The Women’s Risk Needs Assessment (WRNA) is a dynamic, validated risk assessment tool designed for women by women under a multi-year (2002-2007) cooperative agreement with the University of Cincinnati. The WRNA has 3 separate instruments: prison intake, prison pre-release, and community (probation) assessment.

Beginning in June 2023, a WRNA Diversity Review Team (DiveRT) began convening virtually under a cooperative agreement to review the WRNA instrument, its training media, and its support materials to critically reflect on how the WRNA serves women of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

The DiveRT sessions were facilitated by Dr. Emily Salisbury and Jessica Seawright from the University of Utah and the program was managed by Katie Reick, a correctional program specialist with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC).

The team was selected by the cooperative agreement awardee, Dr. Salisbury and individuals from the University of Utah. The team consisted of practitioners with in-depth knowledge of the WRNA and extensive experience in either administering the tool or providing training on how to use it. Members included people with lived experience, people working within the criminal justice system, and people whose work consisted of a focus on reentry.

The team’s work was split between a committee focusing on reviewing and suggesting updates to the training materials, including presentation slides and handouts, and a team focused on reviewing the instrument itself.

The work culminated with an in-person session at the University of Utah on November 13, 2023. This session consisted of the team members, University of Utah staff, and NIC staff reviewing proposed changes, focusing on what could be easily adapted and updated, and determining what items would take more research and analysis before changes could be made.

The DiveRT team consisted of Dr. Lisa Calderón; The Center for Trauma and Resilience; Dr. Donna Rixey; Shawntelle Fisher, Soulfisher Ministries; La Tonya Moore, Los Angeles County Probation; and Leticia Longoria-Navarro, The Pathfinder Network. University of Utah Staff included Dr. Salisbury, Jessica Seawright, and Kate McCauley. Katie Reick and Belinda Stewart, Correctional Program Specialists with NIC, participated in the Diversity Review Team sessions as well.

On November 16, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the launch of the Jails and Justice Support Center (JJSC), a strategic collaboration among justice partners meant to bolster the federal government’s response and assistance to the nation’s jails. Marking the event was a meeting hosted by the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) in collaboration with the Arlington County Adult Detention Center in Virginia. DOJ Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta attended the event alongside sheriffs, representatives of nonprofit justice advocacy groups, and federal partners.

“The JJSC is a vital resource for the nation’s jails,” said Gupta and praised its partners for their “willingness to share innovative practices, reveal what works in local communities, and engage in peer-to-peer learning.”

The JJSC aims to fill in the gaps to provide jails with training and technical assistance that are not currently offered elsewhere. The center will promote data-driven approaches with an eye toward outcomes such as wellness for staff and incarcerated individuals, reduction of oversight through consent decree, reduction of violence and use of force, and elimination of deaths in custody due to substance abuse. The JJSC also promises to be a hub for referring jails to other federal resources and programs for which they may qualify or be better suited.

“The answers lie in the hands of the people we serve,” said NIC Director (A) Holly Busby, highlighting that the JJSC was created on the basis of feedback that NIC and others received from thought leaders and executives from around the country representing the nation’s jails.

Following an agenda that guided attendees through a brief history of and anticipated future for the JJSC, the launch event ended with core topic briefings on screening and assessment, medical and behavioral health, and use of force. These topics had been identified as being among the greatest challenges currently facing jails. A large portion of the day’s discussion also centered around the challenges that many jails face with consent decrees and how the JJSC can be a resource for helping them get out from under scrutiny.

“Our focus is to help jails develop a constitutionally sound foundation for administering a jail,” said Panda Adkins, Director of the JJSC.

“We have large workloads ahead,” said Stephen Amos, chief of the NIC Jails Division, “but it’s not an excuse for not moving forward.”

The JJSC and its partners emphasized the importance of sheriffs and jail staff reaching out to their colleagues and others to let them know about the new center.

Major JJSC partners include NIC, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the American Jail Association (AJA), the National Association of Counties (NACo), Major County Sheriffs of America, the National Sheriffs Association (NSA), the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), and Rulo Strategies. For more information, visit jailsupportcenter.org.

While incarceration rates are declining overall, incarceration among black, American Indian, and Hispanic people continues to exceed incarceration rates among white people¹. Throughout the country, departments of correction are analyzing ways they can reduce the consequences of this ongoing trend without sacrificing safety, including how classifications systems can contribute to disparities among incarcerated individuals.

In collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Correction Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, the National Institute of Corrections will make available findings from a study intended to identify the racial and ethnic disparities found in classification systems. The results will be used to develop a model and toolkit that agencies can use to help them reduce the disparities that may be found in their current systems.

Researchers will visit several correctional facilities throughout the state of Massachusetts, examining classification from the perspective of both staff and the people they supervise as well as the steps that comprise classification and reclassification processes.

Researcher Spencer G. Lawson, PhD, a senior research scientist in the Law and Psychiatry program in the Implementation Science and Practice Advances Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School was recently awarded $600,000 in funding over four years from the National Institute of Justice to complete this project.

¹ Prisoners in 2020 – Statistical Tables by E. Ann Carson, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistics. Accessed 11/13.2023. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p20st.pdf .