Criminal histories

This plenary will trace the arc of Allegheny County’s evidence-based investments in justice and human services reform, starting with the Allegheny County Jail Collaborative in 2000. Participants will highlight Allegheny County’s ongoing, and evolving investments in risk assessment tools to inform pretrial and child welfare decision-making, its commitment to reducing racial disparities in the human services and justice systems, and its continued commitment to building and learning from evidence informed by rigorous evaluation methodologies. 

This panel will discuss what inclusive research is, how to conduct it, and what issues and challenges exist about engaging in it. “Inclusive research” has its history as a participatory research method designed to ensure people closest to the issue or problem under study are authentically engaged in the research process rather than simply being “research subjects.” While community-based participatory research has begun to take on greater prominence in the criminal justice realm, such efforts are largely confined to qualitative research inquiries.

NIJ hosted a webinar to discuss under-researched aspects of reentry: expungement of criminal records and the impact of those records. This webinar includes a presentation of ongoing research projects examining the impact of legal aid for expungement and past research projects studying the accuracy and permanency of criminal records and the prevalence of collateral consequences of conviction. A Q&A session will conclude this webinar.