Criminal Justice Coordinating Council

The Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) is the centerpiece of the Foundation’s strategy to address mass incarceration by reducing jail misuse and overuse and racial disparities in jails. The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council of East Baton Rouge Parish (East Baton Rouge) is a member of the third cohort of jurisdictions to participate in the SJC. This final capstone award enables East Baton Rouge to continue its participation in the SJC network, building on the progress achieved during previous rounds of funding, both in safely reducing jail populations and increasing fairness, while sustaining momentum for local system reform.

The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council of East Baton Rouge Parish (East Baton Rouge) is a member of the third cohort of jurisdictions to participate in the Safety and Justice Challenge Network, the centerpiece of the Foundation’s strategy to address overincarceration by reducing jail misuse and overuse and disparities in jail usage. This award enables East Baton Rouge to build on and secure progress achieved during previous rounds of implementation funding, both in reducing jail populations and increasing fairness, while sustaining local system reform momentum.

East Baton Rouge Parish (East Baton Rouge) was one of twenty competitively selected jurisdictions chosen in 2017 to join an expanded Safety and Justice Challenge Network as Innovation sites, receiving small project grants and technical assistance in support of targeted efforts to safely reduce jail misuse and overuse. In 2018, on the basis of its Innovation site performance, East Baton Rouge was awarded a deeper implementation investment enabling it to undertake more ambitious reforms aimed at driving down local incarceration and disparities in jail usage. This award enables East Baton Rouge to continue and deepen these comprehensive reform efforts, with the aim of achieving further reductions in local incarceration, targeting racial and ethnic disparities, advancing racial equity, and contributing momentum toward criminal justice systems reform nationally.