Mecklenburg County Criminal Justice Services

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, is a member of the second 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 racial and ethnic disparities in jail usage. This capstone award is the final award to Mecklenburg County to continue its participation in the SJC network and maintain progress achieved during previous rounds of funding, both in reducing jail populations and increasing fairness, while sustaining momentum for local system reform.

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, is a member of the second cohort of jurisdictions to participate in the Safety and Justice Challenge Network, the centerpiece of the Foundation’s strategy to address over-incarceration by reducing jail misuse and overuse, and disparities in jail usage. Under previous awards, Mecklenburg developed, refined, and implemented a series of policy, practice, and system alignment changes aimed at reducing local incarceration and disparities in jail usage. This award enables Mecklenburg to continue and deepen its reform efforts, with the aim of achieving further reductions in local incarceration, targeting racial and ethnic disparities, and contributing momentum toward criminal justice systems reform nationally to build on and secure progress achieved during previous rounds of implementation funding in reducing jail populations, increasing fairness, and advancing racial equity while sustaining local system reform momentum.

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (Mecklenburg) is one of twenty jurisdictions originally selected 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. Under previous awards, Mecklenburg developed, refined, and implemented a series of policy, practice, and system alignment changes aimed at reducing local incarceration and disparities in jail usage. This award enables Mecklenburg to continue and deepen its reform efforts, with the aim of achieving further reductions in local incarceration, targeting racial and ethnic disparities, and contributing momentum toward criminal justice systems reform nationally.

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (Mecklenburg), is one of twenty jurisdictions originally selected to participate in the Safety and Justice Challenge Network, the centerpiece of the Foundation’s strategy to address over-incarceration by reducing jail misuse and overuse. Under its previous award, Mecklenburg refined its approach and strategies, and made significant progress on the implementation of its reforms. This two-year award enables Mecklenburg to make comprehensive policy, practice and system alignment changes aimed at reducing local incarceration and disparities in jail usage. The aim is to demonstrate more effective, fairer, and equitable responses to crime and social disorder, creating momentum toward local systems reform nationally.

Following a national competition in 2015, twenty jurisdictions were selected for inclusion in the Safety and Justice Challenge Network, the centerpiece of the Foundation’s strategy to address over-incarceration by reducing jail misuse and overuse. A previous award enabled these sites to assess local drivers of jail incarceration and develop plans to address them. Resulting plans were reviewed with the help of an expert panel, and eleven Core Sites were selected for implementation funding, with the remaining nine partner site jurisdictions to receive smaller awards enabling them to continue to participate in the Challenge Network. Partner sites will use their awards to refine and strengthen their plans for targeting drivers of local incarceration, begin implementation where possible, and continue to share what they learn with other Network sites.