement that legislation brought in and excited, so you know it can make it over the inevitable bumps in the road that come when you’re putting an idea into practice. I was also really excited about the CSG Justice Center being a bipartisan organization. Working in a consensus-based way is key to stability and sustainability.
In the end, we always try to be responsive to what states need in the current moment. Our commitment to consensus and finding out how we can serve and support our members in the states — those are things that have not changed and will not change.
By Katy Albis and Amelia Vorpahl
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Particularly over the past few years, we’ve taken steps to make sure we’re centering racial equity in all we do. Racial disparities in the criminal justice system exist in every jurisdiction whose data we’ve ever analyzed and at multiple decision points. It’s really exciting to see our members not accepting that but wanting to change it. We're working hard to be ready to support them with data analysis and policy ideas responsive to this challenge. We’ve also looked inward to make sure that we’re working in a way that’s inclusive and inviting to colleagues of color and that we have a workplace that’s diverse, equitable and inclusive. We can’t help other folks and not work on those issues within our own organization.
Serving as the second director since the inception of the CSG Justice Center 20 years ago, Megan Quattlebaum brings experience and passion to her role in advancing sound criminal justice policy and practice across the country. Hear from Megan about her experience as director of the CSG Justice Center, what she recounts as some of her most significant accomplishments and what excites her about the future of the Justice Center.
Tell us about your vision for the next chapter of the CSG Justice Center. What do you hope the next 20 years will bring?
In terms of initiatives, I’m very excited about our new Reentry 2030 campaign. We’ve increasingly seen how important it is that states focus on building reentry systems and supports that are equitable. Having folks who have experienced reentry firsthand in this conversation from the beginning has been very important to help us remember that each person has unique needs and challenges.
Through the Justice Reinvestment Initiative and other programs, we can provide jurisdictions with data analysis in a really deep way. Justice Counts and other initiatives we’ve started recently, like Lantern, recognize that states need that up-to-date data about their systems not just over the course of a project with us, but every day.
Consensus Project” report — at the time it was issued, it was cuttingedge. While the conversation about the connections between the criminal justice system and folks with mental health needs is happening on a broader scale now, we were very early to that conversation. From its earliest days, the CSG Justice Center was keyed into the message that you cannot and should not rely on the criminal justice system to solve all social problems. You need cross-systems partners at the table. We’ve invested in having a staff with interdisciplinary knowledge and skills from the beginning.
Also, after more than four years in this role, I find that my respect and admiration for the CSG Justice Center’s staff, advisory board and partners somehow continue to grow. Even when I think I couldn’t possibly be more impressed, our team makes something seemingly impossible possible, and I’m in awe all over again. I am very lucky to be where I am.
What are some of the things you are most proud of from your time at the CSG Justice Center?
On a personal note, having the privilege of working with a group that is diverse in so many ways — race, gender, politics, geography, professional training — I now believe more than ever that leaders have to surround themselves with people who are different from them. If you’re not talking honestly with people who are different from you about the challenges your organization faces and potential solutions, you are making bad decisions.
I’ve also been excited to add new skills that allow us to take our data analysis and research to the next level. For example, I see in our field an increasing recognition of the ways in which probation and parole outcomes drive prison admissions and populations. I think our research division and their work on revocations played a key part in that.
How does the CSG Justice Center fit into the criminal justice policy landscape? What is its unique role?
Twenty years ago, people weren’t using the word ‘reentry.’ We have had a role in making ‘reentry’ a household word. I see our next 20 years as another two decades of making new things possible.
Another thing that makes us unique is tied into our 20th anniversary. If you look at our first publication — the “Criminal Justice/Mental Health
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Editor’s note: responses have been edited for length and clarity.
One thing I’m proud of is how we’ve modernized our approach to communications through things like our newsletters and virtual Justice Briefing Live events. We’ve made ourselves accessible to new audiences.
I was surprised that a ballettrained, Yale law grad would take the job as director of the Justice Center. But I’m glad she did. She is a remarkable thinker, leader and friend."
CSG EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/CEO DAVID ADKINS
In 20 years, if we’ve done our jobs right, states will have accurate and up-to-date data to help drive their criminal justice decision-making in a way they don’t today. People experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis will have multiple, easy-to-find pathways into treatment and supports that will help them stay safe and out of the justice system. And we’ll have found better ways to support the 95% of kids whose involvement with the juvenile justice system starts with a nonviolent I’moffense.hopeful the culture of community supervision agencies will continue to evolve to focus on how best to support success, and that states will set specific goals around ensuring that when people leave prison, they are safely housed, connected to work and education and getting whatever treatment they need. I’m also optimistic that state programs that support people who have been victims of crime will be better positioned to reach the people who need those supports the most.
