Rhode Island
Step 2: Provide policymakers with options to generate savings and increase public safety
During the 2007 legislative session, a bipartisan working group convened by the Governor and leaders from the state legislature, and comprising executive, legislative, and judicial representatives reviewed a set of policy options to avert the projected growth in the prison population and save taxpayers’ dollars. State officials collaborated with the Roger Williams Hospital to leverage up to $4 million in in-kind behavioral healthcare services from the hospital. These services included strategies to reduce the backlog of parolees awaiting residential treatment; implement drug and mental health screens at intake to prioritize treatment services prior to parole board hearings; and provide assessment and treatment resources to reduce probation and parole technical violations.
Additionally, policymakers from the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and the Parole Board worked with the Justice Center and its expert consultants to develop and implement several administrative options including:
- screening people admitted to prison during intake to identify people with substance abuse needs;
- utilizing a logic model to both guide program placement decisions as based on risk and demonstrated need, and reduce the length of stay for certain offenders by ensuring timely access to treatment in prison that will be required by the parole board prior to release; and,
- employing a parole risk assessment to incorporate when making release decisions.
In May 2008, at the recommendation of the working group, the state legislature included significant changes to Rhode Island’s corrections policy in its supplemental budget that:
- standardize the way Rhode Island calculates earned time credits for people in prison who demonstrate good behavior;
- allow people in prison to earn time off their sentence for participation in, and completion of, educational, job-training, substance abuse and behavior modification programs; and,
- require the parole board to utilize risk assessments to determine the likelihood of a person committing another crime when making parole release decisions. 6
- Rhode Island Legislature, “An Act Relating to Corrections Reform”, enacted 2008.