Justice

OMNI supports government agencies, organizations, and leaders nationwide and across touchpoints of the justice system (from diversion to re-entry) to transform system approaches to serving communities and individuals.

Our diverse partners and projects—spanning Juvenile Justice, Innovative Policing Strategies, and the intersection of Behavioral Health & Justice—share common goals of reducing justice system involvement and recidivism, eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in system experiences and outcomes, and changing the way our systems respond to root causes of delinquency, including unmet behavioral health needs of individuals with or at risk of system involvement.  

Juvenile Justice

We bring expertise across a range of juvenile justice prevention and intervention approaches and settings, spanning juvenile diversion programs that provide early intervention services for low-risk, high need youth; school- and judicial-based restorative justice practices and programs that increase accountability and repair harm to victims and communities; state and local efforts to address drivers of Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) in system involvement for youth of color; and reform approaches to behavioral management and mental health needs of youth in juvenile detention facilities.

Project Examples

Division of Criminal Justice’s Juvenile Diversion Program Evaluation

The Juvenile Diversion Grant program, administered through the Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ), diverts youth who have committed offenses from further involvement in the juvenile justice system. Diversion can occur at multiple stages of the juvenile justice system and be offered to youth with varying levels of offense. DCJ has primarily funded services for youth who are pre-file or pre-adjudicated and who have committed a first-time district-level offense.

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From 2010-2020, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Council (JJDP Council) and DCJ contracted with OMNI to design and implement a comprehensive evaluation of the program. Our report provides an overview of nine years of data collection and highlights key events and insights into the efforts made to divert youth from the justice system.

The evaluation required significant and sustained investment of time and resources on the part of both DCJ and individual programs, allowing for systematic documentation and understanding of who is served, what services are provided, and how these interventions impact multiple outcomes for youth and the system. Download the report here.

Weld County Juvenile Justice System Analysis

The Weld County, Colorado juvenile justice system, wanted to better understand their collective efforts to serve justice-involved youth and the community. Three juvenile justice entities in Weld County, the Colorado Youth Detention Continuum (CYDC), Juvenile Probation, and Diversion in Weld County, engaged OMNI to conduct an exploratory analysis to document and better understand the ways in which youth are served both individually by each entity as well as across these entities in Weld County.

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The first step was to understand how the entities currently work together, how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their efforts, and the anticipated impacts of a statewide bill that hoped to create more streamlined processes across those serving youth in the justice system, and to decrease the number of youth penetrating the juvenile justice system. OMNI conducted key informant interviews with leaders and staff from each of the three entities. The information collected through the group interviews was used to create initial process flow maps for each entity. Then, OMNI completed an exploratory review of 18 months of data collected by the three entities, with a focus on understanding how frequently youth engage with more than one of the entities, an overview of the characteristics of youth and cases, and an exploration of the impact of COVID-19 on the entities and youth served.

City of Longmont’s REWiND and Community Restorative Justice Program Evaluation

The City of Longmont contracted OMNI Institute to conduct a formative and general evaluation of two programs: 1) the REWiND program (Rebuilding Expectations and Walking into New Directions), which is a collaborative initiative directly operated by the City of Longmont that involves Children, Youth, and Families (CYF), Longmont Municipal Court and Probation, the City Attorney’s Office/City Prosecutor and Public Safety, and 2) Community Restorative Justice (CRJ), a program offered by Longmont Community Justice Partnership (LCJP), an independent nonprofit agency with whom the City contracts to provide restorative justice services within the Longmont community.

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The goals of the evaluation were to:

  • Document critical aspects of the design, rationale, and delivery of the programs

  • Document who has been served by the programs, the services provided, and program outcomes, to the degree possible

  • Explore the relationship between client and case characteristics with services provided and documented outcomes

  • Consider opportunities to strengthen existing evaluation design or practices, and utilization of evaluation findings

  • Understand program challenges, strengths, and needs for implementing with fidelity

  • Assess feasibility of collaboration between the two programs

To meet these goals, OMNI conducted interviews with each program's leadership and staff, Longmont law enforcement officers familiar with the programs, and Longmont's Municipal Court Judge. OMNI also reviewed program materials such as procedures manuals, guidance documents, and available case data to better understand how the programs are implemented and the youth served by these two programs.

