Alaska Justice Reinvestment Initiative

In the decade prior to 2014, Alaska’s prison population increased by 27 percent, requiring the state to open the Goose Creek Correctional Center in 2012 to accommodate the growth.^1,2 In 2015, policymakers estimated that Alaska would need an additional 1,416 prison beds by 2024, costing an estimated $169 million in new corrections spending during that time.³ Faced with an expanding prison population and with nearly two-thirds of released individuals returning to state facilities within three years, Alaska’s officials decided it was time to act.⁴ 

In 2014, the Alaska State Legislature formed the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC) to study the state’s adult justice system and develop policy recommendations that would allow the state to “avert future prison growth…[and] reduce the prison population between 15 to 25 percent below current levels.”^5,6 

In May 2015, the ACJC partnered with the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) and The Pew Charitable Trusts to provide technical assistance as part of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI).^7,8 This work was funded by Pew and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a component of the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs. Over the next seven months, the ACJC analyzed Alaska’s adult justice system and issued a report in December 2015 with 21 recommendations to reduce recidivism and corrections costs.⁹ 

The Legislature translated the ACJC’s recommendations into Senate Bill (SB) 91, which passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by Governor Bill Walker on June 11, 2016.^10,11 

 Alaska’s JRI goals included:

1.  Implement evidence-based pretrial practices. 
2.  Focus prison beds on people convicted of serious and violent offenses. 
3.  Strengthen supervision and interventions to reduce recidivism. 
4.  Reinvest in practices proven to reduce recidivism and protect public safety.¹² 

 In the years after SB 91 went into effect, the Alaska Legislature made several changes:  

1. Implement evidence-based pretrial practices.   

The ACJC found the number of people detained pretrial increased 81 percent from 2005 to 2014 due to increasingly long court wait times.²¹ 

2. Focus prison beds on people convicted of serious and violent offenses.    

In 2014, 62 percent of those admitted to Alaska’s prisons were admitted for nonviolent misdemeanor offenses.²⁸ 

3. Strengthen supervision and interventions to reduce recidivism.  

From 2005 to 2014, Alaska saw a 32 percent rise in the number of individuals sent back to prison due to violations of their probation or parole conditions.³⁴ Around three-quarters of these returns to prison were for technical violations such as alcohol consumption, missing a drug test or a positive test result, or failing to report to a supervision officer.³⁵ 

4. Reinvest in practices proven to reduce recidivism and protect public safety.   

In its 2015 report, the ACJC recommended reinvesting a portion of any savings resulting from implementing the recommendations into services intended to enhance public safety, reduce victimization, and maintain reductions in the prison population.⁴⁴ 

Additional Accomplishments and Information Related to Reforms    

• The ACJC met 71 times between 2014 and 2022 to evaluate Alaska’s criminal justice practices and monitor data.^49,50 
• The ACJC published seven annual reports and six reports on special topics in the criminal justice system. These special topical reports covered domestic violence, crime in Alaska, impaired driving and related offenses, restitution, sex offenses, and social impact bonds.⁵¹ 

The Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) is a data-driven process funded through a public-private partnership between the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a component of the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, and The Pew Charitable Trusts. JRI aims to improve public safety by helping states make their justice systems more fair, effective, and efficient as they direct resources to address the complex factors that drive crime and recidivism.