Spokane awarded $1.9 million to advance local justice system reform

Olivia Roberts by Olivia Roberts

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Spokane City and County are the recipients of a $1.9 million grant by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to continue efforts to advance local criminal justice system reform and safely reduce Spokane’s jail population, bringing the Foundation’s total investment in Spokane to $3.8 million to date.

The grant is part of the Safety and Justice Challenge, a $166 million national initiative to reduce over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails.

Spokane was first selected to join the collaborative Safety and Justice Challenge Network in 2015 and has since used the resources and funding provided by the Challenge to implement bold reforms, including creating and expanding diversion programs, improving case processing across all three courts, implementing evidence based practices pre-trial, and addressing racial and ethnic disparities across the system.

Spokane County was selected for additional funding based on the promise of progress of work to date. This new round of funding will provide Spokane City and County and other local partners with additional support and continued expert technical assistance to strengthen and expand strategies that address the main drivers of local jail incarceration, with the goal of decreasing average length of stay from 18 days to 14 days, and reducing Spokane’s average daily jail population by 15 percent over the next two years.

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