Just 'Cause - Vera Institute of Justice

Just ’Cause

Vol. 18, No. 2 • SPRING 2011

Manhattan Bail Project Revisited By Jules Verdone

When they launched the Manhattan Bail Project in 1961, Vera’s cofounders, Herb Sturz and Louis Schweitzer, found a way to make the bail system fairer, based on the principle that most people can be trusted to show up in court and should not be detained simply because they cannot afford bail. As Vera celebrates its 50th anniversary, it bears asking why so many parts of the United States still rely heavily on the use of bail—despite decades of research showing that alternatives can be more effective and less disruptive. Detaining an arrested person until he or she posts bail is just one option for authorities. Others include release on recognizance (which means the defendant agrees to appear in court); release under supervision; and detention without bail. According to the Pretrial Justice Institute, a research and advocacy organization in Washington, DC, only about 400 jurisdictions—roughly 1 in 8 counties—offer an array of such alternatives as part of a pretrial services system. Today, best practices call for using an empirically based risk-assessment instrument to determine how much risk

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Bail Reform Act in 1965.

an accused person poses to public safety or of failing to appear in court. Still active in pretrial justice reform, Vera is working with government and community-based partners to develop a comprehensive pretrial services system in continued on page 6

Taking a New Tack on Chronic Teen Absenteeism By Alice Chasan

Every generation has a word for it—ditching, cutting, playing hooky—and most teens have tried skipping school. For many, the thrill of defying authority may be a harmless rite of adolescent passage. But nostalgia masks the bigger story. In New York City in the 2008–2009 school year, nearly 40 percent of high school students—about 124,000 teenagers—missed 20 or more days of school. Their motives are many, including fear of violence, lack of reading proficiency, and the lure of a paying job. Most kids who miss significant amounts of school find, however, that catching up to their grade becomes increasingly difficult, raising the probability that they will become statistics in the nation’s dropout rates. The consequences can be dire; research shows a correlation

between failure to finish high school and involvement in the justice system. In 2008, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) asked Vera to help it investigate whether the state’s response to absenteeism through the child protective services system was working. In a subsequent series of studies, Vera staff found that there are no systematically employed best practices in responses to chronic absenteeism, and that the child protective services response is particularly ineffective for adolescents, who represent the large majority of chronically absent youth. That’s when Vera sharpened its focus on the problem of chronic teen absenteeism. Virtually all states respond punitively to teenagers who miss too much school. The range of responses incontinued on page 6

From Vera’s Director March 22: Happy Birthday, Vera March 22 came and went this year without much notice. Yes, there was untold tragedy in Japan and tumult across the Middle East. But from where I sit in New York City, it was a day like any other. Except for one small, yet significant detail: half a century earlier, on March 22, 1961, the Vera Foundation—the Vera Institute of Justice’s first incarnation—was incorporated in New York State. If Vera had a precise birthday, this was it. A fiftieth birthday only comes around once…if you’re lucky. So it’s worth reflecting on. My mind went to the people dedicated to what Vera stands for: those who worked here, from giants like our cofounders Louis Schweitzer and Herb Sturz, to the thousands who put in long hours to find data, concepts, or practices that would shift an entire system to expand justice’s embrace. I also thought of those who invite our help—forward-thinking officials from New York to China—and those who have advanced our cause financially, from the Ford Foundation, which built upon Schweitzer’s early support to establish Vera as an ongoing entity, to our core supporters and those who participate in our annual benefit. I thought, too, of the countless people who have benefited from our work over the decades: children, incarcerated adults, immigrant communities, people with disabilities, victims of crime, and so many others. Most government officials do the best they can—no one goes into public service to make things worse. But the demands of a bureaucracy can sap anyone’s time and energy. That’s why Vera is so important. It is an entirely independent resource with the perspective, skills, and commitment needed to help wellintentioned officials make their systems fairer and more effective—whether that means changing the bail system so poor, innocent people spend less time in jail awaiting trial, as Schweitzer and Sturz set out to do, or creating a more compassionate and trustworthy model of care for incapacitated people, as our Guardianship Project does today. Another Vera giant, Nicholas de B. Katzenbach, once wrote, “Louis Schweitzer believed passionately in the ability and obligation of ordinary men to make the Constitution work. He would not leave the law to lawyers, and he was right.” New York and the United States have been extraordinarily lucky to be home to an organization like Vera, which continues to be motivated by this ideal. Across the world, people aspire to greater justice. The odds are a lot better when there’s a place like Vera to call on for assistance. Happy Birthday!

