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Promoting smart decarceration: mitigating racial bias as a strategy for addressing disproportionate minority contact and confinement (DMC)

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Promoting smart decarceration: mitigating racial bias as a strategy for addressing disproportionate minority contact and confinement (DMC)

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Content Promoting Smart Decarceration
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©2020 Lotus Cognition Center, LLC

Promoting Smart Decarceration
Mitigating Racial Bias as a
Strategy for Reducing
Disproportionate Minority Contact
and Confinement
This proposal examines disproportionate minority confinement and contact (DMC) as a “wicked
problem” associated with promoting smart decarceration. One of the tenets associated with
promoting smart decarceration is eliminating race as a precursor for entering the juvenile and
criminal justice system. This capstone proposal offers a promising, innovative approach to
addressing DMC. Complementing existing strategies, this innovative solution focuses on
mitigating racial bias among law enforcement officers.

Damekia Morgan
University of Southern California (USC) Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work
Doctor of Social Work (DSW) Capstone Proposal
Promoting Smart Decarceration
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Promoting smart decarceration: Mitigating racial bias as a strategy for addressing disproportionate
minority contact and confinement (DMC).

Damekia Morgan
Master of Social Work, Southern University at New Orleans, 2016
Bachelor of Elementary Education, Southern University at New Orleans, 2003
Associate of Early Childhood Education, Delgado Community College, 1999
A Capstone Proposal
in
Social Work
Presented to the Faculties of the University of Southern California
in
Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Social Work
May 2020

Capstone Committee:
Jennifer Lewis, Ph.D., LCSW
Diana Lynn Iglesias
Murali D. Nair, Ph.D., DSW

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Dedication
To the little girls and boys who are faced with growing up in adverse circumstances, know that your
current situation does not define your future.
Don’t give up, keep pushing
Everything you need is on the inside, seek God.

To all the unarmed black men, boys, women, and girls fatally shot by law enforcement officers.
Terrance Franklin, 22; Miles Hall, 23; William Green; Samuel David Mallard, 19; Tamir Rice; Botham
Shem Jean, 26; Michael Brown; Michal Dean, 28; Jamee Johnson, 22; Antwon Rose, 13; Stephon Clark,
22; Ariane McCree, 28; Darius Taver, 23; William Green; Samuel David Mallard, 19; Kwame “KK”
Jones, 17; De’von Bailey, 19; Christopher Whitfield, 31; Anthony Hill, 26; Eric Logan, 54; Jamarion
Robinson, 26; Gregory Hill, Jr. 30; JaQuavion Slaton, 20; Ryan Twyman, 24; Brandon Webber, 20; Jimmy
Atchison, 21; Willie McCoy, 20; Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., 21; Trayvon Martin, 17; Eric Garner,
43; Sandra Bland, 28; Atatiana Jefferson, and countless others.
May they Rest in Power!

Promoting Smart Decarceration
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Executive Summary

Chapter 2: Conceptual Framework ……….………………………………………………... 1
Problem Statement …………………………………………………………………...... 1
Topical Research ………………………………………………………………………. 2
Promising Practices: Current and Past Attempts to Promote Smart Decarceration and Decrease
DMC...………………………………………………………………………….. 6
Conceptual Framework ………………………………………………………………… 10
Theory of Change ……………………………………………………………………… 13

Chapter 3: Problem of Practice and Innovative Solution …………………………………. 15
Innovation Design Solution ……………………………………………………………. 15
Justification of Innovation ……………………………………………………………... 17
Program Design: Logic Model Overview ……………………………….……………... 17
Improvement to the Grand Challenge Area ……………………………………………. 20
Potential Collaborators, Organizational Community Allies, and Obstacles……………. 20
Analysis of how Innovative Solution is positioned within History,
Policy and Public knowledge…………………………………………………… 23
Evidence of Impact……………………………………………………………………... 26

Chapter 4: Project Structure, Methodology, and Action Components …………………… 27
Project Structure: Implementation Plan ……………………………………………….. 27
Phases of Intervention …………………………………………………………………. 27
Sustainability…………………………………………………………………………… 28
Methodology: Description of Measurement, Evaluation, and Community Input……… 28
Action Components ……………………………………………………………………. 31
Innovation Finance Plan and Budget Structure ………………………………………... 31
Communication Plan and Strategies that Will Engage Audiences …………………………… 34
Ethical Considerations … ………… ……… … …… … ………… ……… ……… … ………… …. 35

Chapter 5: Conclusion, Actions, and Implications ………………………...……………….. 35
Summary of Project Plans and Conclusions …………………………………………… 35
How the Project Will Improve Policy and Practice ……………………………………. 36
Acknowledgment of Limitations and Risks: Recommendations for Future Work …….. 36

References ……………...……………………………………………………………………… 38
Appendixes ……………………………………………………………………………………. 46

Promoting Smart Decarceration
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Chapter 1: Executive Summary
This proposal examines a cultural phenomenon linked to behavioral norms associated with the
persistence of disproportionate minority contact and confinement (DMC). Utilizing the premise from
promoting smart decarceration—one of 12 Grand Challenges endorsed by the American Academy of
Social Work and Social Welfare—this paper analyzes the problem and proposes an innovative solution.
Promoting smart decarceration is grounded in the following tenets: decreasing prison populations,
eliminating racial and economic standing as a precursor for involvement in the judicial system, and
ensuring the safety of the public throughout the transition from incarceration. The innovation described
here aims to address DMC by eliminating racial standing as an antecedent for entering the judicial system.
DMC is one of the most pressing problems facing society today. Promoting equal treatment at
every decision-making point in the juvenile justice system remains a societal aspiration. The focus of
reducing DMC must shift to holding system practitioners accountable for bias in their decision-making,
starting with law enforcement agencies. Norms associated with DMC persist because of cognitive
dissonance and inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes primarily relating to behavioral decisions. To
shift this paradigm, all actors would need to: 1) value the humanity of all people (no matter the person’s
race), 2) align one’s behavior with this value, 3) use courage to determine alternative methods when
interacting with others, despite one’s fear, and 4) reflect daily on ways to balance one’s thoughts and
actions as it relates to those who are impacted by the justice system.
Methods: The conceptual framework in this proposal correlates with the six innovative dynamics: 1)
actors, 2) history, 3) limits, 4) future, 5) configuration, and 6) parthood to uncover the hypothesis related
to behavioral norms and deviance linked to DMC. The following five elements were utilized to determine
if the hypothesized behaviors were indeed social norms: 1) reference network, 2) empirical expectation,
3) normative expectations, 4) conditional preferences, and 5) sanction and rewards. Methodically,
Promoting Smart Decarceration
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applying the social learning theory as a model for change reinforces the innovative design. The research
is a collection of peer-reviewed journals, interviews, and relevant documents.
Data: Secondary quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed to determine the statistical significance
of the problem.
Capstone proposal: Theoretically, this research has led to the proposal of an innovative model to tackle
DMC at the point of arrest— Collective Impact Tools for Positive Outcomes (CITPO). The CITPO is a
predictive analytic tool designed to address the intractable problem of DMC by identifying racial bias
among law enforcement officers during the hiring process. The proposal illustrates how the behavior
norms associated with DMC can be mitigated if law enforcement officers (LEOs) are held accountable
for their behavior by participating in pre-identified interventions, in addition to being tracked over a period
of time. The CITPO process:
• Identifies the problem (screening tool/method and panel)
• Diagnoses the intensity level (spectrum outcome)
• Implements intervention (prescribe intervention and post-intervention review)
• Asserts accountability (discontinue the hiring process or move forward)
• Monitors behavior (observe behavior and interactions)
Keywords: disproportionate minority contact/confinement (DMC); racial bias; law enforcement; a
glossary of relevant terms can be found in Appendix A

