New Thinking, from the Center for Justice Innovation

In this podcast, Kari Kerr and Kristi Hall-Jiran talk about Safer Tomorrows , Grand Forks, North Dakota’s Defending Childhood Initiative. Safer Tomorrows implemented universal violence prevention programming in public, private, and rural schools across Grand Forks County, beginning with pre-kindergarten and extending to high school. The initative is part of the Department of Justice’s  Defending C...

Jill Smialek and Dr. Jeff Kretschmar discuss the Cuyahoga County Defending Childhood Initative , which  seeks to address violence against children in one of the country’s most violent areas – Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Their unique approach includes the creation of an integrated, county-wide screening, assessment, and service system for children ages 0-18 who have experienced violence and trauma. The...

In this podcast, Center for Court Innovation researchers Rachel Swaner, Lama Ayoub, and Elise Jensen discuss their National Institute of Justice funded report on the United States Department of Justice’s Defending Childhood Demonstration Program. The program, which began in 2010, funded eight pilot sites across the country to address children’s exposure to violence. The Center produced a  series o...

Katheryn Lotsos and Stephen Forrester from the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children  discuss their organization’s approach to supervised visitation. Supervised visitation is frequently required by courts in child welfare or domestic violence cases and allows children to meet with non-custodial parents in a secure and controlled environment. The Society’s therapeutic model inc...

Center for Court Innovation researcher Sarah Picard-Fritsche discusses the risk-need-responsivity model for working with offenders and the Center’s efforts to develop a screening tool for misdemeanor offenders. The following is a transcript   Raphael: Hi. I’m Raphael Pope-Sussman at the Center for Court Innovation and in today’s podcast, we’re looking at risk-need assessment tools for offenders. O...

Dr. Susan Chinitz, a psychologist with specialties in the areas of infant mental health and developmental disabilities in infancy and early childhood, and a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discusses the new Strong Starts Court Initiative, which will enhance the capacity of Family Court to bring positive changes to court-involved babies and their familie...

New York University Law School Professor James Jacobs, author of “ The Eternal Criminal Record ” (Harvard University Press), discusses the proliferation of electronic criminal records and the challenges they pose for a free society. (March 2015)   The following is a transcript RAPHAEL POPE-SUSSMAN: Hi, I’m Raphael Pope ­Sussman of the Center for Court Innovation, and today I am speaking with James...

At the kick-off summit for the Minority Youth Violence Prevention initiative, Dr. Joel Fein, a pediatrician and emergency medicine physician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, discusses youth relationships with authority, family dynamics, and how trauma and stress affect the developing brain. (February 2015)

William R. Kelly , professor of sociology and director of the Center for Criminology and Criminal Justice Research at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses his new book, “ Criminal Justice at the Crossroads: Transforming Crime and Punishment ,” and the costs of mass incarceration.   The following is a transcript RAPHAEL POPE-SUSSMAN: Hi. This is Raphael Pope-Sussman for the Center for Court...

Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital in Binghamton, New York is working with community partners to develop a restorative, strength-based program that will divert high-risk youth from gang involvement as well as violent behavior. At the kick-off summit for the Minority Youth Violence Prevention initiative, Nancy Frank and Ralphalla Richardson discuss how they became interested in partnering with p...

Some people mistakenly think that when teenagers experience intimate partner violence, it’s less serious than when adults experience it, explains Andrew Sta. Ana,  supervising attorney of Day One , which seeks to end teen dating violence. “There’s this idea, ‘Oh, teen DV. That must mean domestic violence or intimate-partner violence ‘lite’… I think that what’s important to recognize about teen dat...

David Marshall, editor of  The International Rule of Law Movement: A Crisis of Legitimacy and the Way Forward , discusses the international rule of law as an industry–one that has been promoted as offering solutions in post-conflict and fragile states and that too often fails. Marshall discusses some of the reasons for these failures and outlines some alternative approaches to interventions in fra...

Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell discusses how law enforcement leadership can promote new “smart” strategies–including community engagement and prevention-oriented diversion approaches–that can effectively and efficiently keep communities safe, address the symptoms and causes of criminal activity, and alleviate prison overcrowding. (August 2014)   SARAH SCHWEIG: Hi, I’m Sarah Schweig of the C...