Michael P. Jacobson Director, Vera Institute of Justice

Letters to the Editor may be sent to: [email protected] Vera Institute of Justice, 233 Broadway, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10279 Tel: (212) 334-1300, Fax: (212) 941-9407, www.vera.org

2

jUST ‘CAUSE

ABOUT JUST ’CAUSE The Vera Institute of Justice is an independent nonprofit organization that combines expertise in research, demonstration projects, and technical assistance to help leaders in government and civil society improve the systems people rely on for justice and safety. Just ’Cause is produced by the Communications Department: Robin Campbell, Alice Chasan, Abbi Leman, Michael Mehler, and Jules Verdone.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES John F. Savarese Chair Michael P. Jacobson President Roger A. Blissett James K. Bredar Edward P. Brynn Karen S. Burstein Zachary W. Carter William P. Dickey Richard G. Dudley, Jr. Dean M. Esserman Saul A. Green Robert H. Henry Sally T. Hillsman Sandra A. Lamb Eric Lane Susan Powers Lodge Catie Marshall Joseph F. McDonald Theodore A. McKee Orlando Rodriguez Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr. Karen P. Seymour Alan Vinegrad HONORARY TRUSTEES Norborne Berkeley, Jr. Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Richard L. Menschel Michael E. Smith Christopher E. Stone Herbert Sturz Patricia M. Wald

Cost-Benefit Knowledge Bank Website Launches By Alice Chasan

In April, one year after its debut, Vera’s Cost-Benefit Analysis Unit (CBAU) launched a website for its Cost-Benefit Knowledge Bank, whose mandate is to increase the use of cost-benefit analysis in justice-related fields. Cbkb.org is designed to serve as a resource and a virtual meeting place for policymakers, researchers, economists, and practitioners in criminal justice to share information about the use of cost-benefit analysis in their work. It is also a repository for the content arising from CBAU’s growing body of webinars, roundtables, and presentations. “Federal, state, and local governments The Cost-Benefit Knowledge Bank website, www.cbkb.org spend an estimated $214 billion on police, courts, and corrections each year, yet few interactive forum, encouraging broader conversation have a sense of the return on investment from this through blog comments and submissions of materials spending,” said Tina Chiu, Vera’s director of technical from researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. assistance, who heads the Cost-Benefit Analysis Unit. The “sense of community around cbkb.org was pal“Cbkb.org aims to fill this knowledge gap.” pable” even in the run-up to the launch, said Christian According to James H. Burch, II, acting director of Henrichson, CBAU senior policy analyst. As evidence, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, in the U.S. Departhe pointed to the high attendance rate—an impresment of Justice, which provides funding for the Costsive 75 percent on average—of registrants for CBAU’s Benefit Knowledge Bank, even though cost-benefit is first webinars, which occurred earlier in 2011. “The a buzzword among policy and budget makers, there is timing is right,” he concluded, noting that the presa “substantial lack of agreement on how to measure ent era of limited resources for government agencies cost-benefit.” Burch recently wrote on the blogs of has made policy makers appreciate the need to make Vera and cbkb.org that the site’s practical features, smart, effective decisions about criminal justice policy. such as the cost-benefit analysis toolkit, should help According to Lora Krsulich, a policy analyst with standardize the methodology among officials around CBAU, cost-benefit analysis is a crucial decisionthe country. making tool. “While it yields valuable data, it also “A good cost-benefit analysis takes training,” said C. enhances understanding of the process of identifyEdward Banks, who works with CBAU staff as project ing and weighing costs and benefits,” she explained. manager in BJA’s Strategic Initiative Unit. “Knowing Henrichson echoed the point: “Cost-benefit analysis how to ask the right questions is a necessary start.” moves the public dialogue beyond costs and cutting But cbkb.org is not just for visitors wanting a basic costs to understand why we’re taking on the policy in understanding of cost-benefit analysis, he says. Feathe first place.” tures like the comprehensive reference database of “It is my hope,” wrote Burch, in his guest blog, literature on cost-benefit analysis, for example, should “that while cbkb.org may seem an exceptional project make it useful for more sophisticated users as well. today, cost-benefit analysis will become much more Most of the content on cbkb.org—the blog, the engrained and commonplace in policy making in the tool kit, and videos of CBAU’s webinars—is produced next five to 10 years.” by CBAU’s staff. But the site is also intended to be an For more information, contact Tina Chiu at [email protected]



Spring 2011

3

With Laura Negrón Director of the Guardianship Project Laura Negrón joined Vera in April 2010 to lead the Guardianship Project, a demonstration project that assumes legal guardianship and decisionmaking responsibility for elderly and disabled people in New York City when a judge determines that they are unable to care for themselves. Just ‘Cause spoke with Laura about the challenges of working in the guardianship system, especially in a tough economic climate. Interview by Abbi Leman

