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 describes the reforms he is putting in place, the challenge of ensuring they're actually implemented, and why he has little patience for compromise in a city whose justice system is "an outlier in a country that is an outlier."
Explore the 25-year history of Midtown Community Court as the nation’s first community court, its impact on the justice landscape, and its unique community partnerships, including an emphasis on using arts programming as an alternative to incarceration. Featured speakers include Presiding Judge Charlotte Davidson, the court’s founding director John Feinblatt, and U.S. Senator Cory Booker.
This report provides the results of a regular community survey intended to give voice to the concerns of the people who live and work in the Red Hook neighborhood in southwest Brooklyn, the home of our Red Hook Community Justice Center. This 2016 survey measured citizen perceptions of neighborhood quality of life, public safety, and satisfaction with local criminal justice agencies.
This collection of photographs tells the story of the Midtown Community Court, looking at its first 25 years of operation and tracing its development from groundbreaking experiment to a core component of the New York City criminal justice landscape.
In 2016, Adam Foss, a young prosecutor in Boston, gave a TED Talk on reforming his profession that became a sensation. Today he trains incoming prosecutors in D.A. offices across the country. In the latest episode of our series on prosecutors, Foss says the problem isn't that prosecutors have too much power; it's that no one is teaching them to use it for good.
An audio portrait of Make It Happen, our program working with young men of color in Crown Heights, Brooklyn affected by violence. Through interviews with participants and practitioners, the episode explores the intersections of trauma, involvement with the justice system, and the lived experience of race. This episode was originally released in April 2018.
Meet the teenagers of the Newark Youth Court. These young people fill the roles of judge, bailiff, advocates, and jurors, hearing low-level cases involving their peers. The sentences are always restorative, meant to provide a positive experience for the respondent and avoid a criminal record.
Just because smaller communities generally have fewer resources doesn’t mean they aren’t innovating or taking new approaches that others can learn from and emulate. In Pulaski County, Virginia, home to about 35,000 people, Judge H. Lee Chitwood and Court Coordinator Jaime Clemmer have implemented a number of changes to better address domestic violence.
In Misdemeanorland, Issa Kohler-Hausmann argues the lower courts are no longer primarily concerned with whether people actually committed the offense they’ve been accused of. Instead, the focus is on future behavior: upholding social order through managing and assessing—often over long stretches—everyone with the misfortune of entering Misdemeanorland. It's an argument that forces us to rethink what justice should look like in low-level cases.
On the occasion of its twentieth anniversary, an introduction to the origins, programming, and community impact of Neighbors in Action, formerly known as the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center. Neighbors in Action works to make the central Brooklyn neighborhoods of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant safer and stronger for all.
