Evaluating Oregon’s Justice Reinvestment Act: An Interrupted Time-Series Regression of State-Level Outcomes

Abstract

Many jurisdictions across the U.S. have adopted justice reinvestment initiatives (JRIs) as a strategy for reducing the use of incarceration and mitigating large correctional budgets. In spite of this widespread adoption, little empirical research has explored the impacts of justice reinvestment policies. In response, this study employed quasiexperimental, interrupted time-series regression analyses using a decade of monthly court and corrections data to assess if JRI legislation in Oregon was effective. Results show decreased prison usage and recidivism, as well as reveal delayed and significant trend changes for felony jail admissions and community corrections populations as a result of the JRI legislations. A course for future research to further advance understanding of reinvestment and resource reallocation is outlined.

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

“…Our findings confirm dashboard reports showing that the county reduced the use of prison for JRI eligible offenses by about 4,000 prison months annually in January 2019 (the end of our study timeframe) compared with the baseline average of 8,800 months per year from 2012 to 2015 (OCJC, 2020). A recent statewide JRI analysis shows that few counties were successful in lowering local and state prison population growth, and Multnomah County was a leader (Dollar et al, 2022). The impact of MCJRP participation on the likelihood of going to prison and sentence length also did not exhibit any racial/ethnic disparity.…”