One thing that is not as known about us is how much we partner with other organizations. We bring partner organizations into our projects to make sure they’re as rich and effective as they should be.
Any closing thoughts?
Helped secure more than $1.6 billion in federal funding for states, Tribal governments and other communities to build diversion and other behavioral health/criminal justice programs, enhance reentry services and reduce corrections and related criminal justice spending. BY NUMBERSTHE 120 ANDACROSSSTAFF23STATESWASHINGTON,D.C. The Justice Center is led by 23 advisory board members, including state legislators from both sides of the aisle, judicial leaders, health and human services agency administrators, victim advocates, corrections directors, juvenile justice professionals, law enforcement officials and people with firsthand experience in the criminal justice system. 3 WORKFORGOALSOUR 1 - Break the cycle of incarceration. 2 - Advance health, opportunity and equity. 3 - Use data to improve safety and justice. Provided technical assistance to more than 900 SECOND CHANCE ACT GRANTEES serving adults and youth across the U.S. Helped red and blue states usher in significant reforms to halt prison growth and reinvest more than $650 MILLION in savings to reduce recidivism. RELEASED NEARLY PUBLICATIONS600 20,367 subscribers to weekly and monthly Justice Center newsletters. Provided data-driven options that led to major criminal justice reforms in have passed legislation through Improving Outcomes for Youth (or IOYouth), a Justice Center initiative that partners with state and local policymakers to analyze their juvenile justice system and recommend improvements. 5 STATES IN THE PAST 20 YEARS. 31 STATES. 13 |20224ISSUE IDEASCAPITOLCSG
There New York within the Eastern Regional Michael Thompson Renée Brackett.
2004
CSG makes the Justice Center a national program and appoints an advisory board to help guide the center’s work.
City (still
2006
2007
2002 The
Over the past 20 years, the CSG Justice Center has grown from a staff of two in one city to more than 120 employees across 23 states and Washington, D.C. In that time, the Justice Center has partnered with national and state leaders throughout the country to impact the field — whether through legislation, direct assistance, convenings or groundbreaking reports. This timeline lays out some of the most significant moments in the organization’s history. Consensus Project report
are two employees based in
Conference) —
is published
With the CSG Justice Center’s assistance, Texas and Kansas pass Justice Reinvestment legislation to avert growth in their prison population; these two pieces of legislation help spur the creation of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, which becomes one of the CSG Justice Center’s signature initiatives.
Congress authorizes the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program — a federal program that the CSG Justice Center has supported since its inception.
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20 in
20 SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS IN THE 20-YEAR HISTORY OF THE CSG JUSTICE CENTER
and
CSG Executive Director David Adkins names Megan Quattlebaum the second director in the organization’s history.
2012
The CSG Justice Center and several national partners launch Reentry 2030, a 50-state campaign to transform successful reentry across the country.
Collaborating with two national partners, the CSG Justice Center launches the Stepping Up initiative, its first campaign, to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jails acrosscountry.the
The Second Chance Act, a first-of-its-kind piece of federal legislation, is signed into law with bipartisan support to improve reentry outcomes; the CSG Justice Center was among several national organizations to back this legislation.
The CSG Justice Center launches the Face to Face initiative, its first project designed to directly connect policymakers to the people impacted by the criminal justice system.
2021
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The CSG Justice Center hosts its first national summit on Justice Reinvestment and Public Safety at the U.S. Capitol.
There are 73 employees across 11 states.
2017
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CSG Justice Center hosts a virtual conference exploring innovative first response options, with the U.S. attorney general as a featured speaker.
2008
The CSG Justice Center launches the initiative now known as Improving Outcomes for Youth (IOYouth).
2016
The CSG Justice Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance launch Justice Counts, a first-of-its-kind national coalition to provide policymakers with accurate, accessible and actionable data.
2014
2018
By this year, the organization has provided technical assistance to 1,000 grantees through the federal Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program and Second Chance Act programs.
2015
The CSG Justice Center hosts its first 50-state convening on reentry and recidivism.
2011
2010
The CSG Justice Center convenes a 50-State Summit on Public Safety in Washington, D.C., leading to its first web-based data analysis covering all 50 states.
2022
There are 120 employees across 23 states and Washington, D.C.
By this year, 20 states have used a Justice Reinvestment approach with the CSG Justice Center’s assistance.
READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/consensus-project.
By Katy Albis, Darby Baham and Leslie Griffin
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Since that first-of-its-kind report, the CSG Justice Center has created nearly 600 print and digital publications. Each of them is centered on what the Justice Center does best: bringing together key leaders from various impacted systems to reach consensus on evidence-based policy and practice recommendations. Here is a small sample of groundbreaking Justice Center reports.
