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1 McLean County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council Executive Committee Meeting August 14, 2013 Present: Judge Robert Freitag, Judge Elizabeth Robb, Jason Chambers, Kim Campbell, Greg Allen, Lori McCormick and William Scanlon ISU Stevenson Center: Dr. Frank Beck CJCC Strategic Plan The Executive Committee received a revised copy of the strategic plan (dated August 14, 2013) which reflects all amendments and edits from the June 12 and July 11 meetings. Following a brief discussion, the Plan was approved. Kim Campbell will obtain the graphic for the CJCC from NCHS, and it will be presented to the full Council in September. National Institute of Corrections Report The full report has not been received by the Sheriff’s office. Discussion was tabled until the September meeting. CJCC Website The Court is reviewing applicants for an intern position who would be assigned to revamp the current CJCC website. Any potential changes will be discussed at the September meeting or circulated to all Executive Committee members. CJCC Committee Structure There was discussion regarding the amended committee structure. There was discussion about appointing chairs to the various committees prior to the October Council meeting. William Scanlon was asked to circulate the current members list and those who have indicated a preference for a committee assignment. There was discussion regarding the process for assigning persons to committees or allowing persons to sign up for committees. Committee assignments are not necessarily limited to those persons who are part of the Council. The new committees are (with proposed chairs): Jail Utilization (Greg Allen) Data Management (William Scanlon and Liz Barnhart – co-chairs) Best Practices (Lori McCormick) Community Relations (Kim Campbell) Executive (Robert Freitag) Members were asked to consider some appropriate assignments for Council members by the September meeting date. ---PAGE BREAK--- 2 ISU Stevenson Data Report Dr. Frank Beck discussed the jail utilization data for 2013 (year-to-date). 2013 is looking a lot like 2011- 2012. There has been an increase in Criminal Felony bookings, with steady bookings in CM, DT and TR cases. The length of stay has remained steady, but with the increase in bookings, the Jail is at capacity, but the usage of the facility is appropriate. There was a discussion of the demographics of the jail population – the consensus is that the jail is being used appropriately, but the population is not one which provides much flexibility for alternative housing options. There are fewer persons in pre-trial services or pre-trial supervision. Since January 2013, there have been fewer persons identified as mentally ill, and the length of stay for those identified as mentally ill have been reduced from 2012. Lori McCormick discussed the efforts of the Recovery Court to reduce the time it takes to evaluate those applying to the Court. Dr. Beck explained the “other” charges and “ZZ” charges: “other” refers to Traffic and Ordinance Violation cases; “ZZ” is a category of charge for ordinance violations which are quasi-criminal in nature. Dr. Beck will communicate with Dr. Ed Wells regarding his data on case processing time. He will have personnel assigned to complete that analysis and promised slow, but steady progress. There was a discussion on the issue of recidivism and the definition of recidivism in the Drug Court and Recovery Court evaluations being conducted by the National Center of State Courts. Dr. Beck will discuss the definition of recidivism with Liz Barnhart (Court Services) and will try to understand the definition so that any analysis between programs remains internally consistent with the NCSC evaluation data. Multi-variant analysis (multiple variables) will be available, with some analysis of what elements of the data (offense type, violent offense vs. non-violent offense, drug offense, bond amount, petitions to revoke, etc…) can be compared and it can be determined which elements contribute to the length of stay in custody. The Executive Committee is very interested in this type of analysis. Other William Scanlon discussed articles on judicial management and governance available from the Justice Management Institute (JMI). He will distribute those articles to all members. The US Census will provide data on the racial and ethnic characteristics within a few months, including data on the percentage of the population which “does not speak English well”. This may help guide the development of forms, instructions and signs in the appropriate languages. Meeting Adjourned: 8:53 a.m. Next Meeting: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 at 7:45 a.m.