Tag 3. CCJJ / TCJJ

Policy work groups concept shared with CCJJ/TCJJ

K

Too many citizens feel our individual voices don’t matter to lawmakers relative to lobbyists and special interest groups. Economically speaking, that has proven true. So, how do we increase the marginal benefit of citizen voices relative to special interest groups, lobbyists and policy monopolies when it comes to lawmakers’ time and priorities on any given day? By taking a policy co-design strategic approach to criminal and juvenile justice issues that increases citizen inputs while respecting the time and attention limits of lawmakers and related influencer bureaucrats. Enter: Citizen Policy Work Groups.

The new Transforming Criminal and Juvenile Justice Commission (TCJJ) created by executive order to replace the old Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ), which was sunsetted by the Colorado legislature last year, 2023.

I offered public comment, again, this afternoon (February 5) showing a more inclusive stakeholder structure that incorporates affected citizen voices into the TCJJ goals and put together a 1 page (2 sided) policy memo presenting the benefits of co-design strategies in criminal justice related policies. They gave me an extra minute, so that was good!

tcjj-citizen-policy-memo-k-hartman-2-5-24-aDownload

Post Author: Krystyn Hartman is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs. This site is a test research project.

Policy Work Groups posts are an extension of citizen PolicyWorkGroups.com.

New Colorado Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice 2024: Student Policy Memo

K

I spent most of my first semester in graduate school in the Master of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado Denver researching and writing about the old and new Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) that culminated in a major term paper Policy Memo assignment (that I got an A on).

The Colorado state legislature chose not to continue the old CCJJ last year, which meant the end, the “sunsetting,” of the old CCJJ. Governor Polis was not happy that the lawmakers ended the CCJJ, so he issued Executive Order 2023-002 to create the new Working Group On Transforming Criminal & Juvenile Justice, which as he explained in a public statement, is to replace the old CCJJ, which he expects the legislature to pass this year. The legislature already chose to end it, so it will be interesting to see if they stand by their original position or give in to the governor, law enforcement and district attorney pressures to pass it.

In the Policy Memo not only was I able to identify the CCJJ as a part of a bigger iron triangle policy monopoly that excluded affected citizens in the decision process, but one of my conclusions is a suggestion that they create affected citizen working subgroups at the table, including a way to do that. In fact, it was that paper that led to the idea for the other class (economics) term paper titled Equitizing Citizen Inputs In Policy Decisions that led to this Citizen Policy Work Group and website idea as a test project.

Because this site and the whole Citizen Policy Work Groups idea is barely a few weeks old, I’m still thinking through the logistics but since the new CCJJ working group has already met and is preparing their strategy for legislative approval in March, I thought I’d at least get my policy memo uploaded here as a starting point from which to add update posts related to the new CCJJ as the legislative session progresses.

policy-memo-ccjj-khartman-5005-12-6-23-abridged-pDownload

Post Author: Krystyn Hartman is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs. This site is a test research project.

Policy Work Groups posts are an extension of citizen PolicyWorkGroups.com.