SUMMARY

Clementine Jacoby tells us how her nonprofit, Recidiviz, is helping state governments make timely, data based decisions to reduce incarceration rates.

GUEST

Clementine Jacoby, Executive Director of Recidiviz, a nonprofit that’s building a technical foundation for a more accountable and self-improving criminal justice system.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The US uses prisons to deal with problems that are better solved by investing in the community: mental health, drug addiction, and issues in disenfranchised communities.
• In the US it’s difficult for a person to recover from incarceration. They will likely never be eligible for jobs or housing, can’t use systems designed for the underserved and their kids are more likely to enter the system.
• State governments are already collecting data around incarceration but not using it for decision-making or optimization. The data is also stale, and isn’t as localized as it should be.
• A self-improving prison system has tools to use data to set goals, track progress towards them, see if the policies have had impact, and then course correct if they haven’t. Recidiviz provides those tools.

LINKS

• Recidiviz
• Recidiviz dashboard from North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
• 20% Projects
• Y Combinator