Budget for Reform
For years, the Center has worked with local governments to drive fiscal and operational innovation, sustainability, and affordability for complex public safety and justice issues.
From jails and courts to police and fire departments, we are experts in the fields of criminal justice and public safety. Our work in this area includes conducting comprehensive reviews of criminal justice systems, supporting local governments in outcomes-based budgeting and developing multi-year financial plans, with a focus on the costs of law enforcement and opportunities for alternative investments. And as a partner in the National Resource Network, we use our expertise to help provide solutions for America’s most economically challenged cities.
Comprehensive Analysis of Criminal Justice Systems
Over the years our work reviewing the criminal justice systems of a variety of local governments has led to a number of recommendations and reforms related to incarceration. We regularly advise our clients that incarceration is one of the costliest responses to crime in a community and we advocate for alternatives to incarceration and bail reform. Investing in programs designed to support individuals as they return to their communities from periods of incarceration not only makes good financial sense, it’s a best practice for reforming the criminal justice system.
For example, in New Orleans, LA, where we served as the expert witness on the fiscal impacts of the consent decree for the Orleans Parish Prison, our analysis demonstrated that the single best way to achieve a cost effective, constitutional jail was to reduce the size of the jail population. In Cuyahoga County, OH, we provided a detailed analysis on the potential consolidation of local jails, and our analysis and recommendations for Danville, VA, where the local incarceration rate was nearly five times the national rate, has led to recent discussions to close their only remaining adult detention center, known as City Farm.
Funding Public Safety & Shifting to an Outcomes-Based Approach
As part of our work on multi-year planning and outcomes-based budgeting in local governments from Virginia to Illinois to Tennessee, we help local governments rethink how to budget for safety and justice and shift to an outcomes-based approach.
In many places, local governments have over-invested in law enforcement as a response to crime and underinvested in strategies to build communities and tackle inequality. This prioritization for funding police and corrections was born out of the explosion in crime that occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The increase in funding continued even as crime declined significantly starting in the mid-90’s and leading up to today. Frequently, in the face of fiscal pressures, other departments had to make cuts while police and corrections agencies were typically deemed “essential services”. The result? Spending on public safety and the criminal justice system is often at or near fifty percent of the overall budget in many cities and counties across the country.
Some of the Center’s comprehensive budget reviews have found that savings could be realized by reducing the size of their police force and re-investing those savings in programs designed to provide early interventions. In Rockford, IL, our recommendations included a 10% reduction in police force over a seven year period coupled with increased investments in neighborhoods and revitalization, and targeted funding for prevention programs for young people. Funding prevention programs — especially ones focused on education, economic opportunity, health and housing — can help address challenges faced by at-risk individuals in the long-term, leading to better outcomes through a more efficient use of local government dollars.
Taking an outcomes-based approach to safety and justice budgeting — one that doesn’t treat police and corrections as sacred cows — may mean a shift in investments for a local government and it may not. Every community is different, facing different needs and challenges, and there’s no single budget approach or policy that will solve all problems. But through innovation, experience, and a deep understanding of how budget, policy, and management can work together to create real change, the Center helps local governments align how they budget with their broader justice and safety policy goals.