Circumventing the Sentencing Grid: Encouraging Downward Departures in Presumptive Prison Cases

Abstract

This study examines sentencing outcomes of Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) focused on reducing incarceration by encouraging downward departures to community-based sanctions in presumptive prison cases. The sample includes 3,930 defendants enrolled in the JRI program. Pre-adjudication assessment reports and a judicial settlement conference were used to help the court decide if a case warranted a departure offer. A quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching balanced JRI program defendants to 1,153 historic defendants that would have been eligible in the previous year. Logistic regressions assessed the impact of both program participation and race/ethnicity, controlling for other factors on prison versus probation sentence outcomes and sentence length in prison outcomes. On average, across all racial groups, program participants are 52% less likely to go to prison. The impact of participation on sentencing outcomes was also equitable across the race/ethnicity of defendants. However, the program did not affect sentence length of prison outcomes.