Simon Fulford, chief executive of Khulisa U.K. , explains how and why his not-for-profit brought a successful South African prisoner reentry program to the United Kingdom.   SIMON FULFORD: You walk into an English prison, you’ve got a group of 10 young offenders. If you hand them anything more than one piece of paper, they would probably throw it back in your face. ROBERT V. WOLF: Hi, I’m Rob Wolf...

In this New Thinking podcast, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer discusses his plans for community-based solutions to problems like truancy, gun violence, and prison overcrowding. (July 2014)   MIKE FEUER: For leaders and for elected officials, speaking skills are highly overvalued relative to listening skills, which are frequently under-valued. ROBERT V. WOLF: Hi, I’m Rob Wolf, director of comm...

Miguel Samper Strouss, the vice-minister of criminal policy and restorative justice in the Colombian Ministry of Justice and Law, discusses the challenge of returning law and order–and trust in justice and government–to the rural regions of his country that have been devastated by 50 years of guerrilla fighting. (June 2014)   MIGUEL SAMPER STROUSS: The only law enforcement agency that they know is...

In this New Thinking podcast, Tracey L. Meares , the Walton Hale Hamilton Professor at Yale Law School, outlines the four components of procedural justice and their power to enhance perceptions of government legitimacy. She also discusses how procedural justice is incorporated into Chicago Offender Notification Forums, an anti-violence intervention that she helped design. (June 2014)   TRACEY MEAR...

Timothy C. Evans, chief judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County in Illinois , explains how courts can help mitigate the collateral consequences of justice system involvement. Among other things, courts can reach out to those affected to educate them about their rights and options, Evans says in this New Thinking podcast. Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans of Cook County, Illinois, participates in a pa...

Courts need to assess offenders for traumatic exposures so they can match them to effective services and improve treatment outcomes, says Kathleen West, an expert on trauma-informed care and lecturer at the University of California. In this New Thinking podcast, West discusses what we know about the impact of trauma on litigants and the justice system. (April 2014) Kathleen West participates in a...

Drug addiction is fundamentally a public health issue, says Michael Botticelli, acting director of National Drug Control Policy , in this New Thinking podcast. Botticelli explains why law enforcement must work in tandem with public health to address addiction and how his own personal experience with addiction informs his work. In keynote remarks at Community Justice 2014, Michael Botticelli discus...

Professor Edward J. Latessa, director of the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati, discusses the importance of evidence-based practices and the challenges of implementing reform. (April 2014) Edward J. Latessa conducts a session on Evidence-Based Approaches to Alternatives to Incarceration at Community Justice 2014.   ED LATESSA: I always tell people you know, you think it’s...

Judge Braden C. Woods of the San Francisco Community Justice Center discusses the practical implications of expanding the court’s caseload to include low-level felonies, and he reflects on his first year on the job. (April 2014)   JUDGE BRADEN WOODS: This is a great assignment because every day I’m enthusiastic about going to work and trying to help somebody get out of the system instead of just r...

Denise O’Donnell, director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance , discusses the Bureau’s strategic mission and holistic approach to justice reform. She also outlines the Bureau’s new suite of Smart on Crime programs. Denise O’Donnell, director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, delivers the keynote address at the opening of Community Justice 2014. (April 2014)   DENISE O’DONNELL: We see reducing...

The Stopping Hate and Delinquency by Empowering Students (SHADES) program is a teen court focusing on bullying and bias incidents. The program is run as a partnership of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Department of Probation, and the Museum of Tolerance. In this episode of New Thinking, David S. Wesley, presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, and Camilo Cruz, director of community rela...

Judge Stephanie L. Rhoades , who helped found and has presided over the Anchorage Mental Health Court since 1998, and Kathi R. Trawver , associate professor of the School of Social Work at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, discuss the court’s origins, accomplishments and lessons. They co-authored “ Homesteading a Pioneering Mental Health Court: A Judicial Perspective from the Last Frontier ” fo...