Twenty years ago in June, a group of dedicated criminal justice stakeholders and thought leaders released the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project report. This report outlined 47 policy statements to guide legislators, practitioners and advocates as they work to improve responses to people with mental illnesses who have contact with the criminal justice system.
Explore some of the groundbreaking reports issued by the CSG Justice Center in the past two decades.
INSIGHTSACTIONABLE
READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/public-safety.
This data report was the Justice Center’s first fully web-based report, combining data analyses with practical examples to help policymakers craft impactful strategies to address their states’ specific public safety challenges. It includes over 300 state-by-state data visualizations, more than 100 examples of states’ public safety innovations, three goals, 12 strategies and 37 action items policymakers can select from to focus on issues most relevant to their communities.
The School Discipline Report: Strategies from the Field to Keep Students Engaged in School and Out of the Juvenile Justice System (2014)
This report was developed following an unprecedented, bipartisan collaboration among 100 leading elected officials, policymakers and practitioners seeking to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for people reentering their communities from incarceration. It provides a comprehensive set of recommendations made up of 35 policy statements, each describing consensus-based principles to underpin reentry initiatives.
Reducing the Number of People with Mental Illnesses in Jail: Six Questions County Leaders Need to Ask (2017)
The National Summit on Justice Reinvestment and Public Safety: Addressing Recidivism, Crime, and Corrections Spending (2011)
READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/school-discipline.
Staff worked with more than 100 advisors from across the country to develop the more than two dozen policies and 60 recommendations included in this report. It also draws on real-world strategies and research to promote multidisciplinary approaches to reducing the millions of youth suspended, expelled and arrested each year while creating safe and supportive schools for educators and students.
This is the foundational report for the national Stepping Up initiative and serves as a blueprint for counties to assess their existing efforts to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jail by offering specific questions and progress-tracking measures. It helps counties develop and implement a systems-level, data-driven plan that can lead to measurable reductions.
Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council: Charting the Safe and Successful Return of Prisoners to the Community (2005)
Following the first national summit on Justice Reinvestment and Public Safety at the U.S. Capitol in 2010, this publication was developed to highlight the promising practices and latest thinking on criminal justice policy, including four key principles about what works to reduce recidivism and increase public safety.
50-State Report on Public Safety: Tools and Strategies to Help States Reduce Crime, Recidivism, and Costs (2018)
READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/justice-reinvestment.
READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/re-entry-council.
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READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/six-questions
The result of a data analysis effort that engaged corrections and community supervision leaders in all 50 states, this report offers the first complete picture of how probation and parole violations make up states’ prison populations. Among other stark findings, the report reveals that 45% of state prison admissions stemmed from probation and parole violations, costing states more than $9 billion annually.
Confined and Costly: How Supervision Violations Are Filling Prisons and Burdening Budgets (2019)
READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/diversion.
After the Sentence, More Consequences: A National Report of Barriers to Work (2021)
READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/juvenile-consequences
The foundational report for the CSG Justice Center’s diversion portfolio, this brief offers a conceptual framework for creating a continuum of diversion opportunities that span the community’s criminal justice system.
READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/first-response.
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Reducing Structural Barriers to School and Work for People with Juvenile Records (2021)
This digital and print report presents national and state-by-state overviews of the nearly 30,000 state and federal consequences of conviction that directly block people from being hired or create barriers to obtaining occupational licenses essential for certain jobs.
Behavioral Health Diversion Interventions: Moving from Individual Programs to a Systems-Wide Strategy (2019)
READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/after-sentence.
This first-of-its-kind resource features an array of materials to help local communities and states looking to establish or sustain community responder programs. Informed by existing models across the country, the toolkit includes practical strategies, field-based examples and instructive videos.
This digital and print report outlines findings and recommendations from an unprecedented analysis of education and employment barriers that people with juvenile records face as a result of state laws and public and private admissions and hiring practices. It also highlights five key areas that policymakers can champion to reduce legal barriers to education and employment for people with juvenile records.
Expanding First Response: A Toolkit for Community Responder Programs (2021)
READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/confined-costly.
ChancesofChampionSecond
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Part of fulfilling her purpose means sitting down at every table she’s invited to so that she can champion the value of a second chance. Sadly, she’s found that even when she’s invited, her input isn’t always welcomed. Fortunately, Curry-Nixon says, that’s not the case at the CSG Justice Center.
By Dr. Dion Clark
For Curry-Nixon, it’s all about helping people. After multiple attempts to end her own life, she said she realized that there must be “a purpose and a reason” why she was still breathing.
Former CSG Justice Center Advisory Board chair and head of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, John Wetzel, brought Curry-Nixon onto the board originally. In the early days, he had to remind her often that she belonged in this space. Now she confidently lifts her voice to advocate for others with experience in the justice system, and her message is clear.
