The Winter 2018 print edition of the Alaska Justice Forum features articles on evidence-based practices that have been incorporated into Alaska's criminal justice system: a new pretrial risk assessment tool designed to calculate a defendant's risk of failure to appear at trial or of committing another crime if released pretrial; and the Alaska Results First benefit cost analysis of established evidence-based programs designed to reduce recidivism. The Results First analysis also provides a new eight-year study of recidivism rates in Alaska. The Winter 2018 online edition includes expanded versions of print stories and a video (with transcript) which further describes Alaska's new pretrial risk assessment tool.

This collection includes PDFs of the complete print edition, of the complete online edition, and of individual articles from the online edition.

Recent Submissions

  • Alaska Pretrial Risk Assessment Tool (Transcript)

    Fox, Geri; Cravez, Pamela (Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, 2018-01-16)
    [This is a transcript of a video presentation, which can be found at https://youtu.be/wYEP3wDnVVQ.] Geri Fox, Director of the Pretrial Enforcement Division of the Alaska Department of Corrections, is interviewed by Pamela Cravez, editor of the Alaska Justice Forum, about the advantages and limitiations of Alaska’s new pretrial risk assessment tool. The tool, incorporated in Alaska’s new bail statute, calculates whether a defendant is at low, moderate, or high risk for failure to appear at trial or to commit another crime if the defendant is released pretrial, and aids in the judge's decision regarding pretrial bail conditions.
  • Expanded View of Recidivism in Alaska

    Valle, Araceli (Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, 2018-01-16)
    This article describes findings on recidivism over an eight-year period for individuals released from Alaska Department of Corrections facilities in 2007. These findings emerged from the Alaska Results First (RF) analysis released by Alaska Justice Information Center (AJiC) in October 2017. In general, the RF findings corroborate previous analyses which examined recidivism patterns one to three years after release, but by following offenders for eight years, AJiC is expanding our understanding of recidivism patterns in Alaska for a large group of offenders, beyond any prior study.
  • Benefit vs. Cost of Alaska Criminal Justice Programs

    UAA Justice Center (Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, 2018-01-16)
    The Alaska Results First report released by Alaska Justice Information Center (AJiC) in October 2017 shows the benefit to cost ratio (monetary return on the state’s investment) for Alaska's adult criminal justice programs, provides tools for assessing how changing the cost structure and delivery method can impact benefit to cost ratios, and provides a new eight-year study of Alaska recidivism rates. This article briefly summarizes the report and provides an introduction to an accompanying article about the report's findings on recidivism in Alaska.
  • Alaska's Evidence-Based Investment (editor's note)

    Cravez, Pamela (Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, 2018-01-16)
    Pamela Cravez, editor of the Alaska Justice Forum, gives an overview of articles in the Winter 2018 edition, which focuses on evidence-based practices that have been incorporated into Alaska's criminal justice system.
  • Pretrial Risk Assessment Tool Developed for Alaska

    Cravez, Pamela (Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, 2018-01-16)
    Beginning January 1, 2018, judicial officers, defense attorneys, and prosecuting attorneys in all Alaska courts began to receive information from a new pretrial risk assessment tool that calculates whether a defendant is at low, moderate, or high risk for failure to appear at trial or to commit another crime if the defendant is released pretrial. The tool, incorporated in Alaska’s new bail statute, aids in the judicial officer’s decision regarding pretrial bail conditions. This article looks at risk assessment tools in general and describes the development of Alaska’s pretrial risk assessment tool.
  • Alaska Justice Forum ; Vol. 34, No. 3 (Winter 2018) 

    Cravez, Pamela; Valle, Araceli; Fox, Geri; UAA Justice Center (Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, 2018-01-16)
    The Winter 2018 print edition of the Alaska Justice Forum features articles on evidence-based practices that have been incorporated into Alaska's criminal justice system: a new pretrial risk assessment tool designed to calculate a defendant's risk of failure to appear at trial or of committing another crime if released pretrial; and the Alaska Results First benefit cost analysis of established evidence-based programs designed to reduce recidivism. The Results First analysis also provides a new eight-year study of recidivism rates in Alaska. The Winter 2018 online edition includes expanded versions of print stories and a video (with transcript) which further describes Alaska's new pretrial risk assessment tool.