The Government Accountability Office released a report in September 2010 identifying serious deficiencies in processes used for screening and monitoring courtappointed guardians in 45 states and the District of Columbia. What impact has this had on the field and on the Guardianship Project? That report, Guardianships: Cases of Financial Exploitation, Neglect, and Abuse of Seniors, highlighted the failure of checks and balances in many state guardianship systems, which has resulted in the neglect, abuse, and financial exploitation of extremely vulnerable individuals. These systemic deficiencies can leave people who may only need limited assistance with discharge planning languishing in institutions or unable to pay their bills; others may end up in the care of unscrupulous guardians. Unfortunately, these problems are not new and, in fact, have been documented by the media and others for years. These issues are deliberately addressed by our model. We use a team approach, involving lawyers, social workers, and property and financial case managers. We have dual signature requirements for large financial transactions. We also conduct criminal and financial background checks on every person employed by the Guardianship Project. What drew you to the Guardianship Project? Along with my brother, I was my father’s guardian during his slow decline following a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. My mother was also seriously ill for about seven years, during which time individuals posing as home attendants tried to financially exploit her. The kinds of issues

4

jUST ‘CAUSE

I confronted as my parents’ caretaker and seeing patients who were neglected and alone while institutionalized inspired me to make a contribution to the field. I knew about Vera for many years and always had a high regard for it as a pioneer in justice policy reform. After completing the Elder Law Clinic in law school, and given my passion for social justice, I thought directing the Guardianship Project was a perfect blend of my social work background and law career. Can you describe some recent successes at the Guardianship Project? Because we are legally required to protect the privacy of people in our care, I cannot name any individuals. But I can describe their cases. We have, for example, an 88-year-old client with severe dementia who had been institutionalized for six years. She had been financially exploited by her doorman, who liquidated a substantial portion of her assets, fled to Central America, and left her with unresolved capital gains taxes. The IRS had placed a lien on her accounts, and she was in a nursing home when we were appointed as her guardian. The nursing home, too, brought a civil action against her for non-payment. We were able to resolve the tax lien and arrears that had accrued on her cooperative apartment and have worked with outside counsel to address her debt. Just recently, we were able to move her home with round-the-clock home care, something she has dreamed of all along. The legal and finance staff, case managers, and property manager worked closely together to make all of this happen. continued on next page

Q&a with Laura NegrÓN – continued from previous page

A hallmark of the Guardianship Project is our commitment to moving institutionalized clients back to the community wherever possible—which can make them happier and healthier and save significant Medicaid dollars. In 2010 the project saved New York State $2.5 million in Medicaid expense, and since inception it has generated $8 million in savings—and that’s serving only 200 clients. We’re currently working with about 16 judges, primarily in Kings and New York counties. But we also have a couple of cases in the other boroughs, and we are seeing an influx of referrals as judges get to know our work. What do you think is the most significant challenge facing New York’s guardianship system today? The way the guardianship system is structured. Most cases are assigned to private attorneys, and payment for services is typically based on a percentage of clients’ assets. As a result, clients with complex health and management issues and limited means are not attractive or even possible to serve, even if a well-meaning person wanted to. One of our first clients had been locked in a psychiatric ward for nine months because no one would take the case. Another was in a hospital for more than two years. About 85 percent of our clients are economically disadvantaged— with about 40 percent living below the federal poverty level. These are not cases that are typically going to see any significant fees or commissions. How has the economic climate affected your services and your clients?

Every year we struggle for funding to remain open. Our original business model envisioned a certain percentage of wealthy clients whose commissions would help support our work with indigent clients. But we don’t see many of those cases. In addition to the usual grant-seeking activities to ensure our sustainability, we’re exploring innovative funding mechanisms, including social impact bonds. We would also like to share our expertise with other counties and states. More secure long-term funding would help us do that. On a personal note, you had a long career in community development before you went to law school. What made you want to change careers? I see my path to law school as part of a life-long continuum of serving the public interest. It was something I always wanted to do, but I came from a very old-fashioned family and my father had other aspirations for me: let’s just say, an M.R.S., not a J.D. But when my mother became ill, she inspired me to pursue my dream. It was hard going back after being out of school for so many years. I had a family already: a son in college and a teenage daughter. I had to carve out three and a half years of my life for law school and the bar. I gave it my all, becoming managing editor of my school’s journal and passing the bar on the first try. It was all in my mom’s honor because she never got a chance to go to college. I hope through this achievement and my work to inspire my children to become all that they dream for themselves. For more information, contact Laura Negrón at [email protected]

