Smart Suite Academy
Overview
The Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA’s) “Smart Suite” of programs re-examines every aspect of the criminal justice system to identify what is working in the field to reduce crime and recidivism and make our communities safer. The Smart Suite of programs represents a strategic approach that brings more “science” into criminal justice operations by leveraging innovative applications of analysis, technology, and evidence-based practices with the goal of improving performance and effectiveness while containing costs.
At the heart of the Smart Suite are practitioner-researcher partnerships that use data, evidence, and innovation to create strategies and interventions that are effective and economical. This data-driven approach assists jurisdictions to understand the nature and extent of the crime challenges they are facing and to target resources to the highest priorities.
Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP)
The purpose of the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP) is to provide financial and technical assistance to states, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to develop, implement, or expand comprehensive efforts to identify, respond to, treat, and support those impacted by illicit opioids, stimulants and other drugs of abuse.
Encouraging Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs
Through Encouraging Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs, BJA builds partnerships with law enforcement and other criminal justice practitioners to leverage innovative strategies for preventing and reducing crime.
Innovations in Supervision Initiative (ISI)
The Innovations in Supervision Initiative (ISI) provides grants and technical assistance to state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to develop, implement, and test strategies to increase probation and parole agencies’ abilities to reduce crimes committed by those supervised in the community.
Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN)
Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is designed to create safer neighborhoods through a sustained reduction in crime associated with gang and gun violence. The program is based on the cooperation of local, state, and federal agencies engaged in a unified approach led by the U.S. Attorney (USA) in each district.
Second Chance Act Demonstration Program (SCA)
The Second Chance Act Demonstration Program (SCA) focuses on techniques to improve an offender’s motivation to change and strategies to alter criminal thinking using a desistance approach. This multi-site demonstration program also provides a rigorous test of a specific reentry model to improve offender outcomes post-release.
Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI)
The Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) provides funding through a competitive grant program to support the comprehensive reform of jurisdictions’ approaches to sexual assault cases resulting from evidence found in sexual assault kits that have never been submitted to a crime laboratory.
Smart Suite Academy
The Smart Suite Academy is an online, asynchronous resource that builds on the valuable work of prior in-person Smart Suite Academies. The purpose is to further the Smart Suite approach by making these resources available to a broader audience than previous in-person attendees.
The online Smart Suite Academy has three components that further information sharing and foster the researcher-practitioner relationship.
- First, the Smart Suite Go To Stage site houses a collection of previous Smart Suite Academy presentations. It also includes other presentations from partners that further the Smart Suite approach.
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- Second, the community forums serve as a place where prior academy attendees and other interested parties can exchange asynchronously exchange information online.
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- Third, the Smart Suite collection in the Justice Information Center (JIC) houses a variety of resources, including publications and presentation slides. The fully searchable database contains other collections open to all Smart Suite participants.
Resources
Smart Suite Go To Stage Site
The Smart Suite Academy’s Go To Stage site is the repository of video presentations from previous Smart Suite Academies. You can access these recordings as well as other relevant partner presentations.
visit the Smart Suite Go To Stage Site
Smart Suite Community Forums
At the heart of the Smart Suite initiative is the practitioner-researcher partnership. Prior in-person Smart Suite Academies brought together researchers and practitioners to share information and to develop strategies and interventions to address specific crime problems. To expand this approach more broadly, we created an online community where prior academy attendees could re-connect with other attendees to exchange information to further their work. This community will also open the conversation to interested parties that may not have had the opportunity to attend an academy in person.
Smart Suite Collection in the Justice Information Center (JIC)
To complement the Smart Suite Community Forums, we created an online collection of resources for Smart Suite participants in our Justice Information Center (JIC). The JIC is an online database of publications and resources categorized into several project-specific collections. It contains our work and other open-source research materials. The Smart Suite Collection includes materials from previous Smart Suite Academies, such as presentation videos and slides. In addition to these items, you will find other relevant papers and presentations more broadly related to the overall Smart Suite goal of bringing together researchers and practitioners.