Marsha Curry-Nixon is the first CSG Justice Center Advisory Board member with firsthand experience in the criminal justice system. Anyone who meets Curry-Nixon knows that she is open about her time being incarcerated and how, after incarceration, she’s been dedicated to helping others get—and make the most of—second chances. And she’s made service a family affair: four of her children work with her at Amiracle4sure, the organization she founded to improve people’s lives after time in the justice system.
“The CSG Justice Center creates opportunities for leaders in the field to join in the conversation and actually be able to impact the change,” she said.
“I’m better because I got the supports I needed,” she said. “We have to provide the supports people need so they can get better.”
MARSHA CURRY-NIXON brings lived experience to the CSG Justice Center Advisory Board.
Asking Marie Williams what her typical day looks like gets you a big laugh and a bit of good-natured “Ateasing.dayin the life?” she asked. “No two days are the Onesame!”day the air conditioners break down, which means finding a way to transfer dozens of patients to cooler facilities across the state; the next day, she works with her team to analyze budgets and data to advocate for clients. The next involves hearing from and collaborating with behavioral health care providers. On still other days, she shares data and testimonials with legislators and budget staff to ensure they know the value of her agency’s work.
For Commissioner Williams, the work is personal. Her own mother experienced addiction for the first eight years of Williams’s life. As the oldest of five, Williams had to assume the role of parent early on. She found love and security during those years through her grandparents and Ms. Hayes, who was both her kindergarten and Sunday school teacher. Williams’s faith underpins her commitment to her work.
For Tennessee’s commissioner of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the CSG Justice Center advisory board chair, every day is an Williamsadventure.wasappointed commissioner by Gov. Bill Haslam in 2016 and reappointed by Gov. Bill Lee in 2019. Before helming the state’s entire mental health apparatus, Williams spent 25 years working with people experiencing mental health crises, addiction and homelessness, working her way up from caseworker to the state’s highest-ranking mental health “I’mprofessional.gratefulthat I’ve never burned out,” she said.
Tennessee Commissioner of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Marie Williams chairs the CSG Justice Center Advisory Board.
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TO SERVETO SERVE CALLED
By Dr. Dion Clark
As a teenager, she read “The Cross and the Switchblade,” the best-selling biography of David Wilkerson, the Christian evangelical and street minister who founded Teen Challenge and the Times Square Church in
Williams won’t say she started the initiative — taking credit is not her style. But she will say the inspiration for it. As a caseworker, one of her first clients was a mother experiencing homelessness and addiction whose kids were in foster care. Williams helped her get Social Security, the proper medication and a job — the only thing missing was housing. She remembers driving the client to the housing she’d eventually secured for her. She also remembers the disappointment she felt when they arrived. Although the client was grateful to have a roof over her head, the house was in severe disrepair. Williams thought there had to be a way to provide better housing solutions for the clients she served. Her vision for the Creating Homes Initiative was conceived in that moment, though it would take a few years to make it a reality.
In her time at the department, Williams has worked with multiple governors, state and federal legislators and presidential administrations of both parties. She is effusive in her praise of Tennessee Governors Lee and Haslam, leadership and members of the Tennessee General Assembly and the federal government’s increased efforts and funding for mental health services. Williams is heartened that there has been progress since decades ago when few people talked about mental Forillness.years,
“Megan is the total package,” she said. “My best advice to her is to just ‘keep on being you.’ I’m thrilled with the direction the CSG Justice Center is headed in. I feel honored to be a part of it.”
“He took the book away!” she exclaimed with a rueful chuckle.
When you ask Commissioner Williams what she’s proudest of, she’ll point you to the team of public servants she’s assembled and the relationships they’ve created with providers, consumer and family advocacy groups, other state agencies and state leaders. On the program side, it’s the Creating Homes Initiative. Operated through the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services department, the Creating Homes Initiative started with a modest $2.5 million state investment more than 20 years ago. Since then, it’s leveraged nearly $850 million in state, federal, local, foundation and community funds to provide “quality, safe, affordable, and permanent housing options” for nearly 30,000 Tennesseans with mental illnesses, substance use disorders and co-occurring disorders.
Williams says the CSG Justice Center’s mission is why she joined the advisory board in the first place. Focusing on diversion, demonstrating that people don’t have to end up in the justice system and meeting people where they are — that’s Williams’s approach to the work and why, for her, the advisory board role made perfect sense. She’s optimistic about the future of the intersection of housing supports and the criminal justice and behavioral health systems. And she unabashedly encourages young professionals to get in this work and stay in it.
