Partnership to Research Drivers of Probation Failures Awarded $197K Grant

The Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice and Ramsey County Community Corrections have been awarded a $197,000 grant to conduct a joint in-depth research and data-analysis project on the drivers of probation failures.

The grant is part of the Reducing Revocations Challenge, a national initiative of Arnold Ventures and the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance dedicated to understanding the drivers of probation revocations and identifying ways to reduce the community supervision failures that send almost 350,000 people to jails and prisons nationally each year.

There were 20,400 individuals sentenced to felony probation in Ramsey County between 2002 and 2016. Through the end of 2017, 4,174 (20.5%) individuals were revoked.

The findings will be used to propose evidence-based solutions for policy and practice to avoid probation failures. Some strategies may receive additional funding in a potential second phase of the initiative.

“We are honored to be working in partnership with Ramsey County Community Corrections,” said Kelly Lyn Mitchell, Executive Director of the Robina Institute. "The data-driven approach we plan to use in this project has the potential to serve as a model for analyzing and addressing probation revocations throughout the state,” she added.

The full release on the grant and project is available on the Robina Institute website.

Kelly Lyn Mitchell
Executive Director, Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice & Lecturer in Law