Changing the Default Setting on the Justice System
A note from our CEO Courtney Bryan on the launch of Community Justice Solutions, our new venture to bring evidence-based innovations to courts and communities across the country.
From Pilot to Paradigm Shift: The Story of Project Reset
From a small pilot program to a citywide model for reform, Project Reset’s growth stands as a powerful example of how modest experiments can turn into lasting changes.
Inclusive, Community-Led Research: What Is Participatory Action Research?
Too often, research in the justice field is divorced from the real experiences and needs of the people being studied. Participatory action research flips the script, giving communities the chance to tell their own stories—and to change them.
With a series of interactive graphic novels, we help guide and support children navigating the legal system as victims and witnesses. An additional set of guides we worked to create ensure that practitioners have what they need to do the same.
Well over 100,000 children have to interact with the legal system each year in the United States, as victims or witnesses to crime. A series of graphic novels we helped to create use storytelling and illustration to empower children through the process.
“People, Not Charges”: Combating Racial Disparities through Early Diversion
As Los Angeles County has recently shown, decreasing incarceration overall doesn't necessarily reduce racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Early diversion programs can make a much-needed difference.
For someone faced with an arrest, prosecutors are arguably the most powerful figures in the legal system. Can this power be leveraged to reduce, rather than expand, the harms of incarceration?
Any time in jail can be life-threatening for incarcerated people, many of whom are awaiting trial and cannot afford to pay bail. The rising death tolls on Rikers Island and in jails across the country underscore the need for safer, more humane responses to the challenges facing our communities.
