4.7 million people are currently on probation or parole, and that number is projected to grow in the coming years as criminal justice reform continues to spread. Across the country, community supervision departments are managing greater numbers of people, with limited resources.
Community supervision personnel are tasked with maintaining public safety while helping their large caseloads navigate the terms of their release. It is vital for case managers to have a reliable way to contact each client, and today, people on community supervision are more likely to have a cell phone than a landline, and more likely to read a text than a letter in the mail.
ClientComm lets case managers send clients text messages from their computers or mobile devices. The text messages are sent from one department-wide phone number, and are not attached to individual case managers’ phones. Conversations between manager and client are kept together even if the client changes phone numbers, and can be printed or exported to a case management system.
In early 2016, we launched ClientComm with Salt Lake County Criminal Justice Services, which was struggling with individuals cycling in and out of jail due to missed court appearances or court-ordered treatment. Probation and Pretrial case managers are using ClientComm to text hundreds of their clients on a daily basis. ClientComm allows case managers to cut down on time lost playing phone tag and leaving voicemails. In minutes, case managers can remind, and have their client confirm, they will be at their next court date, or attend their next treatment class.
In addition to real-time texting, case managers have the option to schedule messages to be sent at a later date and time. Scheduling reminders 24 hours in advance is particularly popular. Case managers know that these reminders can help clients juggle the many requirements of their supervision, while often dealing with other things like unstable family, housing, transportation, and employment situations.
Our internal results show lower Failure to Appear rates, and time saved for case managers. ClientComm is a central part of Code for America's product work on Criminal Justice, and is currently being piloted in eight jurisdictions across the country.
This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license.
Lou Moore ( @loumoore )