Evaluation & Research Literature: the State of Knowledge on BJA
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Evaluation & Research Literature: The State of Knowledge on BJA-Funded Programs March 27, 2015 Overview The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is a leader in developing and implementing evidence-based criminal justice policy and practice. BJA’s mission is to provide leadership in services and grant administration and criminal justice policy development to support local, state, and Tribal justice strategies to achieve safer communities. This is accomplished in many criminal justice topic areas, including adjudication, corrections, counter-terrorism, crime prevention, justice information sharing, law enforcement, justice and mental health, substance abuse, and Tribal justice. Under each topic area, BJA funds numerous programs and initiatives at the Tribal, local, and state level. In partnership with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), other Federal partners, and many other research partners, many of these programs have been evaluated, while others have not. The intent of the following report is to assess the state of knowledge as determined by data collection, research, and evaluation of and related to BJA- funded programs. This report is a resource that can be a reference for both evaluation and research literature on many BJA programs. It also identifies programs and practices for which U.S. Department of Justice resources have played a critical role in generating innovative programs and sound practices. This report identifies programs and practices with a solid foundation of evidence, as well as those that may benefit from further research and evaluation. Program evaluation is a systematic, objective process for determining the success of a policy or program. Evaluations assess whether and to what extent the program is achieving its goals and objectives. Using this wide-ranging definition, a systemic literature review was conducted on 32 different BJA programs and initiatives. Before program evaluation, strong data collection practices are critical for understanding the scope and nature of an issue. Consequently, where appropriate, certain descriptive reports that are not evaluative in nature were also identified when limited evaluation literature was found. Using keyword searches, program and process evaluations were identified and summarized for each of the 32 programs and initiatives. The National Criminal Justice Reference Services (NCJRS), Federal websites (e.g., NIJ, BJS), Google Scholar, state websites, national associations, research institutions, and training and technical assistance provider websites were searched for evaluations and other reports. Finally, the “Crimesolutions.gov” website was also searched by topic area so that the summaries would include programs and practices that have already been evaluated. When no evaluations on a certain program/initiative were identified, the search criteria were widened to include scholarly research (i.e., research published in scholarly journals). Finally, recent Federal audits were identified and referenced. The report includes a summary table highlighting the number of evaluations, crimesolutions.gov ratings of programs and practices, and other related research. The summary table is intended to quantify the number of reports, reviews, or articles in each topic area, and it includes a key defining the terms used in the summary table and program sections. While this report is as comprehensive as possible, it is not intended to be a complete accounting of all research and evaluations completed on a certain program or initiative. BJA will continue to update this report annually (in the fall of each year) as new information is published. Table of Contents Evaluation Initiative Tracking Key .......................................................................................................... ii Bureau of Justice Assistance Evaluation Scan Initiative Tracking ........................................................... iii 1. Border Prosecution Initiatives ........................................................................................................... 1 2. Bulletproof Vest Partnership ............................................................................................................. 3 3. Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) ......................................................................................... 6 4. Capital Case Litigation Initiative Program ....................................................................................... 11 5. Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) Program ........................................................... 13 6. Drug Court Programs: Including Specialized and Problem-Solving Courts ...................................... 20 7. Economic, High-tech, and Cyber Crime Prevention ......................................................................... 33 8. Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) ...................................................... 36 9. Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS); Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative ........ 45 10. Intellectual Property Theft Enforcement Program (IPEP) ................................................................. 52 11. Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) ................................................................ 54 12. Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) ............................................................ 56 13. Justice Reinvestment Initiative ........................................................................................................ 65 14. Missing Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Program ........................................................................ 73 15. The National Center for Campus Public Safety ............................................................................... 76 16. Pay for Success Program ................................................................................................................. 81 17. Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Program ................................................................................ 86 18. Project Honest Opportunity Probation and Enforcement/Swift & Certain Sanctions ......................... 91 19. Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) .................................................................................................. 95 20. Reentry Courts .............................................................................................................................. 103 21. Regional Information Sharing System (RISS) ................................................................................ 108 22. Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) Program ............................................................. 112 23. Second Chance Act (SCA) ............................................................................................................ 124 24. Smart Policing Initiative ................................................................................................................ 139 25. Smart Prosecution Initiative Program ............................................................................................ 146 26. Smart Supervision Program (SSP) ................................................................................................. 148 27. State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) ........................................................................ 152 28. Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification (SAVIN) ............................................ 154 29. VALOR Program .......................................................................................................................... 159 30. Veterans Treatment Courts (VTC) ................................................................................................. 162 31. Wrongful Conviction Review Program (Justice for All Act) .......................................................... 164 i Evaluation Initiative Tracking Key Crime Solutions: The data in these columns indicate the number of ratings of the reviewed program on the Crimesolutions.gov website. Each program with a rating has been provided by type for review, where available. Effective: The data in this column represents programs that have been rated as effective according to crimesolutions.gov. Promising: The data in this column represents programs that have been rated as promising according to crimesolutions.gov. No Effects: The data in this column represents programs that have been rated as having no effect according to crimesolutions.gov. Insufficient Evidence: The data in this column represent the total number of evaluations of the program that are found on the insufficient evidence list on the Crimesolutions.gov website. These evaluations were found to not meet the minimum rating criteria and as a result were not used to determine a rating for the program. Highlighted Reports: These articles represent evaluations of BJA’s national initiative, and/or the study is nationwide in scope. NIJ Evaluations: The data in this column represent the total number of NIJ-sponsored evaluations of the reviewed program. Other OJP Evaluations: The data in this column represent all other OJP-sponsored evaluations. These evaluations can be sponsored by BJA, BJS, OVC, OJJDP, or the SMART Office. Total Evaluations: The data in this column represent the total number of evaluations of the reviewed program including OJP and non-OJP funded evaluations. Other Academic Articles: These articles