Colorado Restorative Justice in Juvenile Diversion

The Colorado Restorative Justice Coordinating Council (RJ Council) oversaw the development and implementation of a statewide juvenile restorative justice program funded by House Bill 13-1254. The program began as a pilot focused on programs serving youth in pre-file juvenile diversion and transitioned to a grant program to fund additional restorative programs to serve youth in diversion.

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OMNI led the evaluation of the juvenile restorative justice program since its inception and focused on services provided to youth in the diversion program and youth referred as a result of a school-based offense that could otherwise have resulted in a charge. Data presented to the Council included information on youth background and demographics; short-term psychosocial outcomes, satisfaction of victims, offending youth and community members, and recidivism rates. Download the report here.

The Common Sense Discipline (CSD) Initiative 

In early 2013, The Denver Foundation initiated a grant-making program titled Ending the School to Prison Pipeline: Preventative and Responsive Practices to Ensure Positive Educational Outcomes for all Students. The goal of the initiative was to reduce suspensions and expulsions, and racial and ethnic disparities in these outcomes. The program initiative was renamed the Common Sense Discipline initiative (CSD) in the third year (2015-16) of the initiative. The Denver Foundation contracted with OMNI Institute to engage in an evaluation of the CSD grant-making effort.

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The report focuses on one of the goals of the evaluation which was to collect and analyze disciplinary referral data to identify changes over time in rates of disciplinary referrals, particularly those resulting in suspension or expulsion, including:

  1. Calculation of rates of referrals for racial/ethnic groups to examine extent of disparities in referrals and exclusionary outcomes over time
  2. Analysis of disciplinary referral data for students identified as having Special Education status (SPED)
  3. Analysis of disciplinary referral data for students identified as English Language Learners (ELL)

Douglas County Youth Center Room Confinement Study

The use of isolation in juvenile correctional facilities is a controversial issue that has gained legislative momentum in Nebraska. This ongoing project funded through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) was designed to understand room confinement practices within the Douglas County Youth Center (DCYC) and explores possible alternatives with the ultimate goals of improving youth and facility outcomes. OMNI’s role includes facilitating grant meetings with DCYC staff, leadership, and Advisory Group; conducting essential data collection activities; working with DCYC staff to understand and utilize data to inform decision-making; and supporting DCYC staff and leadership with change management and evaluation of all grant activities.

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The project is built around the 5 steps to addressing room confinement within a facility as outlined by the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators:

  1. Mission and Vision: Adopt a mission statement and philosophy that reflects rehabilitative goals
  2. Policies and Procedures: Develop policies and procedures for use and monitoring isolation
  3. Data: Identify data to manage, monitor and be accountable for use of isolation
  4. Develop Alternatives: Develop alternative behavior management options and responses
  5. Training: Train and develop staff in agency mission, values, standards, goals, policies, and procedures

Innovative Policing Strategies

OMNI has years of experience supporting and partnering with law enforcement agencies in their efforts to meaningfully engage with community organizations, leaders, and citizens to inform departmental policies, implement community-based crime reduction efforts, eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) in youth arrests, and expand law-enforcement assisted diversion and co-responder programs (see Behavioral Health and Justice below, also).

Project Examples

Denver Police Department Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Assessment 

In 2016, the Denver Police Department (DPD) was awarded a multi-year grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance under the U.S. Department of Justice to expand its body-worn camera (BWC) program, conduct a policy review, and gather data to understand early impacts of the program. OMNI was selected by DPD to lead these early assessment efforts. Findings from this work were intended to inform refinements to BWC policies and procedures, as well as related officer training and public education efforts. A primary focus of the project was to understand the experiences and needs of victims of crime, and promote policy that balances victim concerns with police department transparency and accountability, public safety, and justice. 

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The assessment was organized into four areas of inquiry:

  1. Officer perceptions of BWCs
  2. Rates and outcomes of citizen complaints
  3. BWC activation rates and DA case decisions
  4. BWC use and considerations for victims of crimes

Methods and data sources included a customized online survey of police officers, secondary analysis of complaint and case data provided by the department, and qualitative data gathered through forums and interviews conducted with multiple stakeholder groups. OMNI also completed a national scan of BWC policies and practices.