New Podcasts from the Neil A. Weiner Research Speaker Series “Parallel Justice,” Susan Herman, professor, Department of Criminal Justice and Human Services, Pace University “Globalization and the Gang,” David C. Brotherton, chair, Sociology Department, John Jay College of Criminal Justice; and professor, the Graduate Center, CUNY

“Hot Spots of Crime and Crime Prevention,” David Weisburd, Distinguished Professor, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University “Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition,” David Garland, professor, New York University; and Arthur T. Vanderbilt Professor of Law at the NYU School of Law

See all podcasts at www.vera.org/resources or on iTunes For more upcoming events in the Neil A. Weiner Research Speaker Series, visit www.vera.org/content/neil-weiner-research-speaker-series



SPRING 2011

5

BAIL – continued from page 1

New Orleans, where the detention rate is more than twice the national average for urban areas. “Basing detention or release decisions on money is not only fundamentally unfair, it is ineffective,” says Jon Wool, director of Vera’s New Orleans office. As evidence, Wool cites a recent report from the International Association of Chiefs of Police concluding that bail has “little or no bearing” on whether a defendant will return to court and refrain from criminal activity. Wool also notes that defendants who can afford bail can effectively buy their release, even if they are potentially dangerous. In New Orleans, bail also creates racial disparities—as it does elsewhere— because a disproportionate number of the city’s lowincome residents are people of color. “Once we develop a risk-assessment instrument,” Wool says, “the system can screen defendants, make better decisions about detention, supervise people who are released, and analyze the relevant data.” As executive director of the New York City Criminal Justice Agency—a Vera spin-off from the Manhattan Bail Project—Jerome McElroy has extensive knowledge about providing pretrial information to arraignment judges in criminal court. He believes a symposium that U.S. At-

torney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., is convening on the subject in late May could generate more enthusiasm for alternatives to bail. “A national spotlight may be able to show the downside of jurisdictions where there isn’t any pretrial service,” McElroy says. “It may also show potential gains, including fiscal gains for jurisdictions where pretrial services are operating—and operating effectively.” (Vera’s preliminary data analysis for New Orleans projects that if even half the city’s nonviolent pretrial detainees were released at their first court appearance, 343 fewer people would be in jail on any given day, saving the city roughly $3 million a year.) McElroy concedes that sometimes there is strong resistance to providing pretrial services. Many of these programs are straining financially; meanwhile, the bail bond industry often tells county executives and legislators that their services don’t cost anything, he explains. Nevertheless, he sees reasons for optimism. “We tend to think of these as services to the defendant, and that’s true,” he says. “But they are really services to the court. If judges say, ‘We cannot do our jobs without this service being made available to us,’ we’ll see more of it happening.” For more information, contact Jon Wool at [email protected]

Absenteeism – continued from page 1

cludes an escalating scale of parental fines, policing operations that pick kids up from the streets during school hours and place them in truancy centers where no learning takes place, and investigating parents or guardians for alleged “educational neglect.” Vera’s 2010 report, Getting Teenagers Back to School, found that in New York, parents of chronically absent teens who are investigated for educational neglect report intense feelings of shame and, often, a loss of faith in the education system. These unintended consequences—of investigations that rarely uncover dangerous home conditions for adolescent absentees (as opposed to chronically absent younger children)—paradoxically undermine student school engagement. “The need for innovation in this arena is clear,” says Jessica Gunderson, lead author of the 2010 study. In her conversations with educators and child advocates around the country as part of the study, Gunderson, a senior policy analyst in Vera’s planning department, heard the same observations repeatedly: “The idea that a one-time intervention where you try to bore or scare a teenager into going back to school simply doesn’t work.”

6

jUST ‘CAUSE

That’s also the consensus in the New York City mayor’s office, which last June announced the formation of an interagency task force to combat truancy and chronic absenteeism in the city’s schools. Both the task force members and state officials recognize the importance of Vera’s efforts to craft innovative responses to the problem, informed by the latest literature on adolescent development, which shows that teens respond to a consistently caring adult and the support of peers. “We have had our instincts reinforced,” says Eric Brettschneider, OCFS assistant commissioner and regional coordinator. “Outreach to youth and their families must be early, escalated, and effective.” With support from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and the Ira W. DeCamp Foundation, Gunderson and her colleagues have begun the next phase of the work: creating a pilot program that would test an innovative response to chronic teen absenteeism. “We have not lacked for interested partners,” says Gunderson. “And we’re starting to put pen to paper, fleshing out the model.” For more information, contact Jessica Gunderson at [email protected]