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Chapter 2: Conceptual Framework
Problem Statement
The U.S. leads the world in mass incarceration, and Louisiana leads all other states in having the
highest incarceration rate per capita. Mass incarceration has resulted in overcrowded prisons across the
country. Statistics reveal a bleak picture of America’s prison-industrial complex. Nearly 1.5 million
individuals reside in state or federal prison, more than 728,000 are confined to local jails, and
approximately 13 million people cycle in and out of American prisons (Epperson, Pettus-Davis, Grier, &
Sawh, 2018). African Americans, more than any other ethnic group, are impacted by the “prison-industrial
complex” throughout every strata of society (Morgan, 2018). Mass incarceration has caused many states
to face financial burdens as they calculate their annual budgets. The belief that the U.S. can no longer
afford to imprison people at its current rate has forced many states across the country to seek “smart”
strategies for depopulating the prison system.
Given the complexity of the problem surrounding mass incarceration and the scarcity of empirical
data regarding innovative strategies for depopulating the prison system, every effort must be made to
ensure that policies are designed to access whether emerging decarceration policies are enhanced and that
inequities are not (Epperson et al., 2018). “Smart” decarceration is defined as effective, sustainable, and
socially just (Epperson et al., 2018). Decreasing prison populations, eliminating racial and economic
standing as a precursor for involvement in the judicial system, and ensuring the safety of the public
throughout the transition from incarceration are the basic tenets of “smart” decarceration (Epperson et al.,
2018). Depopulating the prison system requires an interdisciplinary and cross-sector approach as well as
the commitment of the social sciences to identify innovative policies and create interventions to address
the problem. One must examine causation, prior trends, and factors of mass incarceration to solve the
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problem (Epperson et al., 2018). DMC is the “wicked problem” and “smart” decarceration is the grand
challenge addressed by this paper.
Topical Research
DMC. Disproportionate representation of minority populations in the total prison population,
specifically the disproportionate rate at which African American are imprisoned, is a trend in the racial
makeup of prison populations. DMC represents the rates of contact between the juvenile justice system
and African American community members (Development Services Group, 2014). In 2015, the disparities
in juvenile delinquency data were striking. Of the 31.5 million delinquency offenses in the U.S., 17.4
million white youth and 4.6 million black youth accounted for the at-risk population. However, black
youth accounted for 50% of individuals who were petitioned (Puzzanchera and Hockenberry, 2017). The
same year, blacks accounted for 52% of youth who were detained and 34% of youth who were diverted,
compared to their white counterparts at 66%. Black youths are overrepresented at every decision point in
the juvenile justice system except for diversion opportunities. Per youth population with delinquency
offenses, black youth cases are waived to the adult system at a higher rate than white youth (Puzzanchera
et al., 2017).
A prodigious number of papers and articles describe empirical studies assessing the effects of race
at various decision-making points in the juvenile justice system after controlling for other variables
(OJJDP, 2018). Punishments for black youth are routinely more severe than those for their white
counterparts, even when objective risk assessment tools are utilized (Mallett, 2018). The Relative Rate
Index (RRI) was established to measure disparities between ethnicities. The RRI for African-American
youth is double the rate for white youth at various decision-making points (Rovner, 2014 and OJJDP,
2014).
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Research shows that adolescents tend to exhibit a higher rate of risky behavior that often leads to
arrest (Henning, 2012). No one individual is excluded from the behavior norms associated with adolescent
development, yet African-American boys’ and girls’ adolescent behavior tends to be criminalized far more
than whites and any other minority group. (2015-2016 National DMC Data, Appendix B)
Decision-making. How does one enter the system? Some will argue because of a “poor or bad”
decision that leads to an interaction with LEOs, causing DMC. We must remember that these are
accusations and it is yet to be determined whether the decision was “poor or bad.” However, it is important
to note that several decision-making points can keep someone in the judicial system and hold them in
bondage for years. Each day, humans make these decisions at each points in the process of enforcing the
law. Implicit bias— the unconscious fear that people have internalized since childhood—is unique to each
individual. Such biases tend to awaken when faced with decisions about individuals who look different,
have a dissimilar socioeconomic status, speak “ghetto” or Ebonics, look like a “thug,” appear to be a
threat, or refuse to succumb to arbitrary commands. Frequently, these biases appear at the following
decision-making points in the justice process: 1) an individual’s decision on whether to call the police to
report what they believe is a crime, 2) at the point of arrest, 3) during pretrial release decisions (diversion),
4) the decision to charge, 5) the decision to plea, 6) post-adjudication placement 7) probation sentencing,
and 8) transfer from the juvenile to the criminal justice system (Gottfredson, M. and Gottfredson,
D.,1988). African-American boys and girls usually are not privileged to the notion that a person is innocent
until proven guilty. One’s biases, either subconscious or conscious, influence behavior and perceptions of
others. Biases are often identified by one’s words. If those who advocate for the accused are not aware of
their prejudicial language, how will the mindsets of non-advocates ever change? Shifting perceptions of
others requires changing the terminology used to describe youth and families; it means altering the current
paradigm so that a change in the data at every decision-making point is observed.
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The primary strategy for addressing DMC is through the development of pretrial diversion
programs. Data shows that white prisoners are offered diversion opportunities far more often than their
black counterparts. One could conclude that black youth who are offered diversion usually have cases that
would be found non-delinquent if brought to trial. Strategies to address DMC are often aimed at fixing the
child or the family because African-American youth and families have become the scapegoat. One can
assume that this issue will persist for generations if the goal is to use diversion to create a society free of
DMC.
Researchers have identified two main frameworks to determine causation for DMC. “Differential
offending framework,” one theory, examines environmental factors outside of “the court system by
looking at the individual, family, and neighborhood factors that are related to the offender” (Development
Service Group, 2014, pages 3 and 4). The “bias theory,” also identified as the “racial or symbolic threat
theory,” emphasizes the social-psychological procedures that result in the disadvantage of one or more
racial/ethnic group when compared to others. In this context, decision-makers are motivated by the
perception of black youth as compromising to common standards and public safety (Development Service
Group, 2014). Additional influences impacting the disproportionality of minority youth in the juvenile
justice system include the rooted patterns of poverty, segregation, gaps in educational achievement, and
homelessness. DMC could be considered a part of a “racialized society” where public policies,
institutional practices, and cultural representations work to produce and maintain racial inequities
(Development Service Group, 2014).
The federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) was enacted in 1974 to
provide guidance to local jurisdictions on best practices for operating juvenile justice systems. The Office
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) was created to oversee funding and policy
development for the JJDPA; the OJJDP’s oversight includes holding states accountable for decreasing the
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overrepresentation of African-American youth through DMC core strategies (OJJDP, 2019). Since 1988,
the OJJDP has offered funding for states to develop data collection analysis programming, model
programs, training, conferences, and opportunities for technical assistance. In 1992, an amendment to the
JJDPA required states to comply with DMC strategies in order to receive Title II formula grant federal
funding (Development Services Group, 2014). State advisory groups (SAGs) have taken on the task of
facilitating DMC efforts in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia and other U.S. territories
(OJJDP, 2019). SAGs determine purpose areas that will be funded in their jurisdiction in a three-year plan,
and DMC is one of the chosen purpose areas. In 2018, the OJJDP awarded Louisiana $626,000, $139,553
of which was allocated to compliance monitoring and disproportionate minority contact projects (OJJDP,
2019).
The OJJDP developed a “DMC Technical Assistance Manual” to provide guidelines and strategies
for addressing DMC. States are encouraged to utilize the manual to develop direct service programs,
identify trainings and technical assistance for law enforcement and justice agents, and promote a system
level transformation that will ultimately reduce DMC (Development Services Group, 2014). After 20
years, the U.S. is still struggling to decrease DMC. Unfortunately, the discourse concerning “differential
offending or differential involvement” and “differential treatment or system factors” has not led to a
reduction in the number of African-American youth represented in the justice system (Development
Services Group, 2014, p 3). The methods for tracking DMC have lacked system accountability, including
holding individuals who work at the various decision-making points accountable for implicit bias in their
behavior. Programs and interventions are usually structured in a way that holds youth and families
accountable for decisions made as a result of biased and racist policies and practices. Strategies that exist
to address DMC include, but are not limited to: conversations between youth and law enforcement
officers, stakeholder summits, data collection and analysis, community engagement endeavors, diversity
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programming, aggression replacement training for youth of color, and cultural competency trainings for
justice agents (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2011). A successful practice for reducing DMC
is system mapping, which is the collection, review, and analysis of data at all decision-making points in
law enforcement and the juvenile justice system (Bilchik, 2008). There would be a noticeable shift in the
current paradigm if individuals were held accountable, both financially and criminally, for racist and
biased behavior at the decision-making points. Because juvenile justice practitioners perform an important
role in each potential juvenile offender’s trajectory through the justice system, it is critical that
practitioners attend frequent cultural competency trainings, possess the knowledge of traditional strategies
to promote peace amongst racial groups, and be able to apply those practices in order to reduce DMC.
Promising Practices: Current and Past Attempts to Promote Smart Decarceration and Decrease
DMC
National Context. Jeffrey Fagan’s (2010) research provides an account of the contradictions that
occur within a juvenile justice system that fears child criminals and wants to punish them harshly while
at the same time holds the view that all children can be saved. His essay emphasizes where the juvenile
and adult justice systems parallel and intersect in the context of punishment. Fagan also examined the
justice system’s role as “parens patiae,” which compels the court to safeguard children from adverse
societal conditions and offer support that their families may otherwise be unable to afford. (Fagan, 2010).
Federal oversight of DMC commenced in 1978 as part of the Indian Child Welfare Act and
persisted to 1988 when the JJDPA was amended to require states to address DMC. (Bilchik, 2008).
Minorities remain overrepresented in the juvenile and criminal justice systems despite federal oversight
and the implementation of various practices aimed at reducing DMC over the past twenty years. African-
American youth made up 16% of the population in 2006 but represented 37% of the youth placed in
juvenile facilities, according to the OJJDP (Bilchik, 2008). Organizations and agencies that have
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developed successful policies and practices to eliminate DMC have demonstrated a clear understanding
of how DMC infiltrates every decision point of the system (Cabaniss, Frabutt, Kendrick, & Arbuckle,
2007).
The collection, review, analysis of data, and system mapping at all decision-making points in law
enforcement and the juvenile justice system are effective practices for reducing DMC (Bilchik, 2008).
Collecting and analyzing DMC data creates an environment where emotions and subjectivity are removed
from the analysis, which often leads to internal policy and programmatic decisions (Cabaniss et al., 2007).
Cook County, Illinois, began tracking juvenile justice data in 1995 and instituted strategies to reduce DMC
at multiple decision-making points; between 1996 and 2000, the county was able to reduce the detention
population by 31%, with minority youth benefiting the most (Cabaniss et al., 2007).
A study conducted by New York City’s Court Employment Project elaborates on the successes
and challenges of operating and evaluating one of the first pretrial diversion programs in the U.S. (Crohn,
1982). The case study examined the many obstacles that reform presented, as well as the opportunities for
change that emerge from systemic reform. The researchers admit to limited findings in their study but note
that there are implications for policymakers. Crohn states that there are many factors associated with the
availability of resources and how they are transformed over time. The case study addressed the collective
impatience and demands about new reforms while also identifying those that will be resilient to any
subsequent challenges, and, ultimately initiate change within the criminal justice system (Crohn, 1982).
This body of research is essential because, as innovators continue to update strategies to address mass
incarceration, there must be an awareness of the known limitations as well as any future dynamic forces
that may arise. Promoting smart decarceration should ideally encompass strategies that are sustainable
and adaptable in order to survive different civic administrations.
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In New Mexico, the Alamo Reservation places youth in the Navaho tribal court’s Peacemakers
program, removing them from state custody (Bilchik, 2008). Disparities in the juvenile justice system
have been reduced by allowing members of the Navaho community to address minor delinquency
(Bilchik, 2008). Multnomah County, in Oregon, strategically integrated an understanding of DMC in its
new officer training. Multnomah County officials believed that DMC could be reduced by educating and
exposing new officers to the issues at an early stage in the orientation process (Cabaniss et al., 2007).
Eliminating subjectivity in law enforcement officers’ decision-making during arrests is another
practice that is crucial to reducing DMC. At the point of arrest, officers assess whether juveniles pose a
risk to themselves or others, if they have failed to appear for a scheduled judicial hearing, and if they are
likely to reoffend. Individual bias among law enforcement officers tends to influence high arrest rates
associated with DMC (Cabaniss et al., 2007). The counties mentioned, as well as Sacramento, California,
have considered these biases and have opted to implement practices such as: eliminating prior police
contact from risk-assessment tools, requiring law enforcement officers to contact the local detention center
to ensure that the youth meets the center’s requirements, and removing racially biased categories such as
“single-parent homes” and school-related truancy from their risk-assessment (Cabaniss et al., 2007).
Single-parent homes and school truancy are usually associated behavioral norms of minorities, which
include African-American families. Other strategies that result in reducing DMC are developing
alternatives to detention, eradicating challenges to family involvement, and drafting legislation at the
statewide level (Cabaniss et al., 2007).
Juvenile assessment centers. Juvenile justice experts working in systems across the country have
