The Strategy: How Justice Reinvestment Works
Step 3: Quantify savings and reinvest in select high-stakes communities.
State and city leaders work with the justice reinvestment team to determine how much they will save, and avoid spending, by adopting some or all of the options identified by the experts. Policymakers and the team’s experts develop plans for reinvesting a portion of these savings in new or enhanced initiatives in areas where the majority of people released from prisons and jails return. For example, officials can reinvest the savings and deploy existing resources in a high-stakes neighborhood to redevelop abandoned housing and better coordinate such services as substance abuse and mental health treatment, job training, and education. Unlike a prison reentry program, which residents may perceive negatively as prioritizing limited resources for people released from prison, these efforts are viewed generally as benefiting everyone in the community, regardless of their involvement in the criminal justice system.