Think Outside the Cage: Return on Investment

Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Return on Investment

Imagine what we could do if we actually funded treatment..

From the Doug Linkletter newsletter:

Return on investment, ROI, is an unhappy topic for many people these days, given the poor performance of most financial investments. In the crime prevention arena, however, we have some good news: an annual ROI of over 180%!

A recent analysis of the five main programs funded by the Crime Prevention and Control Commission show an average return on funds invested of 181%. For the $2.3 million committed by the Commission to these programs, we are experiencing a savings of approximately $6.3 million per year. This equates to a decline in average daily jail bed needs of 227 beds.

The five programs providing the above results include Drug Court, Pre-Trial Investigation Reports, "Court-to-Community" Mental Health Services, Community Reentry Services and Pretrial Supervision. For the most part, the analysis includes only direct benefits to the judicial system, not the additional benefits to the community of having people who would otherwise be committing more crimes now become productive citizens.