News & Announcements Trustee news Roger Blissett, managing director of U.S. strategy for RBC Capital Markets and vice chairman of the Institute of International Bankers’ board of trustees, has joined Vera’s board of trustees. Before becoming a managing director for RBC Capital Markets, Blissett served as senior deputy general counsel. Earlier, Blissett worked as a product manager in the fixed income division of Lehman Brothers and practiced law at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. Staff news Margaret diZerega, director of Vera’s Family Justice Program, is coauthor with Carol Shapiro of a chapter in the new book Offender Supervision: New Directions in Theory, Research and Practice (Willan Publishing, 2010). The chapter, “It’s Relational: Integrat-

ing Families into Community Corrections,” discusses why including families as part of a supervision strategy may prevent adults or juveniles from reentering the justice system. The chapter includes case studies of the supervision approaches some jurisdictions are using to increase family engagement and offers tools and methods for other practitioners to use to integrate family into their current supervision strategies. Wayne McKenzie, founding director of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Program, which works with prosecutors’ offices around the nation to look for and address evidence of racial bias in decision making, has left Vera after six years to become the general counsel of the New York City Department of Probation. In his six years at PRJ, McKenzie established partnerships with prosecutors in Charlotte, North Carolina; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and San Diego, California, and built national awareness of the program’s work.

New Resources Piloting a Tool for Reentry: A Promising Approach to Engaging Family Members (March 2011) describes the Family Justice Program’s Relational Inquiry Tool (RIT)—a series of questions designed to prompt conversations with incarcerated men and women about the supportive people in their lives—and how the tool was used in prisons in Oklahoma and New Mexico. In the video “Women’s Life-Course Pathways to Justice-System Involvement” (March 2011), Jim Parsons, director of the Substance Use and Mental Health Program, discusses a pilot project that mapped the life-course of incarcerated women who have histories of mental illness and substance use. Juvenile Detention Reform in New York City: Measuring Risk Through Research (April 2011) describes New York City’s new research-based riskassessment instrument (RAI) for detention decisions in family court. The RAI, designed to be used alongside a continuum of community-based alternatives to detention, helps judges decide whether arrested youths

are likely to reoffend or fail to appear if allowed to go home prior to their court date. Setting an Agenda for Family-Focused Justice Reform (May 2011) documents promising practices to make justice systems more family-focused through multidisciplinary efforts. The report recommends emphasizing safety and security; encouraging more contact between incarcerated individuals and their family members; involving family in shaping practice and policy; and conducting more research. Based on work creating collaborations between victim services and disability organizations in more than 40 communities, Forging New Collaborations: A Guide for Rape Crisis, Domestic Violence, and Disability Organizations (May 2011) recommends steps for building effective collaboration and practical strategies for overcoming common obstacles. See all resources at www.vera.org/resources



Spring 2011 SPRING

7

233 Broadway, 12th Floor

Presorted First-Class Mail US Postage PAID Hackensack, NJ Permit No. 1121

New York, NY 10279

Inside 1 Taking a New Tack on Chronic Teen Absenteeism 2 From the Director: Happy Birthday, Vera 3 Cost-Benefit Knowledge Bank Website Launches 4 Q&A with Laura Negrón 7 News & Announcements

Upcoming Event On Monday, September 19, the Vera Institute will hold its sixth annual benefit and mark its 50th anniversary. The event will recognize Michael S. Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Inc., as its corporate honoree, and Luis A. Ubiñas, president of the Ford Foundation, as public service honoree. Mr. Dell founded Dell Inc. in 1984. He later formed MSD Capital, and then with his wife established the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. He serves on the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, the executive committee of the International Business Council, and is a member of the U.S. Business Council. Mr. Ubiñas serves on the World Bank Advisory Council of Global Foundation Leaders, the UN Permanent Memorial Advisory Committee, and the boards of the New York Public Library and the Collegiate School for Boys. He has been nominated by President Obama to serve on the U.S. Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiation. Co-chairs of this year’s benefit include Marc R. Lisker, MSD Capital; John F. Savarese of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and chair of Vera’s Board of Trustees; Vera trustee Karen Patton Seymour of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; Larry Tu, Dell Inc.; Vera trustee Alan Vinegrad of Covington & Burling LLP; and David M. Zornow, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

Michael S. Dell

date:

Luis A. Ubiñas

Monday, September 19, 2011

Location: Grand Promenade



Avery Fisher Hall Lincoln Center Broadway and 65th Street New York, NY

CONTACT: Joel Levy at [email protected] or



(212) 376-3003