New York City. The book tells the story of Wilkerson’s move to Brooklyn, New York, to minister to people involved in gangs. Williams remembers being so moved by the book that her father feared she would run away to New York to join Wilkerson’s street ministry.
Williams has appealed to anyone who would listen that there is a pathway to recovery. As mental illness has “hit home” for legislators and community leaders, it’s caused many to come together to fund the necessary and important work of mental health services. Something else Williams is proud of is the state’s investment for people who are uninsured: approximately 40,000 Tennesseans receive mental health treatment through the state’s behavioral health safety net every year, widening the pathway to recovery for everyone.
Having an advisory board chair from a behavioral health background is new — and welcome — territory for the CSG Justice Center. Williams became chair in 2022 and is already making her presence felt behind the scenes. She is quick to say that her experience as a high school and college basketball player taught her the value of the team approach, and she takes that approach with her everywhere. CSG Justice Center Director Megan Quattlebaum is her top teammate in her new role.
childbirth or surgery — “they bring casseroles.” The initiative teaches congregations to treat recovery from behavioral health conditions the same way rather than stigmatizing it.
“You get to go home every night knowing you made a difference.”
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But Williams didn’t run off to New York. She served as the youngest youth leader at Providence Baptist Church in Crockett Mills, Tennessee, attended Dyersburg State Community College on a basketball scholarship, and then went to the University of Tennessee, where she earned her master’s degree in social work. Williams was attending a dinner service at her church when a guest speaker talked at length about a local homelessness program. After the talk, she offered to volunteer; the speaker hired her on the spot.
Williams is also proud of Tennessee’s Certified Recovery Congregations initiative, whereby the state certifies faith-based organizations that provide support for individuals seeking recovery services. Williams noted that churches enthusiastically support people who are recovering from
“It was my calling,” she said.
Caleb Duncan DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE
“I chose to be part of the CSG Justice Center team after previously work ing with the organization as a grantee. During my first year at the CSG Justice Center, my thinking about safety and justice has grown. I see our work as forward thinking and a partnership with states, counties and communities. The work we do helps better the lives of those in our community, and I am proud to be a part of this team.”
Alexandria Hawkins
The CSG Justice Center has 120 staff members, each with their own inspiration for why they do this work. Some have been with the CSG Justice Center for more than a decade, while others just joined — but what they all have in common is a commitment to building safer, stronger and healthier communities and ensuring second chances for all. Here are just a few of their stories, in their own words.
POLICY ANALYST
Valerie Carpico
PROJECT MANAGER
Two years with the CSG Justice Center
PROJECT MANAGER
Why We Do This Work
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1.5 years with the CSG Justice Center
“I chose to work at the CSG Justice Center to make impactful change in the provision of behavioral health services to individuals in the justice system. I saw working here as an opportunity to learn more about how systems function nationally and how they can better serve people returning to their communities. I now see safety and justice as outcomes of effective and quality behavioral health programming.”
Nine months with the CSG Justice Center
One year with the CSG Justice Center
“The CSG Justice Center is pushing for responsible reform, racial equity and reducing barriers to success in criminal justice institutions each day. We are dedicated to delivering the tools and assistance to ensure that practitioners, legislators and stakeholders have the resources to deliver the highest quality service to individuals and communities that are impacted by justice institutions; and that is why I choose to be a part of this team. It’s a great feeling to be connected to the teams and their projects.”
“My father was involved in the criminal justice system during my childhood. As a result, I had a front-row seat to the harmful impact this experience had on him and our family. He had extreme difficulty finding consistent work, obtaining treatment and reintegrating back into our community. In short, the experience ruined his life in every possible way. A few years ago, I realized how important it was for me to find a job with an organization that prioritizes making a positive impact in our community through systemic change. I wanted to go home at night knowing that I was part of a solution to a big problem. The work done by the CSG Justice Center has reinforced my belief that the efforts of a community of people willing to accept the importance of a second chance can save someone’s life.”
Jowan Burton
FROM THE STAFF
Nearly eight years with the CSG Justice Center
DEPUTY PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Aisha Jamil
“I chose to work at the CSG Justice Center because I heard from friends on the Hill that it was the organization they turned to for policy expertise on criminal justice and public safety issues. Before coming to the CSG Justice Center, I had no idea that criminal justice issues were bipartisan on the Hill and in the states. I’ve seen how policymakers from both sides of the aisle have used our research-driven strategies to impact their communities positively. And I have gained more knowledge about responding to people with behavioral health needs during my time here.”
DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
“Working here has given me the opportunity to support different systems around the country as they respond to people with behavioral health needs. The local, state, Tribal and national reach of our work is one of our greatest strengths as an organization. I’ve learned that change is incremental, but even small changes can have a big impact.”
