In this report, the Center for Court Innovation’s West Coast Initiatives team shares valuable lessons derived from its experience in helping to plan and launch equitable early diversion programs in Los Angeles. The insights offered here can provide guidance for other diversion initiatives in efforts to bridge the gap between legal systems and communities while caring for vulnerable populations.
A recent two-day training for Manhattan prosecutors was a drumbeat on the harms of incarceration, part of a wider effort by D.A. Alvin Bragg to expand the use of alternatives such as treatment and restorative justice. But in a newly cramped climate for criminal justice reform, can that effort become a reality? New Thinking investigates.
In his 22 years as presiding judge of the Red Hook Community Justice Center, Judge Alex Calabrese has always taken a people-centered approach in his courtroom, understanding the underlying issues that brought people to court and suggesting services and programs that would help address them. We are incredibly grateful for Judge Calabrese's service. He has made a deep and lasting impact on the residents of Red Hook and the justice system as a whole.
In this publication, updated guiding principles build upon the foundational principles of community justice, preserve the operational flexibility that makes community justice special, and infuse new ideas and practices that are supported by research and experience. They are intended to broaden the concept of community justice to include both community courts and non-court models, offering court planners, practitioners, and communities a blueprint for building programs that meet today’s challenges.
Prosecutors make many of the most vital choices in a case unilaterally. Yet little is known about how they arrive at decisions in the most consequential cases: those charged as violent. Results from our national survey of prosecutor offices show a willingness to try new approaches but also suggest how prosecutors conceive of and prosecute violence can be rife with inconsistencies.
In August 2022, the Harlem Community Justice Center hosted a Housing Resource Fair that connected local residents with a wide range of agencies and providers to help them access key services, such as rent relief, critical home repairs, and legal services to fight evictions. The fair showcased the tremendous demand for housing stability services in the East Harlem community and Justice Center’s ongoing efforts to help residents access resources and tenant protections close to their homes.
Community safety is multidimensional. Yet efforts to build community safety outside of the criminal legal system are often evaluated only using data generated by that same system. This means effective strategies of crime and violence prevention can be overlooked by policymakers and funders. We make an urgent case for a new paradigm.
The Red Hook Community Justice Center works to strengthen Red Hook, Brooklyn, and surrounding areas by reducing crime and the use of incarceration, improving public trust in justice, and collaborating with the community to solve local problems.
Kathryn Ford, the Center’s Director of Child Witness Initiatives, speaks with Geri Wisner, a prosecutor from Oklahoma, and Jennifer Thompson, a victim advocate and counselor from Georgia, about how they have been using the Office for Victims of Crime's Child Victims and Witnesses Support Materials to inform and empower children as they interact with the justice system.
In 2015, Cook County, Ill., decided to create a program to specifically address domestic violence cases with issues involving children. The Child Relief Expediter Program provides a voluntary and confidential process to help parents with orders of protection, develop safe and effective visitation plans, and address other child-related issues. In this podcast, host Nida Abbasi, Cook County Judge Marina E. Ammendola, and Child Relief Expediter Stephanie Senuta describe the benefits of the program and provide tips for courts interested in doing more.
