In January, we changed our name—we are now the Center for Justice Innovation!
Press
Growing Backlog of Court Cases Delays Justice for Crime Victims and the Accused
Center executive director Courtney Bryan joined CBS News to talk about the growing backlog of court cases since the onset of COVID-19 is slowing the progress of hundreds of thousands of cases and people across the country.
Mandatory minimum sentencing laws took shape amid the “tough-on-crime” push of the late 1970s, making a signal contribution at the origins of our mass incarceration era. How would eliminating these laws—in whole or in part—affect the stark racial disparities in who is in prison in New York?
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.
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.
We have a new name—the Center for Justice Innovation! With this small but significant change, we are telling the story of where the Center is today and where we see ourselves going. Since our start in 1996, we have sought to build effective solutions and to pursue fairness—in the legal system and for communities. Guided by equity, data, and innovation, this is what justice means to us.