CSG Executive Director/CEO David Adkins
Jennifer Kisela
“When I think of the CSG Justice Center so many wonderful people come to mind, but from its inception, the Justice Center has had no greater ambassador than Renée Brackett. She personifies the very best of CSG.”
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Brackett is not, by nature, the nostalgic type. She only agreed to an interview after several gentle-yet-persistent entreaties. But she confesses to being deeply proud of the organization’s work. She credits Thompson with securing early funding to stand up programs, hire staff, convene stakeholders and make an impact. She credits current Justice Center Director Megan Quattlebaum with taking a step back to assess the organization’s vision and goals, diversifying funding and focusing on equity, both in the work in the states and within our own four walls. And she says that Quattlebaum and the senior leadership team have been critical to pushing the organization forward. “A good leader needs to be surrounded by other good leaders,” Brackett said.
“I chose to be a part of the CSG Justice Center because I have always worked for agencies that are mission-centric. As a former social worker, I find that my personal and professional values align perfectly here. I enjoy the work I do and feel as if I’m an integral part of finding solutions to keep my community safe and just.”
10 months with the CSG Justice Center
“I didn’t even know what we did,” Brackett said. “I didn’t know what the job was about.”
After 21 years, Brackett is pretty cagey about when she might retire; but she’s clear about how she’s going to do it: “I’m going to pick up my bag, walk out the door, and say, ‘It’s been lovely.’”
SPOTLIGHT ON Renée Brackett
Now, no one knows more about the Justice Center and its history, legacy and impact. She remembers the novelty of the organization’s early days.
“I came to the CSG Justice Center to have a greater impact on the criminal justice system and to help make positive change. What I did not expect was the profound impact that the organization would have on me. Care, compassion and thoughtfulness go into not only external discussions and policies but internal conversations as well. There is still so much work to be done to provide a more fair and equitable criminal justice system, and I can't wait to see what we can do over the next 20 years.”
“You have a meeting: you have a judge and a DA, a criminal defense attorney, a therapist — all these people in one room,” Brackett said. “Before the CSG Justice Center, you never had that.”
PUBLIC AFFAIRS MANAGER
Nearly 14 years with the CSG Justice Center
By Dr. Dion Clark
Meet the CSG Justice Center’s longest-serving employee, Renée Brackett. Brackett was then-Director Mike Thompson’s first hire into the criminal justice program when the CSG Justice Center was still part of CSG East back in 2001. Did she think she’d be here this long? No.
A different person might spend their time mostly reminiscing — and Brackett does have countless engaging stories to tell, from how she was heading into CSG East at 5 World Trade Center on 9/11 to how she had to move our logistics online in response to a global pandemic — but she likes to focus more on how the Justice Center builds on its legacy. “It's amazing to look at the many people that came through the doors to make the success of the Justice Center possible,” she said. “It sounds corny, but it's not a me, it's a we.”
Seven years with the CSG Justice Center
Jay Nelson
Mark Stovell
PROJECT MANAGER
The CSG Justice Center works with state and local leaders across the country, responding to their needs. What staff hear on the ground in states informs the development of initiatives that work to increase public safety and strengthen communities. Here are just a few of the initiatives the Justice Center is currently supporting or leading that help state and local policymakers address the needs of their constituents.
Jurisdictions across the country are reimagining their approach to public safety by redefining who answers calls for service involving mental health or substance use crises, homelessness, “quality-oflife” issues or other social disturbances. CSG Justice Center staff have partnered with national experts such as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance, the University of Cincinnati and Vital Strategies to develop resources that policymakers can use to learn more about these options and adequately support them. “Expanding First Response: A Toolkit for Community Responder Programs” serves as a central hub for local communities and states looking to establish or strengthen community responder programs, drawing on the experiences of emerging models across the country. The resource repository for the 2021 national Taking the Call conference also features information that policymakers can use to better understand how these crisis and community responder options, when implemented as part of a larger crisis system, can help jurisdictions improve health outcomes, strengthen connections to services and reduce unnecessary police involvement.
Expanding First Response and Crisis Response Options
INITIATIVESKEY
By Katy Albis, Darby Baham and Leslie Griffin
The CSG Justice Center Makes a Difference for the States
Improving Outcomes for Youth (IOYouth) works with state and local jurisdictions to align their policies, practices and resource allocation with what research shows works to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for youth while enhancing public safety. IOYouth’s data-driven technical assistance process takes a collaborative, jurisdiction-driven approach by convening leaders across all branches of government to identify challenges to improving youth outcomes in the juvenile justice system, determine administrative and policy priorities and enact system changes. The CSG Justice Center partners with jurisdictions over an 18-month period to establish a bipartisan, interbranch task force, conduct a data-driven assessment of the juvenile justice system from the point a youth is referred to the system through reentry into the community, provide recommendations for improvement and offer technical assistance.
