Report

Reducing Revocations Challenge: The Cook County (Chicago) Adult Probation Department and Loyola University Chicago Action Research Team Final Report

    By
  • Name
    Kathryn Bocanegra ·
  • Name
    Jordan Boulger (CCAPD) ·
  • Name
    Kaitlyn Foust ·
  • Name
    David Olson ·
  • Name
    Vinnie Palazeti ·
  • Name
    Avery Pankratz ·
  • Name
    Don Stemen ·
  • Name
    Amanda Ward ·
On

ReportProbationRecidivismEvaluationCook-County
Report

Over the past two decades, efforts to reduce the number of people in prison have frequently focused on probation as an alternative to incarceration. State and local criminal justice systems have adopted policies and practices that incentivize the use of probation (e.g., justice reinvestment models), while enhancing the quality of services available to those on probation to reduce recidivism (e.g., incorporation of the risk-needs-responsivity approach and Effective Practices in Community Supervision-EPICS). Reducing revocation rates (the percent of individuals on probation who violate and are subsequently resentenced, often to prison), offers additional opportunities to reduce incarceration, however, little is known about the extent and nature of probation revocations (both nationally and, specifically, in Illinois).

To address this gap in knowledge, in 2019, Arnold Ventures launched the Reducing Revocations Challenge to support local jurisdictions in examining the factors underlying probation failure, and the ways in which probation failures and revocations impact jail and prison admissions. Arnold Ventures supported 10 action research teams (ARTs) across the country in this effort, including the partnership between the Cook County Adult Probation Department (CCAPD) and Loyola University Chicago’s Center for Criminal Justice Research, Policy and Practice. To gain insight into the rates, patterns, and possible solutions of probation violations and revocations, the Cook County ART performed analyses of case-level data for all 26,580 adult probation cases closed between 2017 and 2019, interviewed key justice system stakeholders, and surveyed probation officers.

Download the report to read our research in full.