States face numerous and pressing criminal justice challenges that directly impact communities and agencies across multiple levels of government. State leaders—governors, legislators, and agency officials—play a critical role in ensuring public safety by setting priorities, identifying policies and programs to achieve them, and allocating finite resources that impact every area of the justice system. At the same time, state leaders are struggling to address challenges in accessing treatment across the continuum and acute shortages in the workforce, improve services for victims of crime, and increase opportunities for people returning to their communities from incarceration. Effectively addressing these challenges requires state leaders to examine system operations carefully, define the outcomes they want to see, and work collaboratively to adjust key policies, practices, and budgets to bridge the gaps.
You can view your state’s criminal justice snapshot here:
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