Improving Outcomes for Youth
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Reentry 2030
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Policymakers are often forced to make critical decisions about the safety, liberties and tax dollars of their constituents using limited or stale criminal justice data. In the face of significant challenges and fiscal pressures, leaders need up-to-date information from across the justice system, presented in a way that is easy to understand and utilize. Justice Counts is an initiative led by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the CSG Justice Center and a first-of-itskind national coalition of 21 partners to develop and help implement consensus-driven metrics for criminal justice agencies to provide policymakers with more accurate, accessible and actionable data.
Justice Reinvestment Initiative
Justice Counts
Reentry 2030 is a 50-state campaign intended to unite leaders around one goal: successful reintegration for every person with a criminal record. The campaign was launched in April 2022 with support from the Biden-Harris administration and will provide resources, tools and supports to help every state design and implement an ambitious plan to work toward a future of reentry that is human-centered, coordinated, transparent and equitable. Reentry 2030 builds on the success of Second Chance Act programs and aims to help every state: (1) scale up access to stable housing, education, employment skills training, behavioral health training, health care and other supports for people with criminal records; (2) clear away unnecessary barriers to opportunities and economic mobility; and (3) advance racial equity by using data to understand and address disparities in access to services, quality of services and outcomes.
State policymakers are grappling with a unique combination of public safety challenges, including upticks in violent crime, the opioid epidemic, the overrepresentation of people with mental illnesses in the justice system, high rates of recidivism and the high cost of corrections, all while trying to improve services for victims and increase opportunities for people returning to communities from jail and prison. To tackle these issues, more than 30 states have partnered with the Justice Center to use the Justice Reinvestment Initiative to identify and implement measures to improve public safety, reduce spending and reinvest savings in strategies that can decrease crime and recidivism. The initiative, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts, has led to billions of dollars in savings and meaningful decreases in prison admissions over the last decade.
Lantern
Across the country, revocations from probation and parole account for a significant portion of admissions to state prisons. Unfortunately, supervision agencies often lack the tools or capacity to identify what behaviors or circumstances lead to revocations or what interventions effectively change behavior to prevent them. The Lantern initiative, a collaborative project between the CSG Justice Center and nonprofit technology partner Recidiviz, creates real-time data tools to help state policymakers better understand supervision trends. Automated tools calculate millions of metrics each week to track probation and parole revocations and identify solutions that can more effectively prevent unnecessary prison admissions. Lantern also produces custom analyses of trends in revocation decision-making and supervision violations and successes to help reduce recidivism.
For 20 years, the CSG Justice Center has helped make diversion from the justice system more effective.
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eople who have mental illnesses and substance use disorders are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. According to a study in Psychiatric Services, the prevalence of people in jails who have serious mental illnesses is often three to six times higher than that of the general public. Often, these individuals cycle through local criminal justice systems, which are frequently not equipped to provide the costly treatment and support services required by people who have behavioral health needs. To address these challenges, a growing number of communities are implementing behavioral health diversion programs as alternatives to conventional criminal justice case processing and incarceration, namely by connecting people to the appropriate communitybased treatment and support services outside the criminal justice system.
As a result of the Improving Outcomes for Youth initiative, Indiana passed legislation in 2022 that created new statewide grant programs to increase diversion opportunities (including a focus on youth with behavioral health needs), create community-based alternatives to incarceration and expand reintegration services that will support reentry to the community. The legislation also requires the use of risk-based screening and assessment tools and the statewide use of a mental health screening tool to inform diversion and dispositional decisions and match children with the most appropriate type of supervision and services that can reduce their likelihood of recidivism.
Similarly, the majority of youth involved with the juvenile justice system in this country have a diagnosable mental illness or substance use disorder. Many youth end up in the juvenile justice system not because of the seriousness of their offense, but because of their need for mental health services that are unavailable in the community. Given the needs of these youth, there is a growing sentiment that whenever safe and possible, youth with behavioral health needs who are at a lower risk should be diverted to effective community-based treatment, including options outside the juvenile justice system if these youth are not a risk to public safety.
• The Justice Center helped stand up over 185 initiatives that improve traditional law enforcement responses to people in crisis, including community responder teams, co-responder models and mobile crisis units.
• The Police-Mental Health Collaboration framework helps leaders create systems-level partnerships to reduce police contact for people in crisis, decrease use of force and arrest and connect people to care.
Looking ahead, the challenge is ensuring that there are sufficient diversion, treatment and support options available in every community. To meet this goal, the CSG Justice Center is focusing on preventing system involvement in several ways, including:
Making front-end diversion the norm for youth.
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Increasing focus on people experiencing homelessness.
