Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR) and ideas42 are pleased to offer a free virtual training on using behavioral science and principles of procedural justice to design effective communications for people in the pretrial phase of criminal proceedings. This training will occur over two sessions: Wednesday, December 7, from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET, and Wednesday, December 14, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. The deadline to register is Wednesday, November 23.
About the Training
In the criminal legal system, the smallest missteps—such as missing court or failing to pay a small fine—can have outsized impacts on people’s freedom, livelihoods, and well-being. Too often, system stakeholders react to such events with punishment or other accountability measures. A missed court appearance is assumed to be a deliberate act by the person, and the court often automatically issues a warrant for their arrest.
Pretrial communications are important to people’s success pretrial. Yet critical information delivered to people pretrial (such as notice to appear forms and orders of pretrial conditions) is designed for system stakeholders, not the people who could benefit from the information. The result is that people are overwhelmed and confused about what actions they need to take.
An example from New York City illustrates how using behavioral science can help make communications clear and actionable and contribute to improved pretrial outcomes. In partnership with ideas42, the city redesigned its summons form to make it clearer and easier for people to respond appropriately, and created text message court reminders to make planning for the court date more manageable. The results are impressive: the behavioral redesign of the form reduced failure to appear (FTA) rates by 13 percent. The most effective reminder messaging reduced FTAs by 26 percent relative to receiving no messages.
In this interactive virtual training, APPR criminal legal system experts and ideas42 behavioral science experts will explain key principles related to procedural justice and behavioral science and apply them to communications with people awaiting trial. We’ll examine common communication tools, such as notice to appear forms, orders to report to pretrial services, orders setting pretrial release conditions, and court reminder messages. Faculty and participants will then create materials that are clear, motivating, and effective.
Learning Objectives
- Understand what behavioral science is and how it can inform more effective pretrial practices
- Understand procedural justice principles and how they can influence pretrial practices
- Apply behavioral science principles to identify reasons why people in the pretrial phases may not be taking important actions
- Use behavioral science and procedural justice principles to create materials for people awaiting trial that are clear, motivating, and effective
Training Faculty
Dr. Kelvin L. Banks, senior manager, Center for Effective Public Policy
Dr. Banks has over 20 years of criminal legal system experience, with almost the last 10 years in the pretrial field. He was previously the director for Harris County Pretrial Services and the Third Circuit Court of Michigan’s Pretrial Services.
Alison Shames, director, Center for Effective Public Policy
Alison has provided training and technical assistance in pretrial justice, community supervision, sentencing, and corrections to dozens of jurisdictions for over 15 years.
Alissa Fishbane, managing director, ideas42
Alissa leads ideas42’s Safety and Justice portfolio. She is currently working with stakeholders to reach better pretrial outcomes related to decision making and behavior, such as improving court appearance rates, ability to pay systems, diversion programs, and pretrial release decisions.
Samantha Hammer, principal behavioral designer, ideas42
Samantha manages Safety and Justice research and design projects, partnering with agencies across the country to develop behaviorally informed approaches to challenges such as improving appearance rates, optimizing ability to pay systems, increasing people’s success on probation, and streamlining early probation termination.
Shannon McAuliffe, associate managing director, ideas42
Shannon has more than 25 years of experience working within the criminal legal system as a lawyer and nonprofit leader. At ideas42, she has led projects using behavioral science to improve court appearances, decrease probation revocations, improve diversion programs, and increase access to and use of fee reduction programs.
Registration Process
Please complete the training registration by Wednesday, November 23.
Confirmed participants will receive additional information about the training, including how to prepare for and attend the sessions and access related resources.
Please direct questions to Alison Shames, APPR Co-Director, at ashames@cepp.com.