The Brooklyn Felony Alternatives-to-Incarceration Court offers community-based interventions and rigorous judicial monitoring, decreasing the use of jail and prison sentences and leading to reduced criminal dispositions.
Ada County Domestic Violence Court, Idaho: A fast-track court disposing of cases in 58 days on average from arrest to sentencing based on the integrated domestic violence court model. A multi-agency team allows the court to implement several best practices, including: supervised probation; post-sentence judicial monitoring; evidence-based offender assessment and specialized treatment; and comprehensive case planning. Click here to listen to Judges James Cawthon and Carolyn Minder discuss the Ada County response to domestic violence.
Ada County Domestic Violence Court, Idaho: A fast-track court disposing of cases in 58 days on average from arrest to sentencing based on the integrated domestic violence court model. A multi-agency team allows the court to implement several best practices, including: supervised probation; post-sentence judicial monitoring; evidence-based offender assessment and specialized treatment; and comprehensive case planning. Click here to listen to Judges James Cawthon and Carolyn Minder discuss the Ada County response to domestic violence.
Recent research has uncovered promising strategies for deterring recidivism among domestic violence offenders. Courts across various jurisdictions promote effective deterrence by engaging in evidence-based strategies such as judicial monitoring and imposing certain and consistent consequences in response to non-compliance. This fact sheet describes the concept of deterrence and how it can be implemented in domestic violence cases to enhance victim safety and hold offenders accountable
An experimental study involving the random assignment of domestic violence offenders to a batterer program or not. The study examines whether batterer program assignment affects official re-arrest rates as well as victim reports of re-abuse. Published in Justice Quarterly, Volume 25, Number 2 (June 2008). Key findings are also presented in Chapters Four and Five of Testing the Effectiveness of Batterer Programs and Judicial Monitoring
An edited transcript of a daylong conversation among 20 national experts as they explored options for improving criminal court responses to domestic violence, with particular focus on batterer program mandates, judicial monitoring, probation supervision, and victim advocacy.
In 2009, Jonathan Lippman was named Chief Judge of New York State courts by Gov. David Paterson. Prior to being named chief judge, he served as the chief administrative judge to Judith S. Kaye and as the Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for the First Judicial Department. Judge Lippman has long been an advocate of problem-solving judicial reform (see, for example this op-ed).
Court observation programs around the country send volunteers into courts to observe, collect data, and sometimes issue reports about what they've seen. Their goals include keeping courts accountable to the public and improving transparency, but not all courts are eager to receive public feedback. Court Watch of King County, Washington, has worked closely with its local courts since the program's founding, trying to build a relationship that is more collaborative than adversarial.
The San Francisco Community Justice Center opened in March 2009, handling cases from the city’s Tenderloin, South of Market, Union Square, and Civic Center neighborhoods. Although the project had the strong and enthusiastic backing of court leadership and Mayor Gavin Newsom, the project faced a number of hurdles, including opposition from some homeless advocates and even some members of the city’s Board of Supervisors. The Justice Center’s presiding judicial officer, Hon.
One of the top drug court researchers in the country, Marlowe sat down with the Center for Court Innovation's Carolyn Turgeon to talk about his research on drug courts.