NCJ Number
207663
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 66 Issue: 6 Dated: October 2004 Pages: 114-116
Date Published
October 2004
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article describes the benefits, challenges, and successes of North Carolina's Criminal Justice Partnership Program (CJPP), which is responsible for ensuring that prison and jail space is limited to those offenders who have committed violent and repeat offenses, while community-based programs for less serious offenders are expanded.
Abstract
The CJPP is called a "partnership" because the State provides the grant-allocated monies based on a formula per county, and the counties provide additional funds needed to operate the program. A local advisory board composed of representatives from the criminal justice system and the community determine what types of programs to offer, the services available in the community, and how to spend the funds. In 2002, CJPP faced its greatest challenge thus far; a statewide fiscal crisis placed the program in jeopardy of elimination. Creative cost-cutting measures that continue in place to the present saved the program. Although some of the programs were temporarily shut down in 2002, most have resumed normal operation. Currently, CJPP is operating in 92 of the State's 100 counties. Although its initial $12 million grant is now $8.3 million, more than 80 different types of programs operate across the State to provide effective alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders. Success rates for completing CJPP programs average between 37 percent and 43 percent statewide. CJPP's goals continue to garner the support of legislators and the public, i.e., to reduce recidivism, the number of probation revocations, substance abuse, and the cost to taxpayers of excessive incarceration.