Prior to the GPL’s technical assistance, the Santa Cruz County Probation Department’s Pretrial Division did not have a process to capture and share real-time data with judges about people awaiting trial.
Additionally, Santa Cruz pretrial clients were often assigned more restrictive pretrial release conditions (i.e., over-supervision) than recommended by the public safety risk assessment (PSA) tool.
Santa Cruz County pretrial staff faced high caseloads and had many pretrial clients assigned to restrictive supervision conditions, creating administrative burden and backlogs.
Standardizing data collection practices by aligning with stakeholders on key metrics and building capacity for data-driven performance management practices.
Providing analysis and resources for the department to restructure policies to right-size the level of supervision recommended for each client, honoring individuals’ autonomy while still maintaining public safety and other pretrial performance outcomes (i.e., court appearance rates).
Creating data tools and practices for 1) judges to review their decisions and adjust the release conditions for compliant individuals and 2) for pretrial staff to manage caseloads more effectively.
Initial Results:
The GPL trained Santa Cruz pretrial stakeholders on how to improve the recommendation rate, which is the frequency with which a pretrial officer recommends the same release decision to a judge as determined by the PSA. This reduced the frequency in which the pretrial officer’s determination deviated from the risk assessment tool from 30% to 18%.
With the GPL’s support, Santa Cruz pretrial staff reformed program data reporting tools to:
Collect more than 300 real-time data points that allow judges to actively adjust pretrial conditions based on data.
Exclude technical violations (i.e., probation office check-ins) from condition assessments, in alignment with national guidance, allowing pretrial staff to focus on core outcomes. This results in the pretrial success rate increasing from 60% to 78%.
The Santa Cruz County Probation Department is committed to helping families and individuals restore their lives and providing balanced supervision. With applied research support and technical assistance focused on data-driven performance management from the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab, we will be better positioned to do so.Yolanda James-Sevilla
Pretrial Division Manager, Santa Cruz County Probation Department, Pretrial Division
The Santa Cruz County Probation Department is committed to helping families and individuals restore their lives and providing balanced supervision. With applied research support and technical assistance focused on data-driven performance management from the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab, we will be better positioned to do so.Yolanda James-Sevilla