developed and instituted risk-level instruments acceptable for reducing the number of youth entering the
juvenile justice system (Ehrhard-Dietzel, Barton, & Hickey, 2017). The formation of “juvenile assessment
centers” (JACs) was the result of these efforts. JACs were conceived to equitably rehabilitate juveniles;
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therefore, JACs promote the idea that children and adolescents should experience interactions with the
juvenile justice system that provide “guidance rather than punishment” due to the differences in brain
development between adults and children and adolescents (Ehrhard-Dietzel et al., 2017).
Although there are JACs located in many jurisdictions throughout the U.S., the greatest number of JACs
are located in Florida (Dembo, Schmeidler, Nini-Gough, Sue, Borden, & Manning, 1998). The Miami-
Dade Juvenile Assessment Center served as the National Demonstration Project model for delinquency
prevention. The Miami-Dade JAC transformed the way juveniles enter the justice system by developing
and utilizing an assessment instrument to determine risk-level. Many of the youth who are not considered
a flight risk or a harm to themselves or the community are released to an alternative detention or
intervention program (Walters, Dembo, Beaulaurier, Cocozza, De La Rosa, Poythress, Skowyra &
Veysey, 2005). Many jurisdictions integrated the use of screenings and validated risk assessment tools at
arrest during the 1990s. Districts around the U.S. began to use these tools as opportunities to connect
juveniles with resources in a coordinated manner rather than making arrests (Ehrhard-Dietzel et al., 2017).
The problems related to the promotion of “smart” decarceration for adults pertain equally to DMC.
A strategy for employing “smart” decarceration is to address DMC on the front end using objective
assessment tools. In Albany, New York, the Juvenile Justice Mobile Response Team (JJMRT) was
modeled after the JAC. While grounded in JAC principles, the JJMRT was designed to grow the use of
pre-arrest and formal diversions as well as limit the reliance on detention (Ehrhard-Dietzel et al., 2017).
The JJMRT was a collective effort among law enforcement agencies and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) whose objective was to create an initiative that would impact juvenile arrest and
involvement rates by assessing risk levels at the time of arrest (Ehrhard-Dietzel et al., 2017). Grounded in
the principles of the risk-need-responsivity model that identifies risk associated with recidivism, it aimed
to treat higher-level youth, with the focus on developing methods of interventions that are equivalent to
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the youth’s learning capabilities (Ehrhard-Dietzel et al., 2017). Most importantly, practitioners should
have a comprehensive understanding of the circumstances of the affected youth.
Funding restrictions for the Albany Police Department created the JJMRT rather than the
established JACs; it was less expensive to operate a program versus a center. The University of Albany
evaluated the model and analyzed data. (Ehrhard-Dietzel et al., 2017). The department also developed and
utilized a pre-screening tool to determine what additional assessments were necessary to administer to
youth. Included in the process were the identification of youth protective factors to aid in “case planning
and intervention plans” (Ehrhard-Dietzel et al., 2017). This model required that the JJMRT coordinator
notify and deploy team members to the police station at the time of arrest. The JJMRT then interviewed
the youth and parents to determine the level of risk and all parties involved collectively recommend an
outcome. The supervising officer reviewed the JJMRT’s recommendation and elected to pursue one of the
following:
1) No arrest and no services
2) No arrest, but referral to services
3) Arrest with diversion to probation
4) Arrest with transport to family court
5) Arrest with transport to detention (Ehrhard-Dietzel et al., 2017)
The JJMRT collected data for a year and noted that 23 out of 155 youth “who received the assessment
were able to avoid the juvenile justice system” (Ehrhard-Dietzel et al., 2017). An in-depth examination
of the JJMRT provides an opportunity for implementing practices that address DMC.
Conceptual Framework
Innovation Dynamics; Sociologic Perspective; Theory of Change Model; Logic Model
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Innovation Dynamics. To diagnose the norms associated with DMC, the six innovation dynamics are
utilized: 1) actors; 2) history; 3) limits; 4) future; 5) configuration, and 6) parthood. These formulate a
hypothesis that illuminate norms and potential deviance.
After exploring the actors’ dynamics, it was hypothesized that the first-order actors associated with
DMC in this study are African-American young boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 21, also
considered “the affected.” Other first-order actors’ concomitant with problems related to DMC are judges,
families of “the affected,” probation officers, public defenders (lawyers), LEOs, and prosecutors. When
examining the various actors, it is equally important to identify those considered as second-order actors,
such as family members of the LEOs, attorneys, and probation officers, as well as LEOs’ supervisors; for
example, lieutenants, captains, and sergeants.
Limits are the rules that typically govern behavior, which can sometimes hold norms in place for
generations. It is important to state that there have been times in history when limits negatively impacted
one social group far more than others. Conceivable norms derived from these limits are that black people
are criminals by nature and not to be trusted; that black people are not intelligent; that black people are
inferior and therefore, their lives do not matter; and that black people will always be slaves and
commodities. Observable behavior that complies with these limits as it relates to African Americans
suggests that they are less likely to own homes, graduate from high school, receive a quality education,
and are more likely to be incarcerated, to have a parent who is incarcerated, and to live in a community
ridden by violence and drugs. Based upon the hypothesis, one observable norm with possible deviance is
that people criminalize the behavior of African-American boys and girls out of unsubstantiated fear. One
kind of deviant behavior that could change the latter norm is to incorporate the use of a racial bias
mitigation tool.
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Analyzing the history dynamics, there were at least eight events that took place in history that are
a part of the past of this intractable problem. Those events include but are not limited to: chattel slavery,
race anthropology (J.F. Blumenbach, 1779; later used in the U.S. starting in the 19th century), the
Emancipation Proclamation (1863), the 13th Amendment (1865), the Reconstruction era (1877), the Tulsa
race riot (1921), the history of law enforcement in the South such as slave patrols and the Jim Crow laws,
the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968), and unfair sentencing laws and the War on Drugs (the 1970s).
Brace defines chattel slavery as “any system in which principles of property law are applied to
people, allowing individuals to own, buy and sell other individuals, as a de jure form of property” (Brace,
2004, page 5). The construct of race also plays an important role in the social norms associated with
DMC. Anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, a well-known European medical professor,
formulated the concept of the “five races of man” (Eigen, 2005). Blumenbach found comfort in the
classification of “races,” and stressed that involvement with a certain race had no bearing on the collective
human capability (Eigen, 2005). Blumenbach offered “unfounded” proof of what he believed to be the
limited capacity of Africans to assimilate to European cultural behavioral norms, which constituted a racist
theory, and in some cases, denied full human status to Africans (Eigen, 2005). The race classification
system was introduced in the U.S. starting in the 19th century. The race classification system has created
a society that possesses an undesirable perspective about African Americans, leading to confirmation bias
towards black people. In correlation with cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias has led to the
justification of criminalizing African Americans. Confirmation bias is deriving at a conclusion based on
preexisting information and beliefs; which happens in the absence of research, experiential learning, or
challenging one’s belief system (Lee, Sugimoto, Zhang, Cronin, 2013).
The history of law enforcement in the South has also shaped many unhealthy social norms, which
correlates to the intractable problem of DMC. “Slave patrol” organizations evolved in southern police
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departments following the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. These organizations
functioned primarily as a means of controlling freed slaves, most of whom were now laborers working in
an agricultural caste system. The “slave patrol” organizations enforced Jim Crow segregation laws. These
laws were designed to deny freed slaves equal rights and access to the political system. In 1704, South
Carolina established what was then known as “slave patrollers,” and the idea was later embraced
throughout the South (Spruill, 2016). The local governments feared retaliation from the enslaved and thus
created these vigilante-type groups as a means of controlling African Americans and protecting white
slave owners. Outfitted with the weaponry of that time, these individuals functioning as law enforcement
were protected by the governing laws of the South. Research asserts that “slave patrolling was the belief
that every facet of black life was suspect, warranting aggressive police intervention and criminal
investigations” (Spruill, 2016).
According to Michelle Alexander (2010) elements of the problematic past had a significant effect
on the challenges that are faced by African Americans today. African Americans went from being enslaved
to being incarcerated and consequently continued providing free labor to the states. African Americans
were freed; however, certain liberties were withheld and “law enforcement” agencies, rather than slave
owners, now oppressed African Americans (Alexander, 2010). One hypothesized norm associated with
the history of this problem is that European descendants living in America who identify as white treat
descendants of former slaves who identify as black as inferior beings. It is hypothesized that descendants
of slave owners and white descendants of Europeans would see African Americans as human beings (their
equals) if they were required by law to learn the historical truth about the equality of all humans, regardless
of skin color. (See Appendix X, for Sociological Perspective Confirming the Norm)
Theory of Change
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Theoretical perspective theory of change model. The theory of change outlines the clear connection
between the activities and the outcomes associated with the use of the proposed innovation design. It is
hypothesized that if the stated innovation is implemented with fidelity, findings would come to fruition
leading to the reported outcomes. The theory of change maintains that some pending assumptions may
impede or accelerate the change process. Deviance is reinforced by methodically applying the social
learning theory as the change model to develop an innovation for the stated problem. Executing the
following process will create deviance: identify the problem (screening tool/method and panel), diagnose
the intensity level (spectrum outcome), and implement intervention (prescribe intervention and post
intervention review), assert accountability (discontinue in the hiring process or move forward), and
monitor behavior (observe behavior and interactions).
The social learning theory, formulated by Albert Bandura (1971), suggests that human behaviors
are learned when beings interact within their environment. Bandura theorized that individuals learn from
each other through observation and that problem behavior is maintained by undesirable or desirable
reinforcement (Bandura, 1971). In social learning theory, emphasis is placed on the dysfunctional
thoughts that inspire negative behavior (Pfohl, 1994). If LEOs can change their dysfunctional thoughts
toward African Americans by adopting new values, then they would behave differently towards African
Americans. If LEOs were to see black boys and girls as they see their own children or family, then, at
every decision-making point in the system, there would be no disproportionality. Applying the social
learning method as change model will promote new behavior through positive and negative
reinforcements (rewards and sanctions). If those individuals who are seeking to work on the police force
were held accountable for their biases, then negative interactions would decrease, and fewer black people
would end up in the justice system. If LEOs were assessed for racial prejudice during the hiring process
and continuously observed and assessed, then, more LEOs would be mindful of reducing their bias in
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order to maintain a position as an LEO. To aid LEOs’ transformational and experiential learning, a
minimum of five evidence-based interventions and newly developed interventions will be identified. One
of the following social work practice models is used as a framework for each intervention: problem
solving; task-centered; cognitive behavioral therapy; solution focused, and crisis. Case in point,
candidates who place on the spectrum as possessing a medium-level of racial bias may be prescribed to
attend a solution-focused intervention aimed at helping them learn directly from “the affected” (i.e. Youth
Police Dialogue Series, Reflective Practice in CBT).
If the proposed innovative design is applied to local law enforcement agencies, then that
community will benefit from: 1) fewer African-American boys and girls losing their lives and liberties
because of an interaction with an LEO; 2) LEOs and African Americans having more positive interactions;
3) LEOs having fewer disciplinary write-ups due to discriminatory actions; 4) more culturally competent
LEOs on the force, and 5) African-American boys and girls having a greater chance of living a long life
and reaching their fullest potential.
(See Chapter 2_ Appendix A: Theory of Change Model Diagram)
Chapter 3: Problem of Practice and Innovative Solution
Innovative Design Solution
The Collective Impact Tool for Positive Outcomes (CITPO) complements current best practices
utilized to address DMC. There would be a significant decrease in DMC if the CITPO is used with fidelity.
The CITPO would be supported by several actors in related fields and will be available for purchase by
all agencies with the goal of improving their hiring practices by reducing racial bias.
The CITPO aims to reduce the arrest rate of African-American boys between the ages of 7 and 21;
these African-American males are considered “the affected.” The initial site for the platform will be
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NOPD. All LEOs whose job description requires that they interact with African-American males between
the ages of 7 and 21 will be responsible for fulfilling the requirements of the CITPO (i.e., prototype).
The CITPO is designed to support large organizations and agencies that interface with the public.
The system features the CITPO Racial Bias Screening Instrument (CRBSI), the CITPO Racial Bias
Identification and Reduction Questionnaire (CRBIRQ) and a number of CITPO Innovative Designed
Interventions (CIDI). The CRBSI is self-administered and requires no instruction beyond what is provided
above. The instrument in comprised of two components: demographics (an extensive background check)
and 10 screening questions. The CRBIRQ is a questionnaire administered by a panel of trained individuals
to those accepted into the policy academy. The questionnaire should be administered during the first week
of enrollment and again upon completion of interventions or the last week of the academy, whichever
comes first. Administrators will draw 10 items from a battery of questions. The CIDI are specially
designed and selected programs, trainings, and tests identified to reduce racial bias. The CITPO has the
ability to identify norms associated with racial bias through the use of technology and human intelligence
to generate deviance in order to address those norms. The computer program utilizes an algorithm to
process collected quantitative and qualitative data. Completion of the data collection is critical to the
success of the CITPO. The CITPO generates an analytical report and spectrum score that provides
information to law enforcement agencies that can be used to identify LEOs that exhibit bias at various
decision-making points. The analytical reports generated by the CITPO algorithm will be an invaluable
tool for law enforcement agencies.

