Pepperdine and Department of Justice Announce Swift Certain Fair Resource Center
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The School of Public Policy is partnering with the United States Department of Justice
Bureau of Justice Assistance to launch the Swift Certain Fair (SCF) Resource Center
based at Pepperdine’s Malibu campus. Drawing on recent findings in crime control,
the center supports state, local, territorial, and tribal jurisdictions and agencies
in implementing swift, certain, and fair responses (SCF) in community corrections.
The SCF Center provides free training and technical assistance and evaluation services
to eligible programs. Currently, the center works with jurisdictions and agencies
in more than 20 states and an Indian nation.
The SCF Center is led by Angela Hawken, associate professor of economics and policy
analysis and James Q. Wilson Fellow, and Jonathan Kulick, senior project director
at the School of Public Policy. Hawken is the principal investigator of several studies
that test SCF strategies to reduce recidivism and incarceration. She led the randomized
controlled trials of Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement and the SCF pilot
in Seattle and advised Washington State in its statewide rollout of Swift and Certain.
“Our goal is to improve the legitimacy of the corrections system,” said Hawken. “It
is possible to have less punishment and less crime, but each component of SCF (Swiftness,
Certainty, and Fairness) is central to that goal. We help jurisdictions improve the
speed of their operations. We help jurisdictions develop clearly articulated procedures
so that responses are predictable. And equally important, we work on innovations to
improve fairness and equal protection, with a goal to eliminate status quo race/ethnic
disparities in sanctions.”
The first SCF workshops were held on July 17 in Malibu and August 4 at the University’s
Washington, D.C., campus.