Health Equity Strategic Plan | Department of Public Safety

Promoting evidence-based decision making in the Office of Victims Programs (OVP) to fund crime victim services in Colorado

The Office of Victims Programs (OVP) provides grant funding for victim service agencies, support for local victim compensation and Victim Assistance and Law Enforcement (VALE) programs, victim rights compliance, supporting statewide anti-human trafficking efforts, and supporting statewide responses to sexual assault. The grant funding administered by OVP assists programs in providing victims with wide-ranging services to support their physical, financial, mental and emotional recovery and wellbeing.

In the face of substantial shortfalls in federal victim service funding, the OVP at the Colorado Department of Public Safety is making an effort to minimize the negative impacts of these budget cuts on victims of crime in Colorado. The team aims to solicit input from program partners and available data to guide evidence-based decision-making for funding crime victim service organizations throughout the state.

Strategy #2

Safer Communities through Environmental Design

The Crime Prevention through Safer Streets Grant Program is a funding opportunity offered through the Office of Adult and Juvenile Assistance (OAJJA). The goal of the Safer Streets Grant Program is to allow the department and local governments to evaluate and design safer streets and neighborhood models that discourage crime, revitalize community image, and establish place-specific crime prevention strategies that account for geographic, cultural, economic, and social characteristics of the target areas.

OAJJA manages several state and federal grant programs -- all designed to provide support to and assist in the improvement of the justice system. Programs range from juvenile justice funding to support priorities such as addressing the needs of low-risk but high-need juveniles or research and evaluation, to criminal justice funding that supports local law enforcement and other criminal justice entities. Funding is generally made available to local and state agencies (both governmental and non-governmental) through a grant-making process.

Strategy #3

Juvenile Diversion

Colorado’s juvenile diversion program is designed to prevent youth who have committed offenses from further involvement in the juvenile justice system. Youth who participate in juvenile diversion programs receive referrals for behavioral health, restorative justice, education, job skills services among others, and these services promote the health and wellbeing of children.

Strategy #4

Improve healthcare access and care coordination in jails in Colorado through the Colorado Trusted Interoperability Platform

The Colorado Trusted Interoperability Platform (CTIP) project, in conjunction with the Colorado Integrated Criminal Justice Information System (CICJIS), launched a pilot to improve care coordination in jails in Colorado. Currently, the lack of data exchange of historical and current physical and mental health information across justice entities and community health providers creates delays in services that pose serious health and safety risks for individuals, as well as justice professionals who must manage and ensure access to treatment. As a whole, the criminal justice population has higher medical and mental health care needs than the general population, and jails grapple with resources to identify and treat individuals under their supervision.

This pilot aims to connect jails for high-level data exchange to improve health and safety outcomes for justice-involved individuals and staff, as well as improve reporting consistency for state-mandated jail data collection efforts. By being able to exchange data pertaining to health and safety concerns for justice-involved individuals as they are being processed into a jail facility, staff become aware of knowledge other jails were able to utilize in the care of a person during a prior custody period. This enables the current jail to provide more specific care and continue treatments because they are aware of immediate needs upon intake, which can prevent crisis and death. 

As the number of jail participants increases, increasing the amount of information that becomes available for exchange between facilities, the statewide impact should grow. This would further reduce negative health outcomes due to lack of knowledge of individual justice-involved individuals needs and concerns. The project also stands to improve data collection and reporting standardization, consistency, and reliability.