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Justification of Innovation
Relevant Experiences and Concepts. CITPO was influenced by the current state of the justice
system, in which DMC perpetrated by LEOs and other decision-makers results in adverse conditions.
LEOs disproportionately apply laws based upon racial bias irrespective of one’s class (See Chapter
3_Appendix B: 2015-2016 National DMC Data). Improvements in the hiring of LEOs would have a
positive impact on the number of people of color interacting with the system. LEOs would be required to
participate in the CITPO racial bias screening process as a precursor to completing the police academy.
The goals of CITPO are two-fold 1) reduce racial bias among in LEOs who participate in the CITPO
process and 2) see a reduction in arrest of African-American juveniles.
Program Design: Logic Model Overview
The CITPO logic model outlines the inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impact of the
innovation. The interconnectedness of the various components is also depicted in the logic model (See
Chapter 3_Appendix C: Logic Model), which strives to illustrate one solution that aims to address the
“wicked problem” of DMC. Application of the logic model, starting with the activities, will lead to the
identified outputs resulting in the specified outcomes. To ensure that the stated impact is achieved,
ongoing assessment of the process and program plan will be evaluated, at least every quarter.
Inputs. The CITPO will be operated under the non-for-profit Lotus Cognition Center, Inc. The
CEO will collaborate with stakeholders, expert consultants, community programs, and volunteer
contributors to develop and implement the system. The relationship between Lotus Cognition Center, Inc.
and potential users of the tool will be geared toward implementation of the innovation. Users will pay a
fee to utilize the system; the cost will be based upon the delivery and scale of service. The reporting
structure will consist of the CEO and designated staff personnel or contractors. The board of directors will
be included in all business decisions related to the CITPO.
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The CEO will act as the public face of the CITPO and will be responsible for developing
relationships and negotiating contracts for service. The CEO will involve consultants and programs only
after contracts have been signed. Stakeholder expert consultants will be contracted to participate in the
CRBIRQ panel interviews. The identified community-based partners will pay an intricate role in
developing and selecting the CIDI. Stakeholder consultant experts are individuals who have specific
expertise in fields related to ethnicity and diversity. Due to the nature of the company, Lotus Cognition
Center, Inc. will outsource human resource services for capacity reasons. As the agency grows, an internal
human resource department will be developed to support the growth of the company. The CEO will work
closely with the staff of the NOPD police academy to plan for the assessments of each individual
participating in the police academy as well as facilitate the process for connecting candidates to the CIDI.
Resources. The preparation and infrastructure building phase of development will require access
to an online database system with the capacity to collect and analyze data and funding for stipends to pay
focus group participants, as well the exploration of the screening questions and proposed interventions.
Additional resources are needed to pay consultant fees for individuals participating in the CRBIRQ panel
interviewers as well as computer engineers and system designers. The resources necessary for the
implementation phase include funding for support staff during this process and panel experts. Funding for
costs associated with the implementation of each intervention will also be needed. Grants will be the
primary income sources for the first several years of development and implementation. Once the system
is validated and proven to be effective, subsequent jurisdictions and agencies will be required to pay a
direct fee associated with the use of the CITPO.
Activities. The intervention will include in-person computer software as well as in-person
activities. Computer software was chosen because it is a proprietary system with the goal of expanding
across various public institutions. The program will provide a list of interventions for the participants
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based on their replies. Police recruits will receive the intervention after step three of the hiring process
and be expected to use the system while on site. Starting with the summer of 2020 NOPD police academy
cohort, 100% of the candidates will particpate in the CIPTO process. Based upon the candidates’ results,
it is anticipated that all of them would be recommended for intervention program services. Candidates
would be required to adhere to the recommended interventions to move forward in the hiring process.
After the intervention process, each candidate would be re-assessed during the post-intervention process.
Those individuals that complete the hiring process will be tracked every month for two years to determine
if there are adverse racial bias incidents in their work history. The agency can also decide to utilize the
system on current employees to create a culture shift within the department.
Outputs. Outputs related to the CITPO are identified in the logic model.
Outcomes. It is predicted that 100% of the new hires would be screened and assessed utilizing the
CITPO system. During the first phase, each participant would participate in a minimum of three
interventions, regardless of their spectrum score. Once the CITPO system has been validated, participants
would be placed in specified interventions based on their spectrum score. Incentives for using the CITPO
with fidelity include an increase in the number of lives saved and opportunities for the oppressed to gain
equality while reducing negative racial stereotypes. The NOPD will discover that using the CITPO will
reduce the number of violations for discriminatory practices and increase the number and frequency of
positive interactions between LEOs and people of color. Having more culturally competent LEOs will
reduce the number of people of color suffering violent acts at the hands of LEOs, which will then create
an increased level of trust between the African-American community and LEOs. NOPD officers will have
a better understanding of how systemic racism impacts the African-American community and less punitive
measures will be utilized when interacting with African-American boys and girls. Long-term usage of the
CITPO process will bring about increased community trust, improved health outcomes for African-
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American citizens, relative to anxiety associated with interactions with NOPD LEOs, and, ultimately, a
change in behavioral norms that are connected to adverse interactions with black people, especially youth.
In the long run, CITPO will lead to a reduction in DMC and a decrease in the number of African Americans
interfacing with the juvenile and criminal justice system.
Improvement to the Grand Challenge Area
Based on stakeholder interviews, the CITPO is essential and complementary to current practices
for addressing DMC, all interviewees were favorable to the innovation and found it to be implementable.
The CITPO is a scalable design created as a solution to reduce and eliminate disproportionate minority
contact with law enforcement. Ultimately this innovation will be scaled by employing its use in multiple
institutions hiring practices. The CITPO is designed to create a mindset/culture that balance institutions
that are often affected by individual bias, often leading to adverse outcomes for African-Americans and
other people of color. There is an important need to transform the mindset of individuals who suffer from
racial bias and whose job is to interface with the public. CITPO could aid non-profit organizations with
a mission to end mass incarceration. CITPO could be the model for creating deviance to address other
social norms.
Potential Collaborators, Organizational Community Allies and Obstacles
Potential collaborators will aid in developing the CITPO through several workshop designs.
Collaborators, in addition to the general public, will have an opportunity to develop the questions and
scenarios to be utilized in the system. The scenarios and questions will be subjected to a vetting process
in order to determine the algorithm that will be able to identify racial bias. From this point, each question
will be allotted a score based on the severity of response. The algorithm will assign each question unique
identifiers, leading to a score that places the tester on a spectrum. In addition to the algorithmic questions,
there will be several open-ended scenarios that each tester will be responsible for answering, which will
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later be analyzed and scored by humans. Each human interactor will be provided a rubric to determine the
appropriate scoring for each scenario response.
Potential collaborators are experts in juvenile justice, racial justice, and the criminal justice system.
Organizations and individuals considered allies include, but are not limited to: Families and Friends of
Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC); Voices of the Experienced (VOTE), Community Activists;
Orleans Parish Juvenile Court; NOPD; People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond; Southern University
at New Orleans’s School of Social Work; Southern University at New Orleans’s African-American
Studies Program; and the New Orleans Independent Police Monitor (NOIPM). Organizations that may
present a challenge to addressing DMC as prescribed by the deviance include: Police Association of New
Orleans, New Orleans Police Union, the New Orleans Police Academy, New Orleans Police Foundation,
Police Mutual Benevolent Association of New Orleans, existing and retired officers, and community
supporters of LEOs. Strategically engaging both VOTE’s and NOIPM’s expertise in working with the
NOPD will create a formal partnership between these agencies and the CITPO designer. This partnership
will aid in creating understanding of how NOPD functions and develop ways to penetrate and navigate
the large system to further the mission of the CITPO.
FFLIC is a nonprofit, grassroots organization that supports families of incarcerated youth. FFLIC
is known for its ability to organize communities around issues that directly impact their families, such as
DMC. A partnership between FFLIC and the creator of CITPO is essential to the implementation in New
Orleans. CITPO’s leaders will collaborate with FFLIC members to develop an organizing strategy to place
pressure on NOPD to incorporate the tool in their hiring process. Law enforcement agencies tend to be
powerful entities, and are not always open to criticism or change. Thus, community buy-in will be an
essential part of the implementation of CITPO. Similar to FFLIC, VOTE will aid CITPO in developing
strategies to reform NOPD policies that may hinder the department from becoming bias-free.
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The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB) “is a national and international collective
of anti-racist, multicultural community organizers and educators dedicated to building an effective
movement for social transformation.” PISAB will assist with identifying and training the stakeholder
consultant experts, whose purpose is to facilitate the CRBIRQ panels. PISAB is one of CITPO’s
recognized interventions for LEOs struggling with racial bias.
The NOPD is supported by many local citizens, as well as two important foundations: the New
Orleans Police and Justice Foundation (NOPJF) and the Southern Law Enforcement Foundation (SLEF).
The mission of NOPJF is to ensure that New Orleans is a safe place to live, work, and visit. The foundation
provides funding for various programs in the community that aim to “promote excellence in policing,
efficiency in criminal justice and positive community engagement.” (New Orleans Police and Justice
Foundation, 2018). SLEF offers support to all law enforcement officers in the southern region of the U.S.,
and its mission is to support fellow officers who have been negatively impacted on the job by providing
stress-reduction opportunities (Southern Law Enforcement Foundation, 2018). These police-affiliated
groups may initially be resistant to the innovative design, but given this consideration, it is important to
develop a working relationship with such groups. NOPD’s affiliate organization can learn about DMC
and how the CITPO can assist officers in alignment with their mission.
CITPO designers will collaborate with local universities to support phase one of the development
process. University students will encourage their peers to take the CITPO survey as a means of collecting
data from a diverse group of people. Working closely with schools of social work and psychology, CITPO
creators will facilitate a process for analyzing survey responses to identify questions, scenarios, and
interventions for the system design. Due to funding constraints, partnerships with universities’ engineering
and technology departments are warranted for the development of the CITPO. Additional collaborators
will be discovered as the process of developing the CITPO commences.
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Potential Competitors. A potential competitor is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI), a psychological test that assesses personality traits and psychopathology
(PsychCentral, 2019). It is primarily intended to test individuals who are suspected of having mental health
or other clinical issues. While the MMPI currently does not assess for racial bias, the company is in a
better position to develop a similar system as the CITPO. Creators of the Intercultural Development
Inventory (IDI) are also potential competitors as developers of a validated cultural competency assessment
(Hammer, 2019). The CITPO system is unique in that it primarily focuses on identifying racial bias and
its interventions are primarily community-based and involve bringing together impacted people and law
enforcement. The IDI works one-on-one with individuals to improve their cultural competency (Hammer,
2019). The IDI is a theory-based assessment, grounded in improving cultural competency amongst its
users. CITPO is theory-based and grounded in the social learning theory and its tools are rooted in the
understanding of America’s racialized history.
Analysis of How Innovative Solution is positioned within History, Policy and Public Knowledge
Local Context. An exploration of the New Orleans Police Department’s (NOPD) Police Academy
and its hiring practices illustrates the “wicked problem” associated with promoting smart decarceration,
specifically as it relates to DMC. The NOPD, like other law enforcement agencies in the U.S., has a
dismaying history in regard to the treatment of African-American citizens the police force has sworn to
protect and to serve. The NOPD was founded in 1796 during a time of escalating crime. Citizens requested
a full-time police force instead of the military providing law and order. (Asher, 1984). Led by Chief
Shaun Ferguson, the NOPD is separated into eight police districts located geographically throughout the
various wards in the city. Each district contains several special units (New Orleans Police Department,
2018).
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Presently there are 1,200 officers on the force, hired to protect and to serve an estimated 365,000
citizens (New Orleans Police Department, 2018). The NOPD has been striving to meet its goal of 1,600
officers for the past decade (Richardson, 2014), and the police force represents a continued spending
priority for New Orleans. The 2016-17 fiscal year featured a proposal to increase the NOPD’s budget from
$149,443,448 to $151,294,723; the actual increase was slightly higher due to an upsurge of $1,876,275 in
the approved budget for a total amount of $151,319,723, all in the name of public safety (City of New
Orleans Louisiana, 2017).
Since 2016, the NOPD has sought to increase the number of white LEOs; previously, the NOPD
was one of ten agencies across the country with the best racial representation of police to citizens. This
diversity among LEOs is quickly changing as white recruits made up 58% of the academy in 2016,
doubling the number of white recruits, while the citizen population remains majority African American
(Simerman, Adelson, & Sledge, 2016). The U.S. Department of Justice Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (2016) released a report citing barriers to diversity. The report stated that lack of trust in law
enforcement created a challenge for recruiting minority populations. Additionally, local jurisdictions
inadequately tailored test that leads to the exclusion of people in underrepresented communities is a barrier
to minority recruitment.
In 2012, New Orleans entered a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), one of
the most complex consent decrees in the nation (New Orleans Police Department, 2018). The consent
decree was the result of an investigation into civil rights violations and misconduct within the NOPD. A
multitude of corrective actions are to be implemented as a result of the consent decree, including bias-free
policing (Sledge, 2017). The consent decree will continue until the department is found compliant in all
designated matters. According to the consent decree, the NOPD was tasked with assessing all programs
to ensure the elimination of bias and discriminatory practices. Data showed, on average, a 77% arrest rate
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for African Americans, compared to a 21% arrest rate for the white population between 2014 and 2016
(New Orleans Police Department, 2018). During this time, African Americans accounted for 60% of the
population whereas white citizens represented an estimated 20% of the city’s population. DOJ could
conclude that African Americans are arrested at a much higher rate than their white counterparts based
upon the ratio of citizens to arrests (New Orleans Police Department, 2018). According to the Orleans
Parish Juvenile Court Intake Bureau, black youth make up 68% of the youth population in New Orleans,
but 98% of juvenile arrests, leading one to suggest that white boys and girls do not commit arrestable
offenses. Given this data analysis, a further review of the hiring practices is necessary to determine the
feasibility of proactively addressing bias-free policing. Additional research is being conducted to
determine the racial makeup of the agency. The Root an online publication, reported that in 2012, the
NOPD, supported by a Silicon Valley company called Palantir, implemented technology to predict human
behavior as a means for reducing the crime rate (Winston, 2018). The predictive policing technology is
currently funded by venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who some have identified as a “racist.” According to
the article, the citizens of New Orleans were unaware of the use of such a strategy for fighting crime,
citing that this type of technology could lead to racial profiling in a majority-black city.
Presently, JoinNOPD.org shares information as it pertains to the hiring process for the NOPD.
Interested candidates must complete six steps before being hired. Of the required qualifications and
disqualifications, the site does not explicitly denounce racial bias as a disqualification of employment.
After completing step four, the character inspection, candidates can receive a conditional offer pending
medical and psychological screenings (Join the NOPD, 2018). In an interview, Officer S.T., who has been
on the force for 17 years, revealed that little effort goes into identifying racial bias during the hiring
process. T.S stated that during the step three panel interview, each potential candidate is asked a couple
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of questions that might identify racial bias (T.S, personal communication, October 1, 2018). It is theorized
that the proposed deviance can be applied during the character inspection phase.
Evidence of Impact
The idea of reducing bias is contemporary, and evidence of the impact of anti-bias training is
scarce. Over the past decade, law enforcement agencies have embraced the idea of addressing implicit and
explicit bias. A U.K. study found that unconscious bias training can reduce bias, specifically when the
participants are aware of their biases and provided interactive workshops. A summary of the findings
states that bias can be reduced, but likely not eliminated (Atewologun, Cornish, and Tresh, 2018).
Generally, programs do not intentionally design interventions to reduce bias, however, those programs
that do get mixed results. The research clearly states that the first step to addressing any form of bias is
“awareness.” Programs with educational presentations have seen a reduction in bias. Such programs used
the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as both pre- and post-tests to measure growth (Atewologun, Cornish,
and Tresh, 2018). With existing bias reduction efforts, it is difficult to measure behavior changes because
they lack “real –life interventions.” Real-life interventions and long-term behavior monitoring are
essential components of the CITPO.
Table 1. Sources of evidence used in the Assessment. Evidence of Bias Intervention Effectiveness
Source
Study
Aims of Unconscious Bias Test
Awareness Rising Implicit Bias
Change
Explicit Bias
Change
Behavior Change
Capers et al.
(2017)
✓ ✓
Moss-Racusin et
al. (2016)
✓ ✓ ✓
Girod et al. (2016) ✓ ✓ ✓
Leslie et al. (2017 ✓
Sweetman (2017) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
(Atewologun, Cornish, and Tresh, 2018)

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Chapter 4: Project Structure, Methodology, and Action Components

Project Structure: Implementation Plan

The CITPO will utilize the conceptual framework model of evidence-based therapy (EBT). EBT
is endorsed by several child psychiatrists and recognized for its use in public service sectors (Proctor,
Silmere, Raghavan, Hovmand, Aarons, Bunger, Griffey & Hensley, 2011). This EBT framework is
known as the Exploration, Planning, Implementation, Sustainability model (EPIS), which progresses
across four-stages: exploration, preparation, implementation, and sustainment. Each stage is comprised of
contextual variables that are pertinent to the outer (service-system level) and inner (provider executing an
EBT) context. (See Chapter 4_Appendix D and E: provides a visualization of the CITPO implementation
process using the EPIS model).
Phases of Intervention
System development and implementation phases. Implementation of the CITPO will be
incremental over two years. The initial phase is the system development phase, or the validation of the
CITPO's algorithm. The algorithm will be utilized during the NOPD's hiring process. Phase two will be
the identification and validation of the interventions. Phase three will be the design and authentication of
the monitoring process. The focus of phase one, the implementation of science, will be on the hiring
process and validating the system. After the completion of the system development phase, the tool will be
used with a cohort of NOPD candidates in the fall of 2020. These applicants will be identified as cohort
1.
Step 1, Screening tool, building, and validating the CITPO: The goal of phase 1 is to produce weighted
questions, scenarios, and interventions for the data collection segment of the CITPO. This process will
commence with the identification and collection of questions, trends, scenarios, and responses by
surveying various community stakeholders and experts. Additional planning will include focus groups to
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collect data for the screening tool. Once the data has been received and analyzed for trends, a screening
instrument and questionnaire will be developed, weighted, and scored. The CITPO development team will
hire a company that specializes in validating systems to validate the CITPO.
Step 2, the CITPO Racial Bias Identification & Reduction Questionnaire Panel: The output for this phase
will be to create a team of expert consultants who will serve as the review panel that interviews candidates
utilizing the in-person screening tool. This group of experts will play an intricate role in developing the
in-person screening questionnaire.
Step 3, Demographical data collection and background checks: The CITPO development team will
identify data points and processes for collecting demographic and comprehensive background checks on
LEO candidates.
Sustainability
Sustaining the system will be feasible once the CITPO is validated and deemed a responsible,
evidence-based tool. Communities of color will become allies and advocates for the use of the CITPO if
DMC is reduced. The goal of the CITPO development team is to expand the implementation of the CITPO
into communities across the U.S. and globally that seek to reduce DMC. The CITPO development team
plans to further sustain the CITPO by creating a diverse sources of funding that include foundation and
government grants, private donations, corporate financing, and service fees.
(See Chapter 4_Appendix F: Gantt chart)
Methodology: Description of Measurement, Evaluation and Community Input
To change the status quo surrounding this phenomenon, law enforcement recruits must be
equipped with evidence of their bias and provided opportunities to engage in interventions aimed at
reducing bias. This can transform the relationship between law enforcement agencies and the African-
American community.
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Research Questions:
1. Why are African-American youth disproportionately contacted and confined by law
enforcement officers compared to their white counterparts?
2. Do stipulated interventions lead to a reduction in law enforcement recruits' racial bias?
3. Does a reduction in law enforcement recruits' racial bias lead to a decrease in
disproportionate contact and confinement to the juvenile justice system?
The design of this evaluation proposal will follow classic experimental design utilizing availability
selection with random assignment (See Chapter 4_Appendix G: Classic Experimental Design Process
Chart). R O X O (Group A)/ R O O (Group B/controlled). Individuals who are hired will be randomly
selected to participate in a Group A (R O X O) or Group B/Controlled Group (R O O). After the
intervention process has commenced, each candidate in groups A and B will be re-screened (post-testing)
during the post-intervention process with the CITPO and the CRIRP to determine if a reduction in the
racial bias has occurred. Those individuals that complete the hiring process will be tracked every month
for two years (24 months) to determine if there are adverse racial bias incidents in their work history.
The CITPO measures racial bias and the impact of the treatment/intervention on racial bias levels.
Additionally, the CIPTO measures law enforcement arrest data, comparing arrest rates for African-
American juveniles to those of white juveniles.
Reliability. The Cronbach's alpha test will be used to analyze questions for both the CRBSI and
the CRIRQ. The Cronbach's alpha test will determine whether each question and response have internal
consistencies or average correlation of items to gauge its reliability. Before implementing the CITPO,
questions must be tested on multiple populations (revolutionist to alt-right). Responses will be analyzed;
such data will be used to weigh each question on the instrument and questionnaire.
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Validity. Face and content validity and concurrent criteria validity will be utilized to validate the
tool and process. With concurrent criteria validity, participants will be given the CITPO and the Implicit
Association Test at the same time. For content validity, the developer will work with Harvard University's
Project Implicit team. Dr. Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt, author of "Biased" and an expert consultant to law
enforcement agencies across the country, may provide face validity.
IRB review or exemption will be required based on the data collection process, human subject
involvement, and the future publication of the data. Employing a mixed-method approach, data collection
will consist of secondary and research-based data and qualitative data that will be weighed and coded for
the CITPO racial bias level scale. The SPSS software will be utilized in this quantitative research design
to determine the frequency distribution of arrests of African American youth compared to their white
counterparts. The study shall examine data collected by the NOPD and pre- and post-CITPO data. An
explorative and descriptive data analysis will be conducted to show a relationship between the independent
and dependent variables. Initially, a statistician will be hired to aid in analyzing all collected data sets.
Existing strategies for addressing DMC are aimed at "fixing the child" or the family because
African American youth and families have become the scapegoat. Screening for racial bias at the point of
hiring to address DMC is a phenomenon that is provocative, yet supported. Table 1.1 illustrates the
responses from multiple interviews with juvenile justice experts, computer techs, and community
stakeholders to the question: "Do you think a person's racial bias can be detected through a series of
questions?" The following statements were recorded. (See Chapter 4_Appendix H: Table_ Interviews with
Community Stakeholders and Field Experts)
Research indicates that with the proper means, racial bias can be detected and mitigated. Amid
innovations are barriers and facilitators that can both aid in the development and create challenges. One
of the two primary potential facilitators or barriers is New Orleans police chief. Chief Ferguson was also
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the commander of the Educational and Training Division of the NOPD. This department oversees the
police academy and, consequently, positions Chief Ferguson as a potential proponent for integrating
CITPO into the hiring process of future LEOs due to his firsthand knowledge of the academy's role in
selecting and preparing individuals for the NOPD. Chief Ferguson can also be a barrier, given his position
on the force, especially if he believes that the academy's current hiring and training practices are sufficient.
The Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement (LCLE) is a secondary barriers or facilitator. The LCLE
is responsible for overseeing DMC funding and facilitating grants to various agencies within Louisiana.
In 2018, OJJDP awarded Louisiana $626,000, $139,553 of which was allocated to compliance monitoring
and DMC projects (OJJDP, 2019). As the agency for police departments across the state, the LCLE may
interpret the CITPO as a threat to the status quo and make it difficult to implement the tool and obtain
federal funding for its use. For the same reason, LCLE is also in the position to be a champion and
facilitator for the CITPO due to its influence statewide and its role as an intermediary.
Action Components
Proposed strategy to facilitate the implementation of the solution. The Expert
Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) model was selected as the implementation science
for executing the CITPO. Each of the 73 implementation strategies is purposefully clustered, such that
they provide for the application, sustainability, and scale of the CITPO (Brownson, Colditz, & Proctor,
2012). Utilizing the evaluative and iterative strategies from ERIC for the CITPO has led to an
implementation plan that will improve the NOPD's hiring practices, specifically as it pertains to the
identification of racial bias in candidates being considered to join the police force.
Innovation Finance Plan and Budget Structure
Identify auspices. Lotus Cognition Center, Incorporated, a 501©3, will operate CITPO. Lotus
Cognition Center, Inc. will be operated under a board of directors and the executive committee will
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32

provide direct guidance and supervision for the executive director. The executive director will collaborate
with stakeholders, expert consultants, community programs staff, and volunteer contributors to aid in the
development and implementation of the CITPO. The relationship between Lotus Cognition Center, Inc.,
and potential users of the design will focus on the application of the innovation. Users will be required to
pay a fee to utilize the system; the cost will be based upon the delivery and scale of service. The board of
directors will be included in all business decisions related to the CITPO. A decision has been made to
operate as a 501©3 that functions as an enterprise for certain services. An application for the non-profit
philanthropic agency shall commence in the spring of 2020.
Revenue strategy. The resources needed to accomplish the completion of phase one of the
development of the CITPO include access to an online database system that possesses the capacity to
collect and analyze data, funding for stipends for focus group participants, an examination of the screening
questions, and a review of the proposed interventions. If an organizational hybrid of a non-for-profit and
for-profit model is executed, the Executive Director will seek funding opportunities through grant
applications, foundations, government, and private funders.
Overall revenue strategy. The global revenue strategy consists of obtaining self-generating
funding through contracts for training and fees for services for the utilization of the CITPO system.
Government and foundation grants, and private donations will be significant sources of funding for the
project as well as an operational board of directors whose mandate will be to gain access to capital.
Format and cycle. The organization's master budget will operate on a calendar year (January to
December); a budget review will be conducted on a monthly basis by the finance team and submitted to
the executive director and the board of directors for review. The master budget will consist of the operating
budget, financial budget, cash budget, personnel/human capacity budget, and a capital budget. The
operating budget will consider the revenue required to run the organization daily. The financial budget
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will monitor the organization's financial health by assessing the assets, liabilities, and equity. The
personnel budget will fund the organization's internal and external labor costs (direct and indirect labor).
The capital budget will be responsible for the related infrastructure expenses (building, equipment,
devices, etc.).
Revenue projection. The organization will contain multiple programs and services. However, the
information provided in this plan pertains specifically to the development and operation of the CITPO.
Currently, the organization is theoretical; nevertheless, a revenue projection was determined to support
year one activities. The forecast for year one is that the organization will acquire $1,045,000 in revenue.
Units of service. CITPO users will be required to pay a one-time application fee. The CITPO
screening tool has a per-unit cost, per individual usage of the CRIRP review. The baseline cost per
intervention service is $1,000. However, this cost could increase to a maximum of $5,000 per individual.
Outcomes. It is predicted that 100% of the new hires for the NOPD will be screened and assessed
utilizing the CITPO system and the CRBIRQ. Those individuals who have been evaluated to have a mid-
level range of racial-bias will participate in one to five community-based interventions designed to foster
positive relationships and reduce racial bias. Using the CITPO with fidelity will result in an increase in
the number of opportunities for the oppressed to gain equality while reducing negative racial stereotypes.
The CITPO will impact the NOPD by reducing the number of violations for discriminatory practices and
increase the frequency of positive interactions between LEOs and people of color. (See Chapter
4_Appendix I: Table_displays outputs that require a fee for service.)
Staff plan. The executive director will be the only salaried employee with benefits; all other
services will be contractual. Based on the current financial status of the organization, the executive director
will work for free to build the agency and develop the system through phase 1. If start-up funding is
acquired, the executive director will be compensated. The staff (consultants) needed to complete of the
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development of the CITPO and piloting implementation include: 1) executive director; 2) data analyst; 3)
computer information systems engineer; 4) system validation and reliability expert; 5) the CRBIRQ
review experts (five experts); 6) demographic data researchers; 7) five intervention service model
agencies; 8) deputy program director, and 9) accounting services.
(See Chapter 4_Appendix J: Table_Staff Expense Plan)
Other spending plans. During phase 1, the executive director will incur all costs, utilizing free or
existing tools to conduct business. After 100% of the budget is gained, the cost associated with non-
personnel is projected at $822,000. (See Chapter 4_Appendix K: Proposal Line Item Budget)
Revenue vs. cost. Year one operations include total revenue of $1,045,000 from foundation grants
and fees for service. Expenses totaling $956,000 for both personnel and non-personnel expenditures will
result at an end-of-year surplus of $89,000. Under the direction and support of the board of directors, the
executive director will apply for grants from the following foundations: Annie E. Casey Foundation, the
W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Institute of Mental Hygiene (IMH), and the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation (RWJF). The decision to approach the funders is based on mission alignment. The Annie E.
Casey and Kellogg foundations have a history of funding programs that promote juvenile justice reform,
community healing, and safety. The IMH and RWJF offer funding opportunities for programs that foster
mental health well-being. Funds received from the IMH and the RWJF will support the development and
implementation of evidence-based interventions used to mitigate racial bias.
Complicating factors and constraints. The ultimate limitation is the lack of funding and time
allocated to the development of the product. Scaling this capstone may take longer than anticipated without
the necessary funding. Time spent developing and implementing the CITPO is impacted by personal
responsibilities that require the executive director's focus.
Communication Plan and Strategies that Will Engage Audiences

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Racial bias is a provocative topic that many people tend to avoid. Given this understanding, the
communication strategy that supports the CITPO must be non-threatening. The primary two strategies
for engaging the beneficiaries around this topic are starting with self-awareness and building a movement
that people are excited to join. The audiences include, but are not limited to, law enforcement officers,
parents of deceased children killed by law enforcement, communities of color who want better
community-police relations and impacted youth. The success of the communication plan depends on
consistency in the message, open and honest communication, informative messages, and a variety of
communication mechanisms. Each audience will have a uniquely tailored communication model (email,
newsletter, website, social media, town halls, special events, reports, etc.). The frequency of messages
(daily, monthly, quarterly) will also be modified based on the purpose.
Ethical Considerations

Legal complaints about ethics can usually be traced to external influences and individuals' and
professionals' lack of knowledge about an organization's ethical code (Reamer, Racette 2015). CITPO
developers and consultants will adhere to the National Association of Social Workers' (NASW) code of
ethics. Lotus Cognition Center, Inc. will also develop and enter into a memorandum of understanding that
addresses potential ethical dilemmas when collaborating with community partners and contractors. The
developer of the CITPO shall adopt a policy that prevents the sharing of sensitive, confidential data
without adhering to the proper methods. Finally, the CITPO developer shall be transparent when asked to
participate in a partnership endeavor.
Chapter 5: Conclusion, Actions, and Implications

Summary of Project Plans and Conclusions

A safe and equitable approach to decreasing DMC requires innovative strategies and pioneering
tools. CITPO is an innovative tool to depopulate American prisons by addressing DMC safely. One
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36

strategy for promoting smart decarceration is removing race as a precursor for entering the juvenile and
criminal justice system. Given this notion, re-examining and re-evaluating the hiring practices and culture
of the law enforcement community can reduce the large numbers of African Americans entering the
system. Existing strategies for addressing DMC involve court or community-based programs aimed at
changing the behavior of youth and families. Few strategies seek to hold system actors accountable for
their bias and partiality when applying rules and policies. The CITPO will serve as a model for how to
overhaul certain aspects of the law enforcement culture that result in biased arrests and disproportionate
minority confinement and contact.
How the Project Will Improve Policy and Practice

The effectiveness of the CITPO process is contingent upon improved policies and practices within
law enforcement agencies. If policies and practices are not aligned with the aspect of the CITPO tool, the
fidelity of the outcomes will be affected. Law enforcement agencies—in this case, NOPD—would need
to make policy and practice changes in their hiring process. These changes may cost time and money, but
the benefits for the department will exceed the cost. The CITPO process, at its core, aims to change and
shift behavioral norms, which means some level of accountability is expected if the change is to occur.
Acknowledgment of Limitations and Risks: Recommendations for Future Work
Changing behavioral norms takes time. The limitation and risk concomitant to this issue is the lack
of desire to discuss race; most people don’t want to be considered racist or having racial bias. Yet, race
and racial bias is at the root of many concerns that exist within the criminal justice system. It is
recommended that practitioners and experts in the field began to challenge the status quo by promoting
smart decarceration. The data should indicate that the juvenile and criminal justice system
disproportionately impacts African Americans at every decision-making point. Therefore, society must
examine those decision-making points to determine which policies and practices allow the “wicked
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37

problem” of DMC to continue. As a society, we must be brave and audacious when working toward a
more equitable, just, and equal society. The CITPO will work with the NOPD to incorporate the CITPO
Innovative Design Interventions into training to shift behaviors while utilizing the Implicit Association
Test as a pre- and post-test to measure change.
Program implementation will begin upon completion of the DSW program. The plan is to work
with community stakeholders to continue building a relationship with NOPD. The CITPO prototype has
been shared with the independent police monitor, who is eager to support the CITPO process and believes
that it will make a significant impact on the department as a whole. The hope is to utilize this relationship
to further explore the need to obtain funding to thoroughly develop the system.

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38

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nopd

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Reduce the number of
people of color
interfacing with the
juvenile justice system as
well as mitigate negative
interactions with LEOs.

Reduction in
Disproportionate
Minority
Contact/Confinement
(DMC)
LEOs and people of color will have more positive interactions
Culturally Competent LEOs
LEOs will have fewer write-ups for discriminatory practices
The community will regain “ trust” in LEOs
Fewer African American boys and girls will be less likely to lose their life & liberties
because of LEOs.
BENEFITS BENEFITS BENEFITS (IF) BENEFITS (THEN)
(THEN) BENIFITS
African American Boys and Girls have a chance at living a long life, reaching their
fullest potential.
Measurable Effects
DMC
Reduction
Reduction
Increase
d #
Effective
Elevated
Racial Bias
Interventions

PROBLEM

ACTORS

Entry Point
LEOs Hiring Process

Steps
Appendix A: Theory of Change Model Diagram

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Appendix B: 2015-2016 National DMC Data
2015-2016 National DMC Data

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2

GOAL
The CITPO will use a predictive
analytics platform designed to forecast
racial bias in law enforcement
candidates; the CITPO will also
survey those citizens who are arrested
in order to examine the arrest
experience. The goal of the CITPO is
to assist law enforcement agencies
with reducing Disproportionate
Minority Contact and Confinement
(DMC).
IMPACT
Reduce the number of people of color
interfacing with the juvenile justice
system as well as mitigate negative
interactions with LEOs
Reduction in
Disproportionate
Minority
Contact/Confinement
(DMC)

INPUTS
Staff
Stakeholder
Consultant
Experts
Community-
Based
Interventions
NOPD Police
Academy
Space
Materials
NOPD Hiring
Candidates
Funding or
Contract
Secured
ACTIVITIES & OUTPUTS
-Screen for racial bias utlizing CITPO
Process Output: # of candidates screened
Output: # of officers hired
Output: # of officers not hired due
to CITPO process
-Recommend appropriate Interventions to
candidates
Output: # of identified
interventions
-Enrollement in Intervention Process
Output: # of candidate
successfully enrolled in the intervention
Output: # of candidate fulfil the
requirements of the intervention
-Post-Intervention Screening utlizing
CITPO and the CITPO Racial Bias
Indentification & Reduction Panel
Output: # of post intevention
screenings collected
Output: # of post intervention
panel reviews
-Identify community-based interventions
that will aid an experiential process
Output: number of interventions
utlized
-Hirer, on-board, and train Consultant
Experts Panelist Output: # of panelist
reviewers
SHORT-TERM OUTCOMES
-100% of new hirers screened by
CITPO
-5 community-based intervention
utilized to reduce high-levels of racial
bias
-25% of interested candidates not
hired due to extreme levels of racial
bias
-10 Stakeholder Consultant Experts
Identified Trained and available to
participate on CITPO Racial
Identification & Reduction Panel
-75% of hiring candidates agreed to
participate in the recommeded
interventions as a condition of
moving through the higher process
-100% screened CITPO recipients are
work history is tracked over a 24
month period (racial bias behavior
indicators tracked monthly)
-100% shift in racial bias and beliefs
and social norms in hiring candidates
INTERMEDIATE OUTCOMES
-Fewer NOPD officer with
high-levels of racial bias
being hired on the force
-Increased trust between
african american boys and
girls and NOPD
-NOPD is more aware of
systemic racism and cultural
issues effecting African-
American boys and girls in
the city of New Orleans
-Decrease in NOPD officer
level of racial bias
-Less punitative measures
utilized when interacting
with African-American boys
and girls
-Increased openness when
engaging with NOPD
LONG-TERM
OUTCOMES
-Increased community trust
with NOPD
-Improved Health-Outcomes
due to reduces anxiety when
interacting with NOPD
-Increased dialogues between
NOPD and the African-
American Boys and Girls
(Community)
-Reduction in african
american juvenile arrest
rates
-Change in beliefs and norms
regarding black boys and
girls
-Equal treatment at every
decision making point of the
juvenile and criminal justice
system
THE COLLECTIVE IMPACT TOOL FOR POSITIVE OUTCOMES (CITPO) LOGIC MODEL
Appendix C: Logic Model
Appendix C: Logic Model

GOAL
The CITPO will use a predictive
analytics platform designed to
forecast racial bias in law
enforcement candidates; the
CITPO will also survey those
citizens who are arrested in order
to examine the arrest experience.
The goal of the CITPO is to assist
law enforcement agencies with
reducing Disproportionate
Minority Contact and
Confinement (DMC).
IMPACT
Reduce the number of people of
color interfacing with the juvenile
justice system as well as mitigate
negative interactions with LEOs
Reduction in Disproportionate
Minority Contact/Confinement
(DMC)
Promoting Smart Decarceration
• • •
3

Appendix D: A visualization of the CITPO
implementation process using the EPIS model (1)

Promoting Smart Decarceration
• • •
4

Overall Goal:
The CITPO will use a predictive analytics platform designed to forecast racial bias in law enforcement candidates; the CITPO will also survey those citizens who are arrested to
examine the arrest experience. The goal of the CITPO is to assist law enforcement by reducing Disproportionate Minority Contact and Confinement (DMC).

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Phase 1: Exploration
External Climate
- Research Anaylsis
- Identify Current
Practices
- Explore existing
technology
- Local dynamics
- Stakeholder Interviews
- Focus Groups
- Collaborators
- Contributors
- Build a movement
-Community-Based Interventions
-Stakeholder Consultant Experts
Internal Climate
- Mission
- Vision
- Values
- Resources
- Infrastructure
Phase 2: Preparation/Infrastructure-Building
Key Questions, Scenarios, and
Interventions:
- Identify questions, scenarios and
interventions by surveying various
community stakeholders and experts
utilizing the participatory process;
conduct focus group and individual
interviews.
- Development, extensive research will
be conducted to identify prevention and
intervention tools that align with the key
indicators.
- CITPO Racial Bias Identification &
Reduction Panel Experts who are
identified in the collaborative phase will
weigh the indicators and questions by
validating the prevention and
intervention tools.
- Weighed questions, scenarios, and
interventions
Develop the CITPO Program
- Identify computer engineers and
software development
- Produce multiple prototypes/mocks of
the CITPO utilizing an online prototype
software. Development of the software
will occur after a series of prototype
tests.
- Produced software application CITPO
Phase 3: Implementation
Build Technical Assistance Team
- Research process for identifying
expert consultants
- Produce a team of expert consultants
who will work with participating law
enforcement agencies on facilitating
the intervention as well as collecting
and analyzing the surveys of arrests.
- Signed contracts with expert
consultants
Phase 4: Diffuse/ Sustainment
Pilot
- Pilot Program with the NOPD
Police Academy (Summer 2021
Cohort)
- Utilization of CITPO, including
panel Expert interviews, and
interventions
- Identify individuals who have a
high level of racial bias leading to
non-hiring; identify mid-level of
bias in candidates and prescribed
appropriate interventions
Validation
- Validate CITPO with software
designs; system applied to a
control and non-control group of
LEO candidates who have made it
to the “character analysis” stage.
- Observe responses of groups.
- System CITPO Validated
Scale
- Contract with 5 Juvenile Detention
Alternative (JDAI) Sites for
implementation. Promote CITPO at
leading conferences, convening on
the national and international circuit.
Funding
- Secure funding to sustain the
development of new and effective
interventions
Evidence-Based
- Process interventions for certification
as EBP
Effectiveness
- On-going training for stakeholder
consultant experts and intervention
program staff.
- On-going adjustments to CITPO

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLECTIVE IMPACT TOOL FOR POSITIVE OUTCOMES (CITPO)
Appendix E: EPIS Model
Promoting Smart Decarceration
• • •
5

Appendix F: Gantt chart
Promoting Smart Decarceration
• • •
1

Appendix G: Classic Experimental Design Process Chart

Promoting Smart Decarceration
• • •
2

Appendix H: Table_ Interviews with Community Stakeholders and Field Experts)

Interviewee Responses
Dr. Martin Drell, M.D.
(Psychiatrist)
"Yes, but how would you create a set of questions that are not
biased to begin? A plan would need to be developed to take a
person from being implicitly (unconscious) bias to explicitly bias.
You should note that people also tend to not believe in bias; there
are all sorts of layers to the conscious which is unknown. You
should research the Litmus Test, Gradeous, and IQ testing as
references."
Gina Womack, Executive
Director
Juvenile Justice Expert
"Yes, not only questions but through actions too. Maybe require
that they do role-playing in an indebted process. Questions would
have to be asked in such a way that they almost trick the person
into answering the questions honestly."
Sergeant Summer Turner
Police Officer, New
Orleans Police
Department
Expertise: Law
Enforcement, 17 years
"Yes, it depends on the type of questions being asked, body
language, and eye contact. You would need someone specialized in
human behavior. There would have to be scenario-based questions.
The district currently utilizes a computer-based program called
Insight as a means of holding officers accountable for
inappropriate behavior; it's an accountability system for reporting
excessive use of force."
James Bell,
President, Haywood
Burns Institute
"Possibly, but not only. For it to work, one would need to be able
to place themselves in someone else's shoes so that they cannot
manipulate their responses. You would need to be able to read
people's expressions when asked the questions, so there would
need to be some human interaction."
Chris White, MBA
Data Analyst Expert
"Yes, I think that surveys are useful for being able to establish and
detect racial bias. Ask a batch response coded as racist and not
racist through unrelated questions. If you looked at how good
officers (model recruits) are responding and how bad officers
respond, technology could assist with analyzing such data. Initial
assessment creates cohorts and statistically proves through their
arrest history to determine bias; you should research Snap
Judgement Type of Assessment."

Promoting Smart Decarceration
• • •
3

Appendix I: Table_displays outputs that require a fee for service
Phase 2: System Implementation Phase – Cohort 1: 20 Candidates
Outputs Quantity Measurement Dollar Value
CITPO Application Fee 1 Per Application / Per
Agency
$5,000
CITPO Screening
Instrument
2 Per Individual Usage
(pre & post)
$500
CITPO Racial Bias
Identification & Reduction
Questionnaire
2 Per individual Panel
Review
(pre & post)
$1,000
Intervention Services
Participation
1 Per Program $1,000 minimum -
$5,000 maximum

Appendix J: Table_Staff Expense Plan
Position Staff/Consultant Description Cost Annual
Executive
Director
Staff Lead and execute all aspects of the
project.
$100,000
Deputy Program
Director
Consultant Assist with the execution of all aspects
of the project and revenue development

$80,000
Data Analyst Consultant Analyze survey, focus group, and
interview responses. Develop screening
tool

$60,000
Computer
Information
Systems Engineer
Consultant Build the CITPO system
$100,000
System's
Validation and
Reliability Expert
Consultant Work with the ED, data Analyst, and
computer engineer to validate the tool

$100,000
5 CITPO Racial
Identification and
Reduction Panel
review experts
Consultant Interview & score candidates
participating in the CITPO panel review
process.
Assist with developing the panel review
questionnaire

$50,000
Demographic
Data Researchers
Consultant Conduct background checks on
candidates and extended family
members, compile data, and input in
data into the CITPO system

$50,000
5 Intervention
Service Model
Agencies
Consultant Provide intervention services to
individual candidates as referred by the
CITPO

$250,000
Accounting
Services
Consultant Provide book and financial record to
assist with all aspects of the master
budget

$20,000
Promoting Smart Decarceration
• • •
4

Appendix K: Proposal Line Item Budget
YEAR 1 Budget (Including Start-Up Funds)
REVENUE
Code Category Annual Amount
2020 Grants
1 Annie E. Casey: Research Grant $ 200,000
2 Kellogg Foundation: Planning Grant $ 250,000
3 Institute of Mental Hygiene $ 200,000
4 Robert Wood Johnson $ 250,000
2025 NOPD Fee for Service Cohort of 20 Candidates /
Individuals

1 NOPD Application Fee $ 5,000
2 CITPO Screening Instrument $ 20,000
3 CITPO Racial Bias Identification & Reduction Panel $ 20,000
4 Intervention Services Participation $ 100,000
Revenue Grand Total $ 1,045,000

EXPENSES
Personnel
Code Category Annual Amount
5050 Salaries $ 100,000
5055 Benefits/Retirement $ 15,000
5060 Benefits/Health $ 9,000
5065 Payroll Taxes @ 0.83 $ 10,000
Total Personnel $134,000

Non-Personnel
Code Category Annual Amount
6030 Rent $20,000
6035 Telephone/Internet $10,000
6040 Equipment Rental $2,000
6045 Printing/Coping $10,000
6050 Insurance $5,000
6055 Bank/Other Fees $10,000
6050 Depreciation Expense $10,000
6055 Accounting Service Fee $20,000
6060 Consultants $710,000
6065 Travel $10,000
6070 Meeting Expenses $15,000
Total Non-Personnel $822,000

Expenses Grand Total $956,000

Surplus $89,000
Promoting Smart Decarceration
• • •
5

Appendix J: New Orleans Police Department’s Mission Statement
The mission of the NOPD is:
“The mission of the New Orleans Police Department is to provide professional police services to the public
in order to maintain order and protect life and property. In order to accomplish our mission, we are
committed to the philosophy of Community Oriented Policing as a means to inform our organizational
decisions and prioritize our crime fighting and quality of life initiatives by engaging each neighborhood
and community organization in collaborative problem-solving partnerships. We are committed to
integrating community and problem-oriented policing into our daily management principles, policies,
procedures, recruitment efforts, training, personnel selection, performance evaluation process, resource
deployment, tactics and accountability systems” (New Orleans Police Department, 2017).
Appendix K: Sociological Perspective Confirming the Norm
From a sociological perspective, social norms are an informal understanding that governs the behavior of
members of society. For a set of behaviors to be considered a norm, the actor(s) associated with the
behavior must meet five elements that correlate with the observations and actions of secondary actors.
The five elements are 1) Reference Network (“who cares if I do this?”); 2) Empirical Expectation (“what
are those people doing?”); 3) Normative Expectations (“do they care what I do?”); 4) Conditional
Preferences (“do I care that they care what I do?”) 5) and Sanction and Rewards (“what would happen to
me if I did not do this?”). Reference Network (“who cares if I do this?”) (Bicchieri, 2017). A further
examination of data reveals LEOs who have committed violence against unarmed black men, women,
boys, and girls have rarely received disciplinary actions for their behavior; this dereliction of justice
implies that the people who lead LEOs are not concerned with police brutality against the citizens they
have taken an oath to protect. Empirical Expectation (“what are those people doing?”): occurs when LEOs
and whites of European descent stand in support of the LEOs and create justifications for the LEOs’
Promoting Smart Decarceration
• • •
6

actions upon witnessing or learning about the LEOs’ negative interactions with people of color.
Normative Expectations (“do they care what I do?”): the expectation amongst LEOs is that, regardless of
misconduct, the behavior is overlooked because the LEOs are supported by a system that has oppressed
people of color since its inception. The expectation is that LEOs, regardless of their race, protect and
serve the white population while policing the black population. These behavioral norms are what hold in
place the notion that white is the superior race. This is evident by the disproportionate number of black
people interfacing with all parts of the juvenile and criminal justice system at every decision-making point,
except for diversion. The way that LEOs conduct themselves when interacting with black boys and girls
has led to DMC. Thus, this behavior has created a social norm that considers black boys and girls to be
inherently bad and therefore must be treated differently than their white counterparts. Conditional
Preferences (“do I care that they care what I do?”): history has proven that white people do care what other
white people do as it pertains to black people. White people who were known to support black people
have been referred to as “nigger lovers” during the civil rights movement. Killing or beating of a black
person was welcomed, legal, and celebrated amongst white people just 60 – 70 years ago, and in some
instances today. Sanction and Rewards (“what would happen to me if I did not do this?”): It is not
uncommon for white people to disown their family members or disassociate themselves with other whites
who marry, date, or support black people and their liberation. LEOs are usually rewarded with paid time
off while being investigated for having negative interactions with black people and, upon completion of
the investigation, will often return to their position and, in some cases, receive a promotion (Bicchieri,
2017).

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This proposal examines a cultural phenomenon linked to behavioral norms associated with the persistence of disproportionate minority contact and confinement (DMC). Utilizing the premise from promoting smart decarceration—one of 12 Grand Challenges endorsed by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare—this paper analyzes the problem and proposes an innovative solution. Promoting smart decarceration is grounded in the following tenets: decreasing prison populations, eliminating racial and economic standing as a precursor for involvement in the judicial system, and ensuring the safety of the public throughout the transition from incarceration. The innovation described here aims to address DMC by eliminating racial standing as an antecedent for entering the judicial system. ❧ DMC is one of the most pressing problems facing society today. Promoting equal treatment at every decision-making point in the juvenile justice system remains a societal aspiration. The focus of reducing DMC must shift to holding system practitioners accountable for bias in their decision-making, starting with law enforcement agencies. Norms associated with DMC persist because of cognitive dissonance and inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes primarily relating to behavioral decisions. To shift this paradigm, all actors would need to: 1) value the humanity of all people (no matter the person’s race), 2) align one’s behavior with this value, 3) use courage to determine alternative methods when interacting with others, despite one’s fear, and 4) reflect daily on ways to balance one’s thoughts and actions as it relates to those who are impacted by the justice system. ❧ Methods: The conceptual framework in this proposal correlates with the six innovative dynamics: 1) actors, 2) history, 3) limits, 4) future, 5) configuration, and 6) parthood to uncover the hypothesis related to behavioral norms and deviance linked to DMC. The following five elements were utilized to determine if the hypothesized behaviors were indeed social norms: 1) reference network, 2) empirical expectation, 3) normative expectations, 4) conditional preferences, and 5) sanction and rewards. Methodically, applying the social learning theory as a model for change reinforces the innovative design. The research is a collection of peer-reviewed journals, interviews, and relevant documents. ❧ Data: Secondary quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed to determine the statistical significance of the problem. ❧ Capstone proposal: Theoretically, this research has led to the proposal of an innovative model to tackle DMC at the point of arrest—Collective Impact Tools for Positive Outcomes (CITPO). The CITPO is a predictive analytic tool designed to address the intractable problem of DMC by identifying racial bias among law enforcement officers during the hiring process. The proposal illustrates how the behavior norms associated with DMC can be mitigated if law enforcement officers (LEOs) are held accountable for their behavior by participating in pre-identified interventions, in addition to being tracked over a period of time. The CITPO process: 1) Identifies the problem (screening tool/method and panel) 2) Diagnoses the intensity level (spectrum outcome) 3) Implements intervention (prescribe intervention and post-intervention review) 4) Asserts accountability (discontinue the hiring process or move forward) 5) Monitors behavior (observe behavior and interactions)

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Asset Metadata

Creator Morgan, Damekia (author)

Core Title Promoting smart decarceration: mitigating racial bias as a strategy for addressing disproportionate minority contact and confinement (DMC)

School Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

Degree Doctor of Social Work

Degree Program Social Work

Publication Date 06/25/2020

Defense Date 04/16/2020

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag disproportionate confinement and contact,DMC,hiring practices,Law enforcement,OAI-PMH Harvest,predictive analytics,racial bias,Technology

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Lewis, Jennifier (committee chair), Iglesias, Diana Lynn (committee member), Nair, Murali D. (committee member)

Creator Email damekiam@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-322550

Unique identifier UC11664316

Identifier etd-MorganDame-8619.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-322550 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-MorganDame-8619.pdf

Dmrecord 322550

Document Type Capstone project

Rights Morgan, Damekia

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA