Johnson County invited to White House initiative on reducing jail populations

IOWA CITY — Johnson County is one of 67 city, county and state governments participating in the White House's Data-Driven Justice Initiative, which seeks to lower jail populations.

Jessica Peckover, Johnson County Jail Alternative coordinator, said the invitation to the initiative is encouraging to local leaders as they continue with jail alternative efforts, including a massive effort to develop a local campus dedicated to addressing the needs of the homeless and mentally ill.

'It was reaffirming that we're on the right track,' said Peckover.

The Data-Driven Justice Initiative strives to keep low-level offenders suffering from mental illness out of jail and, in turn, reduce the personal and financial impacts of those incarcerations.

For more than a year, officials from Johnson County have been traveling to San Antonio to learn about efforts there to keep the homeless and mentally ill out of jail. San Antonio's model includes Crisis Intervention Training for police officers, a low barrier homeless shelter, a sobering unit for those under the influence of a controlled substance and a mental health crisis stabilization center.

The effort to bring that campus approach to Johnson County still is in the planning stages, but local officials are to begin offering Crisis Intervention Training to area law enforcement officials starting next year. Previously, local police and deputies had been traveling to San Antonio to receive the training.

Peckover said Johnson County was invited to the initiative in February after the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy got a referral from the Corporation for Supportive Housing. CSH awarded Iowa City's Shelter House a grant last summer and since then had become familiar with the local efforts.

Since February, local officials have participated in conference calls every other week with the 66 member entities to exchange data and best practices. Peckover said one take-away from those discussions has been the praise of the San Antonio model.

'This campus model that we're looking at was definitely the gold standard,' she said.

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Earlier this summer, Peckover, Shelter House Executive Director Crissy Canganelli and Iowa City Police Officer David Schwindt traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in a DDJ work session. Peckover said in addition to networking and exchanging information, they learned about potential technical and financial resources for the local project.

The work session also helped in organizing the local effort, Peckover said. Since attending the conference, officials have begun to look at hiring a project manager.

'It helped us flesh out a few things that are key in moving the project forward,' she said. 'It helped confirm this is the right direction and gave us some key points to help make it happen.'

Canganelli agreed that the conversations they've had with other government entities across the country have been an affirmation of the local efforts. They key, she said, will be to take the experiences of others and adapt them to Johnson County.

'This is the direction we need to be going,' Canganelli said. 'Our challenge is to make it ours.'

Stakeholders for the Johnson County project last met in May and are scheduled to meet again in August.