Tulsa Community Foundation/Oklahoma Justice Fund

PROJECT PURPOSE

The nearly 16,000 Tulsans released from jail each year face critical barriers to accessing care, housing, work and other services essential to getting back on their feet. Nearly 40% of all Tulsa County jail admissions represent people arrested multiple times in the year. Coordination and navigation challenges in Tulsa contribute to this problem. People on supervision and probation lack access to services post-jail release, there is limited coordination between agencies and nonprofits, few diversion options exist, particularly for men. Tulsa can establish a new diversion services center that acts as a collaborative, multi-agency network in a single location dedicated to providing coordinated, life-stabilizing services to justice-involved people navigating the criminal legal system. Key features of the Tulsa diversion service center would include: 1) One-stop-shop to access multiple service providers, 2) Personalized justice navigation for issues around fines & fees and court appearances and 3) Service referrals to other quality providers.

EVIDENCE

Bexar County Jail Diversion Program. Established as a solution to jail overcrowding ? judges, commissioners, and other stakeholders made a choice to invest in diversion instead of adding new jail beds. The program serves Texans with mental illness at all stages of the criminal justice system. Voluntary participation with many points of entry. Services include case management, substance abuse treatment, medication management, employment service and a sobering unit. Today, the jail is about 1,000 people below capacity. The county saves more than $10 million per year on averted jail costs.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Those detained in jails, prisons, and detention centers have been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic due to lack of physical distancing, proper sanitation methods, and challenges with testing and vaccinations. Throughout the pandemic, jails and prisons have not been isolated from outside communities. There are many documented stories of correctional staff and other officers contracting the virus outside of work and bringing it into prisons or jails, or bringing the virus to their communities from prisons and jails, resulting in large outbreaks. Thus, jails and prisons have been extremely conducive to the spread of the virus, resulting in a large number of infections and deaths. This project will safely reduce the number of individuals in congregate housing by better serving individuals in the community.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The goal of the service center is to connect justice involved individuals to life stabilizing resources and services to help them become safe, stable, and self-sufficient. A robust data system will be utilized at the services center by all employees to track clients, services received and outcomes. Key outcome indicators that will be tracked include: reduced days in jail, reduced recidivism, reduced failure-to-appear, and reduced probation violations.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma