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                            Funding & Awards
 Learning From Error In American Criminal Justice
Note:
              This awardee has received supplemental funding. This award detail page includes information about both the original award and supplemental awards.
Award Information
Awardee
              James M Doyle
Award #
              2011-IJ-CX-K060
Funding Category
              Continuation
Location
                    Brookline, MA
Awardee County
              Norfolk
Congressional District
              4
Status
              Closed
Funding First Awarded
              2011
Total funding (to date)
              $380,493
Original Solicitation
              NIJ FY 11 Visiting Fellowship Program
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2011, $191,239)
This project  will assess  whether the criminal justice system, like medicine, can achieve greater reliability by: 1) adopting a systems approach to breakdowns, 2) moving beyond a culture of blame to open the flow of information about vulnerabilities, and 3) building durable partnerships around the shared goals of increased professionalism and reliability by promoting a persistent core learning-from-error process.  It will identify a common ground where researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners can regularly challenge each other, enrich each other's work, and improve the criminal justice system. It will provide a foundation for the exploration by system participants of the potential for mobilizing the aviation/medicine model by using the "organizational accident" approach to bridge gaps and create synergies within NIJ's divisions, among those divisions, and between the NIJ's divisions and the field.  Mobilizing a systems approach to error opens many new areas of criminal justice research.
It will deliver a work of scholarship that assesses the potential for the adaptation of the aviation/medicine model to criminal justice, and a provisional template for further exploration.  It will review the literature of the extant post-exoneration reform efforts in the various states and localities and analyze data regarding the processes of the reform efforts (e.g., participants, formats of process, products). It will supplement that review with targeted surveys of participants.  Criminal justice operators and researchers in all fields will be surveyed to assess insights, preferences, and potential objections to participation in regularized learning-from-error processes.  A prospectus for future exploration of this field including templates for a Technical Working Group on learning-from-error and an Error Report Clearinghouse will be drafted and disseminated widely throughout the system's operators and disciplines.
ca/ncf
Supplemental Award 1 (Fiscal Year 2013, $67,553)
This supplement will build on the work completed in the original fellowship award, the goal of which was to  assess  whether the criminal justice system, like medicine, can achieve greater reliability by: 1) adopting a systems approach to breakdowns, 2) moving beyond a culture of blame to open the flow of information about vulnerabilities, and 3) building durable partnerships around the shared goals of increased professionalism and reliability by promoting a persistent core learning-from-error process.  Results from focus groups and case reviews suggest that a review model, similar to what is used in aviation and medicine, may be viable in the criminal justice system. This is the first of what is expected to be two supplements made to this award (pending availability of funds and other factors) to explore the viability of an OJP-wide research initiative to implement and test a Sentinel Event Review process.
During this four month supplement, the Fellow will work with NIJ staff on several key activities in the development of this research initiative.  First, he will support OJP leadership and its staff as it explores a serious commitment to developing and testing a system-oriented approach to criminal justice that mobilizes non-adversarial, all-stakeholders teams to analyze and prevent error and enhance reliability. Second, he will aid in the design, organization, and execution of a roundtable composed of leaders in relevant stakeholder communities who have robust networks within their communities.  Finally, he will support OJP staff in consolidating the lessons of the roundtable and preparing for the next phase of building collaborations, disseminating products, and identifying and recruiting new partners.  nca/ncf
    Supplemental Award 2 (Fiscal Year 2013, $121,701)
This supplement will build on the work completed in the original fellowship award, the goal of which was to assess whether the criminal justice system, like medicine, can achieve greater reliability by: 1) adopting a systems approach to breakdowns, 2) moving beyond a culture of blame to open the flow of information about vulnerabilities, and 3) building durable partnerships around the shared goals of increased professionalism and reliability by promoting a persistent core learning-from-error process. Results from focus groups and case reviews suggest that a review model, similar to what is used in aviation and medicine may be viable in the criminal justice system. This is the second of two supplements made to this award to explore the viability of an OJP-wide research initiative to implement and test a Sentinel Event Review process. Work under this first supplement focused on preparations for a roundtable of leaders of the key stakeholder groups that was held in May 2013, and on building collaborations within OJP.  Work under this second supplement includes, among other things, continuing collaborations with OJP (and possibly other DOJ) partners, further development of the Sentinel Eventi Initiative (SEI), development of products to be disseminated through a variety of media, including several publications and a webinar, and dissemination of information on the SEI project as appropriate. nca/ncf


  
Grant-Funded Publications
        
                      An Etiology of Wrongful Convictions: Error, Safety, and Forward-Looking Accountability in Criminal Justice

  
Date Created: September 8, 2011
    
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