Project Reset is a diversion program operating in Manhattan and the Bronx offering a new response to low-level offending that is proportionate, effective, and restorative. Participants who complete brief community-based programming avoid a criminal record without ever setting foot in a courtroom.
This webinar will highlight the innovative work of the EMERGE Academy, an educational reentry pilot program for young women residing in Alameda County, who have had prior contact with the criminal or juvenile legal system. Falilah Bilal, senior trainer of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute, will share lessons learned from this pilot and offer intervention strategies for the field on responding more effectively to girls and young women reentering society.
As chief medical officer for New York City jails, Homer Venters realized early in his tenure that for many people dying in jail, the primary cause of death was jail itself. To document what was actually taking place behind bars, Venters and his team created a statistical category no one had dared to track before: "jail-attributable deaths." His work led him into frequent opposition with the security services. It also led to his book, Life and Death in Rikers Island.
The Group Violence Intervention model seeks to reduce violent and gun-related crimes. This report documents the model’s implementation and impact in Newburgh, New York. Results suggest the rate of violent crime in Newburgh was significantly lower than rates seen over the previous five years. While this drop was consistent with broader downward trends, the decline in Newburgh was greater than in neighboring comparison communities.
Can art transform the criminal justice system? On this special edition of New Thinking, host Matt Watkins sits down with two New York City artists on the rise—Derek Fordjour and Shaun Leonardo—who both work with our Project Reset to provide an arts-based alternative to court and a criminal record for people arrested on a low-level charge. With the program set to expand city-wide, the three discuss art's potential to expose and contain a racialized criminal justice system.
An evaluation of the Brooklyn Young Adult Court—a misdemeanor court for 16- to 24-year-olds—found fewer convictions and less use of jail for participants, with no discernible risk to public safety. The court provides social services and alternatives to traditional prosecution, partly in response to research showing young people have markedly different brain development from older adults. The report ends with recommendations for other jurisdictions looking to adopt a new approach to young adult justice.
In partnership with the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center and State Justice Institute, the Center developed and pilot-tested a court website prototype founded in procedural justice principles. The idea was to give courts sample language, imagery, and layout advice—informed by a user experience designer—to turn a typical visit to a court website into a trust-building opportunity. This toolkit describes the key building blocks of a model website, strategies for implementation, and lessons learned from pilot courts.
In partnership with the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center and State Justice Institute, the Center developed this toolkit to help judges and other criminal court practitioners improve courthouse signage with the ultimate goals of helping enhance court users’ perceptions of fairness and build (or rebuild) trust and confidence in the justice system. The toolkit is organized by each element of procedural justice—understanding, respect, voice, and neutrality—and is paired with recommendations to help plan a local signage improvement project.
Can changes at a busy urban courthouse make users feel respected, ensure they understand the process, and enhance impressions of the legitimacy of the court? This study looks at a series of improvements to the Manhattan Criminal Court and before-and-after defendant surveys.
Effective January 2020, New York State has passed reforms sharply curtailing the use of bail. This analysis explains several important provisions intended to protect victims of domestic violence and uses data from New York City to explore the reforms' potential implications in such cases.