This article, which appeared in the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, seeks to address a gap in the fierce debate over pretrial risk assessment: the role of the defender. The authors contend defense attorneys can challenge the data science undergirding risk assessments and use their implementation as a lever for renegotiating the “going rates"—the default rules that expedite the disposition of cases and drive plea-bargaining in a given jurisdiction.
Spurred by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black Americans at the hands of police, demands are increasing for money to be redirected from police budgets. No single strategy can achieve meaningful change; through experience and research, we have identified a number of sustainable community-driven solutions that can limit the role of police, while building safe and strong neighborhoods.
Adam Foss wants to transform the justice system—from within. A former Boston prosecutor who rose to prominence on a TED Talk criticizing his colleagues for using their power more often to jail than to help people, Foss is the executive director of Prosecutor Impact. It trains prosecutors across the country in line with Foss's vision for the profession. But as protests continue against the killing of African Americans by police, other voices are advocating far more radical strategies.
In the U.S., six to seven and a half million people are victims of stalking every year. Nearly one in six women and one in 17 men have experienced stalking victimization at some point in their lifetimes. In this episode of In Practice, Rob Wolf discusses stalking in the context of domestic violence and intimate partner violence with national expert Jennifer Landhuis, director of the Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center (SPARC). They talk about what stalking is, why it's so dangerous, and what's being done among advocates and legal practitioners to address it.
The Center for Court Innovation’s "Taking Action" series aims to inform justice practitioners about innovations in the field and support their efforts to replicate innovative practices locally. This publication examines the Spokane Municipal Court's groundbreaking, low-cost community court held weekly in the city's downtown library, convening a "mall" of local providers of services for people experiencing homelessness.
Significantly reducing pretrial detention is an urgent policy imperative in New York City, which plans to close its notorious and inhumane jails on Rikers Island, build smaller new jails, and reduce the total number of people held in jail by more than half in the next six years. This document describes a set of strategies that New York City is adopting to address the well-documented harms of pretrial detention.
In a virtual presentation in June 2020, our leading bail reform experts discussed their new report, 'Bail Reform Revisited: The Impact of New York’s Amended Law.' With the amended law about to go into effect, they explored the impacts of the revisions and the effect outside factors—such as COVID-19 or the current protests against police violence—may have on the direction of pretrial reform in the state. The panelists also discussed ways that New York City, despite the projected increase in the jail population, can still meet its commitment to close Rikers Island by 2026.
Seven students in our Restorative Justice in Schools Program won NPR's 2020 student podcast competition, out of thousands of entries from across the country. On the winning episode, the students—part of the Men in Color after-school program at their Brooklyn high school—discuss climate change and environmental racism. They created the episode after participating in the New York City youth climate march, where they interviewed people about how black communities intersect with climate justice.
“Climate change is racial injustice,” the students conclude.
The death of George Floyd after a white police officer pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for close to nine minutes has triggered a wave of anger and revulsion. Vincent Southerland, the executive director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU, compares the brazen nature of Floyd's death to a lynching. The furor comes in the midst of a pandemic itself exacerbated by racism. How will COVID-19, and the reaction to police violence, affect the deep racial patterns of the justice system?
Domestic violence survivors often struggle with financial stability and providing for their children following a separation. Economic instability is a driving factor in why many survivors return to abusive relationships. While survivors may be entitled to access child support, it is often a confusing process that can put them at risk for further abuse. This guide outlines how courts can work with child support agencies to provide survivors with the support they need, and to make the process safe and effective for those survivors who choose to pursue it.
