We offer expert consultation and assistance with developing individualized sentencing strategies that incorporate the most effective research-supported approaches to reducing future recidivism.
Sentencing Service Program (SSP) staff members are qualified experts on juvenile and adult criminal justice issues in both state and federal courts.
Expert consultation and assistance on developing individualized sentencing strategies.
Our Services
SSP provides sentencing, disposition, fitness, and direct file reports for individuals facing criminal sanctions. Staff members prepare reports using information gathered from defendants as well as their families, friends, teachers, colleagues, and other supporters. In addition to placement recommendations, the reports include the client’s extensive social history, family system, and educational or vocational goals. The reports provide counsel, the court, and probation with a more complete picture of the defendant, and offer information that may have been neglected throughout the institutional process. In capital punishment mitigation, SSP staff analyze the impact of institutionalization on individuals facing post-conviction sentencing, pretrial determination of death penalty eligibility, or who are on appeal. The staff prepare a comprehensive evaluation for presentation that examines the defendant’s involvement in the juvenile and adult justice systems, with specific analysis of any institutional commitments. This information may also prove useful for the defense counsel during the guilt phase. SSP staff also provide expert testimony on the current and historic conditions of California’s Division of Juvenile Facilities and on best practice alternatives at the local level. Visit Juvenile Corrections Reform in California for more information.
Agencies seeking individualized sentencing reports for adult and juvenile cases can contract with CJCJ on a case-by-case basis. For more information or to refer a case, please contact Daniel Macallair at (415) 621‑5661 x. 107 or ssp@cjcj.org.
I have practiced juvenile delinquency defense in a semi-rural area for almost 25 years. Our geographic isolation often leaves us out of the loop concerning development in juvenile justice. I have come to rely more and more upon the experts at CJCJ. Their written work is persuasive and well-supported, their contacts are expansive, their strategies are sound, and their fees are reasonable. Best of all, they are held in high regard by most courts. I highly recommend them to any defender facing a tough or seemingly hopeless case.
History
Dr. Thomas Gitchoff, Ph.D., a prominent criminologist at San Diego State University, pioneered privately commissioned pre-sentence investigation during the 1970s. Dr. Gitchoff sought to improve the quality of the presentence investigation by offering a comprehensive analysis of the offender’s background along with an individualized sentencing recommendation designed to reduce potential recidivism. Dr. Gitchoff’s Criminological Case Evaluation and Sentencing Recommendation set the standard for presentence investigations in California courts for nearly 3 decades.
To learn more about PSI read The History of the Pre-sentence Investigation Report.
In 1985, the Western Regional office of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA), established the Sentencing Service Program and began developing individualized sentencing reports upon special request from judges, defense counsel, probation staff, or prosecutors. In 1991, CJCJ continued SSP operations. SSP has conducted over 1,000 individualized social history investigations, resulting in expert reports and testimony throughout California’s 58 counties, and across the nation, including Arizona, Hawai’i, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, and Oregon.
Daniel Macallair, Executive Director
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
424 Guerrero Street, Suite A
San Francisco, CA 94110
ssp@cjcj.org