Grant money helps kick off risk-assessment screening

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Two Wisconsin counties landed federal money Wednesday to advance initiatives to improve the criminal justice system.

Milwaukee and Eau Claire counties won 18-month federal grants to begin offender risk-assessment screening programs in the criminal courts that would determine if alternatives to incarceration are viable options.

The money is from the Evidence-Based Decision Making in Local Criminal Justice Systems Initiative, which is paid for by the National Institute of Corrections with support from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs.

The grants are for undisclosed amounts and will provide technical assistance to the counties largely through personnel dispersed to train and educate local officials on the best ways to implement evidence-based programs.

Seven communities throughout the country received initial grants in fall 2010 to develop a plan for improving the criminal justice system. From those seven, Eau Claire and Milwaukee counties were chosen for two federal grants to offset the cost of putting their plans into action.

The county projects will examine every step in the criminal justice process, evaluating the scope, effectiveness and success of the programs. Practices that do not stand up to scrutiny will be swapped for practices that have been proven successful.

“I think this says a lot about the willingness of the court system as a whole,” said Milwaukee County Chief Judge Jeff Kremers, “to work together to make sure we are doing our best to protect the public, hold people accountable and make the best use of limited community dollars.”

Kremers said absent the grant money, Milwaukee County would have been asked to pay for the technical assistance on its own.

Though he didn’t offer a dollar amount, Kremers said it will likely be “a considerable amount of money” to get the program going.

“We’re in the process of developing a bail assessment system,” he said, “so we’ve been given the authority to bring back experts that have been helping us do that and until now had to figure out how to pay for it ourselves.”

Milwaukee also has several additional federal grant applications pending tied to evidence-based programs, including a $1 million request submitted in June to the National Institute of Corrections.

Kremers also included a $1 million request in next year’s county budget proposal.

The county’s current budget includes $250,000 for universal screening and the Milwaukee County Board approved an additional $100,000 grant June 23 from the State Office of Justice Assistance for the program.

Kremers is optimistic that the technical assistance grant will be a springboard to additional federal grant money and saving county taxpayers money.

“We have put ourselves in position where the decision makers felt we deserved technical assistance at the highest level to help move forward with the projects we’ve identified to enhance evidence-based decision making,” he said.