Denver Police Department: Community-Based Crime Reduction

In response to the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Community-Based Crime Reduction (CBCR) grant, the Denver Police Department (DPD) hired OMNI as their research partner to help reach the following goals: 

  1. Reduce the rate of crimes committed with a firearm within the Westwood neighborhood 

  2. Reduce the rate of motor vehicle theft (MVT) and theft from motor vehicles within the Westwood neighborhood 

  3. Strengthen Westwood families by providing quality educational, social, and economic opportunities through cross-sector partners

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OMNI worked in the planning phase to (1) conduct systematic analysis to identify/confirm crime drivers in hot spots and corresponding strategies to address these; (2) develop or strengthen relationships and data sharing agreements with community partners to support access and utilization of data, and work with DPD to identify internal documentation and data points available to support assessment of crime reduction objectives; and (3) development of data collection methods, tools, and recruitment strategies for field data collection with youth and adult community members.

OMNI collected, managed, analyzed, and reported outcome data tied to the objectives in order to support ongoing monitoring and assessment of project progress and impacts, including production of a final report. OMNI also worked with DPD and its partners to identify ways to utilize the research and evaluation to support sustainability.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities

OMNI has led many projects related to Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the juvenile justice system, and the capacity and understanding to anticipate and navigate sensitive issues relating to Racial and Ethnic Disparities.

  • The Division of Criminal Justice has contracted with OMNI to conduct evaluation and provide technical support to address statewide and local-level Racial and Ethnic Disparities. This work has included a critical review of statewide capacity to collect, code, and report race and ethnicity data for youth at the point of arrest; and case studies completed with five different judicial districts.

  • OMNI has conducted the statewide evaluation of juvenile diversion for the Division of Criminal Justice, which includes an ongoing focus on Racial and Ethnic Disparities of youth of color in juvenile diversion programs across the state. As part of this component of the evaluation, OMNI has conducted analyses to examine rates of diversion participation relative to rates of arrest in each of the 15 judicial districts that house state-funded diversion programs; and has conducted interviews with select DA’s offices to better understand barriers to participation for youth of color, and factors driving decision making for diversion referrals.

  • OMNI has evaluated The Denver Foundation’s Ending the School to Prison Pipeline initiative, which funds several organizations working in partnership with schools to implement restorative justice and restorative practices, culturally responsive and trauma-informed practices, and socio-emotional learning, with the goal of reducing suspensions and expulsions, and the racial and ethnic disparities in these outcomes for youth of color.

Behavioral Health & Justice

OMNI leverages our expertise in behavioral health and criminal justice to partner with agencies and communities working to address the behavioral health needs of system-involved persons. OMNI has supported the design, implementation, and evaluation of community-wide cross-system diversion efforts, including law-enforcement assisted diversion and co-responder programs, and behavioral health screening, assessment, and treatment for youth in diversion, as well as more targeted programs focused on improving outcomes for systems-involved adults and youth with behavioral health needs, including alternative sentencing and problem-solving courts, jail-based treatment and re-entry programs for adults with substance use disorder (including opioid use disorder), and coordinated mental health assessments and linkages to care in community for youth housed in juvenile detention facilities.

Project Examples

Recommendations for a Coordinated Behavioral Health System in Boulder County, Colorado

In 2019, Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) commissioned a county-wide assessment to document needs and identify opportunities for developing a comprehensive and integrated behavioral health system, one that ensures timely access to appropriate care for all individuals. BCPH contracted with OMNI to conduct the multi-faceted assessment, with a central aim of generating clear, supported, and actionable recommendations for developing and implementing a coordinated behavioral health system.

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OMNI was tasked with answering two overarching questions: (1) Is it feasible to create a coordinated referral system for behavioral health disorders? And (2) is it feasible to scale up a law enforcement diversion and co-responder program across all of Boulder County? The Boulder County Project Oversight Team was formed to guide the work at every stage and included leaders from Public Health, Law Enforcement, Criminal Justice, Community Services, and Housing and Human Services. OMNI continues to partner with Boulder County in ongoing evaluation of behavioral health focused programs within the county.

Juvenile Diversion - Marijuana Tax Cash Fund Evaluation 

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Council and the Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ) hired OMNI to provide an evaluation that will contribute to the reduction of substance use among youth in diversion programs. Eight juvenile diversion programs applied for and received money from the marijuana tax cash fund in order to increase access to substance use screening, assessment and treatment services for youth receiving juvenile diversion programming. The efforts conducted fit into three different categories (1) training staff to better serve youth using substances, (2) paying for staff to better serve youth with substance use, and (3) paying for or expanding direct services for the youth using substances.  

