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We work to create a more effective and humane justice system by performing original research and helping launch reforms around the world.

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Audio

Heal and Punish? When Therapy Is the Alternative to Incarceration

How effective is therapy or treatment when it's used instead of incarceration, and what are the challenges to conducting it inside the coercive context of the criminal justice system? In this episode of New Thinking, host Matt Watkins is joined by clinical psychologist Jacob Ham who works with justice-involved young people affected by trauma, and John Jay College's Deborah Koetzle who evaluates programs across the country intended to help participants rebuild lives outside of the justice system.

Press

A Road to Ending Mass Incarceration?

Praising its "vivid" narrative and "balanced prescriptions throughout," the Los Angeles Review of Books looks at Start Here by our Greg Berman and Julian Adler.

Video

From Defendant to Survivor: How Courts are Responding to Human Trafficking

Survivors of sex trafficking are usually treated as criminals rather than victims. But some courts have begun to recognize that those arrested on prostitution charges are often victims of coercion, violence, and trauma. Our new video, From Defendant to Survivor, profiles the innovative approaches being taken by courts in Los Angeles, New York City, and Columbus, Ohio.

Press

Native American Peacemaking in the Courts of New York

On BBC Radio 4, the well-known British legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg profiles the peacemaking program at our Red Hook Community Justice Center (segment starts at 17:17).

Listen to the audio →

Audio

Prosecutor Power #6: Larry Krasner, The Antagonist

As a defense attorney, Larry Krasner sued the Philadelphia police upwards of 75 times. Then, in late 2017, he was elected D.A. in a landslide. As part of our series on the power of prosecutors, Krasner explains why he has little patience for compromise in a city whose justice system is "an outlier in a country that is an outlier."

Honoring Dr. King with a Day of Service

To commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Red Hook Community Justice Center holds a day of service, giving out over 150 winter coats to those in need. The Justice Center’s AmeriCorps members, community service participants, and staff served cookies and hot cocoa while helping neighbors try on and select their coats.