• It supported the creation of hundreds of mental health courts, alternatives to arrest and detention and other services.
In 2004, the Justice Center helped secure the passage of the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act and helped increase funding from just $5 million in fiscal year 2006 to $40 million in fiscal year 2022. The act has provided $143 million to communities to divert adults and youth with serious mental illnesses.
WHAT'S BEEN ACHIEVED
For 20 years, the CSG Justice Center has used data and research-driven practices to improve diversion. Here are some examples of those initiatives.
By Leslie Griffin
• In 2015, along with the National Association of Counties and the American Psychiatric Associa tion Foundation, the Justice Center created Stepping Up, a national initiative seeking to reduce the number of people in jails who have a serious mental illness. It now includes 550 counties (and counting) that are often creating diversion opportunities to support this goal.
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Helped establish more than 600 diversion and other criminal justice and behavioral health programs nationally. Supported state lawmakers in passing legislation to promote diversion for youth.
• The Justice Center provides tools and support to guide communities in bringing diversion and crisis services to scale.
• The Justice Center fueled collaboration across behavioral health and criminal justice systems in hundreds of communities, including supporting federal grant awardees across 49 states and two U.S. territories seeking to reduce criminal justice contact for people with mental illnesses and connect them to treatment.
Helped state and local leaders replace siloed diversion initiatives with systems-level approaches.
WHAT’S NEXT
Helped federal partners and other national nonprofits pass groundbreaking diversion legislation.
Creating a robust crisis response to prevent arrests and jail stays.
PETER JOHN KOUTOUJIAN, JR. Sheriff, Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office, Massachusetts, CSG Justice Center Advisory Board Executive Committee member
I love working with this organization! For 20 years, the CSG Justice Center has brought together the brightest minds of the field to solve the most complex issues of the field. The talent and passion of each member of the executive committee is evident every time we meet. Despite holding major positions of authority, every member is fully and actively engaged when CSG convenes. This culture is alive amongst the staff as well. From Executive Director Megan Quattlebaum through every employee, you can feel the special level of commitment that they have to the mission. It has been a pleasure to work alongside the CSG Justice Center and this impressive group of leaders. I look forward to all it will accomplish over the next 20 years!”
The CSG Justice Center over the last 20 years has helped reshape the conversation on mental health and its impact on the criminal justice system in the United States. Two decades ago, it was unheard of to have these conversations about reform, and today it is at the front and center of policy dialogue because of the work the Justice Center has done.”
In those early days, when the Justice Center was part of the CSG East Region, Mike Thompson assembled an extraordinary group of visionary leaders to propose that the Justice Center become a national asset of CSG. I was blessed to be part of that inaugural board of directors and honored to have been the first chair. It was a momentous and wonderful time!”
As meaningful as the number of years the CSG Justice Center has achieved is the impact it has had across the country moving criminal legal and juvenile delinquency systems toward more just, equitable and data-informed outcomes.”
MIKE LAWLOR | Professor, University of New Haven Former member of the Connecticut House of Representative Founding member of the CSG Justice Center Advisory Board
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CAM WARD | Director, Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Parole, CSG Justice Center Advisory Board Executive Committee member
JOHN MEHR | Sheriff, Madison County, Tennessee CSG Justice Center Advisory Board member
Public Officials Reflect on the CSG Justice Center
The CSG Justice Center has helped so many departments over the past 20 years and helped to bring many positive changes to the overall working of the nation’s criminal justice system. The positive changes have improved all branches of criminal justice, from local to national, by improving the lives of individuals who go through the justice systems. These changes affect all citizens, whether they are victims of crimes and their families or the defendants. I have enjoyed being a part of CSG and serving on the Justice Center Advisory Board, working with so many great people on the board and all the staff who always are working hard to make positive changes in the criminal justice system and supplying the needs of agencies they serve.”
I applaud the CSG Justice Center as an innovator from 20 years ago and having stayed true to their mission of using data to inform and drive good decision making. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have been associated with [the Justice Center] for well over 10 years as both an implementer and creator of Justice Reinvestment Initiative legislation in two different states, both seeing successes, and I am even more honored to serve as an executive board member. This group has it going on… Happy Birthday, CSG Justice Center! Here’s to 20 more!”
The CSG Justice Center has a commitment to bipartisan, multiagency, multi-jurisdictional cooperation to develop best practices and help implement those in every state and in every county in the country.”
ANNE L. PRECYTHE | Director, Missouri Department of Corrections, CSG Justice Center Advisory Board Executive Committee member
BERNICE CORLEY | Executive director, Indiana Public Defender Council, CSG Justice Center Advisory Board Executive Committee member
MICHAEL E. FESTA | State director of AARP Massachusetts, first chair of the CSG Justice Center Advisory Board
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