The Pew-MacArthur Results First Initiative in Texas

Background

In December 2011, the Legislative Budget Board of Texas requested the assistance of the Pew-MacArthur Results First Initiative to advance the use of cost-benefit analysis to inform policy and budget decisions in the area of criminal justice.

The board is a permanent joint committee of the Texas Legislature that develops budget and policy recommendations for legislative appropriations for all agencies of state government and performs fiscal analyses for proposed legislation. It also conducts evaluations and reviews in order to identify and recommend changes to improve the efficiency and performance of state and local operations and finances.

Implementation

The board is collecting data to populate the adult criminal justice component of the cost-benefit model.

Next Steps

The board plans to use the Results First analysis of the adult criminal justice system to inform a study on the state’s recidivism trends.