LJC in East Baton Rouge Parish

LJC in East Baton Rouge: Assessment Instruments and Protocol

Nationally, incarceration rates are on the rise. In 2007, the number of people in prison in America grew by 1.6%. Louisiana’s jail population grew by 1.9%. Louisiana currently has over 37,000 men, women and children in state or parish prisons. Louisiana leads the nation with the highest rate of incarceration: 1,137 people per 100,000 residents.

Criminal behavior is almost always related to an unmet social need, either directly or indirectly. By shortchanging all social service providers – including the public defender – jails have increasingly become the centers of communities, housing individuals who have been unable to get the assistance that they need to avoid contact with the criminal justice system. Illiteracy, unstable housing, mental illness, addiction and limited job opportunities are among the most frequent social issues of clients represented by public defender offices across Louisiana.

In order to develop sound policies to inform sentencing alternatives (like specialty courts and treatment alternatives), promote more effective social service networks and improve the quality of public defense, the Louisiana Justice Coalition is working with the Louisiana State University School of Social Work to develop an assessment instrument and protocol to measure the extra-legal needs of clients in prison. This instrument will be applicable for any assessment of pre-trial prison population in Louisiana. Further, the protocol will outline the appropriate methodology to ensure the collection of statistically significant, substantively accurate data.

LJC expects the assessment instrument and protocol to be complete by the end of Summer 2008 and has plans to administer the assessment in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison in Fall 2008.

This project is made possible by a grant from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.
More information about the foundation is online at http://www.braf.org