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OMNI examined the numbers of youth screened for substance use in the eight funded programs. These numbers were compared to numbers from the year prior in order to examine whether increases in the numbers of youth being screened and receiving subsequent assessment or treatment as indicated are occurring. OMNI also examined changes from pre-to post-survey for the eight programs at the end one year to analyze improvements in risky behavioral intentions and the post-scores of connection to community and sense of accountability. Finally, OMNI examined the overall state recidivism rate and compared it to previous statewide recidivism rates.

Boulder County’s Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-Based Program Evaluation

In 2018, Boulder County was awarded a Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-based Program (COAP) grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance under the U.S. Department of Justice to develop and implement a comprehensive and coordinated strategy to address opiate abuse among its criminally involved residents. Through the provision of services to this population while in custody and at the point of release back to the community, COAP aims to reduce opioid abuse and the number of overdose fatalities and decrease further criminal-justice system involvement among its target population. COAP is successfully implementing a jail-based program to address the OUD treatment needs of justice-involved individuals.

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Using clear but flexible processes for identifying eligible clients, medical and other jail staff can refer individuals with suspected or confirmed OUD to receive appropriate assessment, initial substance use treatment services while in custody, and referrals to continued treatment and recovery support services in the community. The program has managed to operate effectively in spite of significant challenges that have arisen from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The evaluation moved to better understand how to address the lack of racial diversity among COAP clients, as well as begin examining client outcomes in greater detail, including fuller assessment of recidivism (including the nature of re-offenses), and potential opportunities to use qualitative methods to assess client satisfaction with the program and services.

Douglas County DCYC Behavioral Health Initiative

In 2019, a group of vested partners in Douglas County, Nebraska embarked on a cross-system collaborative effort to improve the behavioral health services provided to youth entering and exiting the local detention facility (DCYC). OMNI has been collaborating with key partners for over 2 years to provide ongoing evaluation and facilitation support that has involved co-developing and documenting the Theory of Change, Theory of Action, and associated workflows depicting the key elements of the Initiative and intended short, intermediate, and long-term outcomes.

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In addition, OMNI mapped out existing data sources to develop an Implementation Monitoring Plan and our evaluation team continues to work with a variety of vested partners to identify and address relevant data gaps. OMNI is in year 3 of the evaluation and has produced several meaningful reports documenting the story of the Initiative, including a process evaluation report and a baseline data report, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary data. Our evaluation team has walked alongside key community partners to support this important and complex juvenile justice reform effort.

OMNI’s Work with Co-Responder Programs

A key area of focus for OMNI within the intersection of Behavioral Health and Justice space is the evaluation of co-responder programs. These programs involve local law enforcement agencies partnering with behavioral health clinicians to "co-respond" to calls for service involving persons with suspected behavioral health needs. OMNI supports several communities and their co-responder teams by working with vested partners to establish program goals and develop essential evaluation infrastructure such as logic models, workflows, and evaluation/measurement plans. In addition, our research teams collaborate with key program partners to collect and analyze primary and secondary data to measure and assess progress toward intended program goals- the culmination of which has involved the development of visually appealing, informative, and dynamic reports that are utilized for evaluation and program improvement purposes.

Boulder County Co-Responder Evaluation

The Co-Responder Unit was developed after the Boulder County Sheriff Office was awarded a 5-year Co-Responder Services Program grant from the Colorado Office of Behavioral Health (OBH). The Unit pairs law enforcement with a co-responder trained in behavioral health provision to respond to calls for service determined to have a behavioral health component. As the evaluation partner, OMNI collects, tracks, and reports on the data from these interactions. The reports include performance measurement and other process and outcome data for the purpose of monitoring program progress and outcomes.

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Data in these reports include call profile, caller profiles, contact profiles, service utilization, and the effectiveness of co-responder approaches. This data will be used to develop of county-wide system of co-responder policies, practices, and infrastructure with the participation of all law enforcement agencies to improve overall services delivery, increase efficiency and effectiveness and ensure sustainability.

Meet Our Experts

To contact one of our Justice Experts, click below.