Summary: DC Public Safety Radio won the 2015 awards for best podcast and best audio from the National Association of Government Communicators. DC Public Safety Radio and Television won the Government Customer Service Community of Practice (Cgov) 2014 Overall Excellence and Best Use of technology Awards. See conta.cc/1qiBV74 . DC Public Safety Television won three top awards for public affairs television in 2014 from CTV and DCTV. Welcome to “DC Public Safety” – Radio and television shows, blog and transcripts on crime, criminal offenders, and the criminal justice system. For FY 2013 through FY 2015, we recorded 218,700 unique visitors, 633,000 visits and 1,924,300 page views (excluding robot searches). This is radio show 263. The portal site for “DC Public Safety” is http://media.csosa.gov Subscribe to “DC Public Safety” through iTunes. See transcript at http://media.csosa.gov/podcast/transcripts/2016/03/veteran-treatment-courts/ Current Radio Program: Veterans Treatment Courts are one of the fastest growing criminal justice programs in the United States. Since 9/11, more than 2.5 million Americans have served our country in uniform. Many of them have deployed several times. And many of these men and women in uniform are coming home and struggling not only with the physical wounds of war, but also its “invisible” wounds: post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Since the inception of the first Veterans Treatment Court by Judge Robert Russell in Buffalo, NY in 2008, there are now more than 300 veterans treatment courts across the country. These courts account for veterans’ military service and provide diversion and treatment alternatives specific to their needs. The development of a screening tool specific to veterans is now underway through partnership between the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Center for Court Innovation (CCI). The assessment tool factors in the latest research on trauma and will support an accompanying case planning protocol. This Veterans Treatment Court Enhancement Initiative is a three-year project that will include implementing the tool and protocol in two pilot sites. The pilot site solicitation opportunity will be released in November 2015. Our guests include Director of Treatment Court Programs at CCI, Aaron Arnold; Associate Deputy Director for BJA, Ruby Qazilbash; and Correctional Program Specialist from NIC, Greg Crawford. The websites for NIC, BJA and CCI: National Institute of Corrections: http://nicic.gov/ or link to NIC broadcast on veterans: Veterans Treatment Courts: A Second Chance for Vets Who Have Lost Their Way http://nicic.gov/library/029869 Bureau of Justice Assistance: https://www.bja.gov/ Center for Court Innovation: http://www.courtinnovation.org/ Special Announcements: A top priority for the Department of Justice is to invest in scientific research to ensure that the Department is both tough and smart on crime. The Office of Justice Programs’ CrimeSolutions.gov website shapes rigorous research into a central, reliable, and credible resource to inform practitioners and policy makers about what works in criminal justice. A new website lists and evaluates prisoner re-entry programs nationwide. Launched by the Urban Institute, the Council of State Governments, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Prisoner Reentry Institute, the “What Works Clearinghouse” can be seen at http://nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/what_works. The National Reentry Resource Center is a project of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice. Please see the Center’s website at http://www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/. Please see “Federal Interagency Reentry Council Launches Website, Releases Myth-Buster Series” on the front page of the site (see announcements). CSOSA is a member of the Council. Several requesters have asked for national research on reentry. The Office of Jus[...]
