Podcast

David Weisburd, director of the Center for Evidence-based Crime Policy at George Mason University, explains the link between crime and location during his address at Community Justice 2012: the International Conference of Community Courts.

A new building in Milliken, Colorado, houses a community court, police station and social services in an effort to foster collaboration among agencies and be more user-friendly for both the public and staff. Jim Burack, town administrator and chief of police, discusses the logic behind the building's design.

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Crown Counsel Adam Dalrymple explains how the Downtown Vancouver Community Court uses community service assignments to match offenders with organizations that address their social service needs. (March 2012)

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Sociologist Andrew Papachristos focuses his studies on urban neighborhoods, social networks, street gangs, violent crime, and gun violence. A Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at Harvard University, Papachristos discusses how social network analysis can aid crime prevention. (January 2012)

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Queens County (NY) Judge Fernando Camacho discusses why he created a prostitution diversion court that helps victims leave a life of prostitution by linking them to counseling and social services instead of sentencing them to jail time. (January 2012)

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This nine-minute video introduces viewers to the Center for Court Innovation. It includes remarks from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker as well as interviews with Center staff, clients and community members.

T.J. Donovan, the state's attorney for Chittenden County, explains a new initiative in Burlington, Vermont, that mandates community restitution and participation in social services as alternatives to court or incarceration. (August 2011)

Judge John Leventhal of the New York Appellate Division and attorney Jennifer White of Futures without Violence describe the misconceptions people have about the elderly as both victims and perpetrators of crime. This is one of three podcasts produced in collaboration with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. (July 2011)

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Jim Henderson, a trainer and lecturer on domestic violence, discusses probation group conferencing, motivational interview techniques, and the importance of community collaboration. (July 2011)

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David M. Sargent of the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence has taught thousands of law enforcement officers how to implement the Lethality Assessment Program, which uses a short survey to assess victims' risk of being killed and a simple protocol to encourage them to get help. (May 2011)

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Mallory O'Brien, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute at Duke University, describes how the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission brings together law enforcement and public health to solve individual homicides. (April 2011)

This film produced by the Center for Court Innovation and the Bureau of Justice Assistance tells the story of community courts, which have been developing creative responses to crime since the first community court was founded in Manhattan in 1993. The film includes footage from the Midtown Community Court, the South Dallas Community Court, Newark Community Solutions, and interviews with judges, lawyers, police officers and others from across the United States.

Court Administrator Susie Martin and Chief Probation Officer Lucinda Yellowhair explain how the Navajo Nation's pilot community court will draw on their culture's traditional restorative justice principles.

Secretary of Justice Penny Armytage discusses the successes and challenges of the recently opened Collingwood Neighborhood Justice Centre.

Professor David Kennedy, the director of the Center for Crime Prevention & Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, shares some of what he's learned about new approaches to addressing gang violence and open-air drug dealing.

This podcast includes observations from the presiding judge, Alex Calabrese, and short interviews by Director of Communications Robert V. Wolf with the Brooklyn D.A.'s Chief Assistant District Attorney Anne Swern and Captain Kenneth Corey, commander of the 76th Precinct.

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District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., following his keynote address at a Harlem Parole Reentry Court graduation, answers questions about reentry, crime prevention, and community prosecution.

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What are the challenges facing the hundreds of thousands of people discharged from U.S. prison every year? What are the challenges facing their home communities, which are often poor and under-served? And how did we get here, with millions of Americans--a disproportionate share of whom are African-American--behind bars? New York University Law Professor Anthony C. Thompson tackles these questions in a presentation based on his new book, Releasing Prisoners, Redeeming Communities: Reentry, Race, and Politics.

An 11 minute video about the Center for Court Innovation created in honor of the 2009 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation.

Derek Miodownik, restorative systems administrator for the Vermont Department of Corrections, talks about the state's innovative experiments in community and restorative justice, including Citizen Reparative Boards, which give panels of community members a role in working with misdemeanor offenders, and Circles of Support and Accountability, which link community members with parolees convicted of serious crimes.

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West Huddleston, CEO of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, talks about his group's new web site, why the nation's 2,300-plus drug courts reach only 10 percent of the people they're designed to help, and what's next on the horizon for the drug court movement. (July 2009)

Herb Sturz--the subject of a new book, A Kind of Genius, by New York Times reporter Sam Roberts--talks about innovation, the power of private-public collaborations, the founding of the Midtown Community Court, and his current work at the Open Society Institute. (May 2009)

After visiting the Harlem Community Justice Center, Katherine McQuay and Zoe Mentel of the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) talk about reentry, community policing, and the stimulus package. (April 2009)

Ann Fulmer, a lawyer and community activist, explains how mortgage fraud harms neighborhoods—including her own community outside Atlanta, Georgia—and what residents can do to stop it. (February 2009)

Mary Claire Landry, director of Domestic Violence Services for the Catholic Charities in New Orleans, discusses the challenge of rebuilding effective responses to domestic violence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. (December 2008)

University of Maryland Law Professor Terry Hickey discusses Baltimore's new Prostitution Court and other community justice initiatives. (October 2008)

Staff of the Harlem Parole Reentry Court discuss how they help ex-offenders make the transition from incarceration to the community. (July 2008)

A look at the groundbreaking Midtown Community Court. This 12 minute video is narrated by Charles Kuralt.

Excerpts from the PBS documentary "Red Hook Justice." This video, by award-winning filmmaker Meema Spadola, offers a look into the workings of this innovative justice center. (Spanish version Translation by La Comisión Interamericana para el Control del Abuso de Drogas de la Organización de los Estados Americanos /  Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission of the Organization of American States)

Jack Straw, the United Kingdom’s justice secretary and lord chancellor, experiences a judge’s-eye view of the courtroom, quizzes staff about operations, and meets with a group of ex-offenders who have gotten their lives back on track during a visit to the Red Hook Community Justice Center in February 2008.