Columbia University's Bruce Western, a leading expert on the connection between mass incarceration and poverty, discusses his new book, Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison, and outlines his vision for a justice system rebuilt to respond to the deep deprivation and trauma fueling much of the behaviour that leads to imprisonment.
In this podcast, which was produced as part of Project SAFE, Afua Addo speaks with the Rev. Dr. Cheryl F. Dudley, the regional executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Metropolitan New York.
This webinar focuses on child support and its intersection with the work of Price of Justice grantees to address the overuse of justice fines and fees. Jacqueline Boggess, executive director of the Center for Family Policy and Practice, provides an introduction to the child support system and discuss the impact of child support debt on justice-involved individuals. Price of Justice grantee sites then explore the implications for their projects through a discussion facilitated by the Center for Court Innovation.
Hosted in partnership with the Price of Justice initiative, this webinar showcases the Center for Court Innovation’s Civil Alternatives project and a new e-learning module that was developed and launched in New York City as part of the 2017 Criminal Justice Reform Act. This law created the opportunity for individuals to resolve their low-level summonses by completing community service instead of paying a fine. This is done through the e-learning module; an hour of experiential learning.
On our New Thinking podcast, Patrick Sharkey, the author of Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence, discusses the wider costs of violence and the threat posed by inequality and disinvestment to the current fragile gains. He points to the signal role of community organizing and community-based nonprofits in combating violence and building safer, more resilient cities.
As part of our podcast series on prosecutor power, Scott Hechinger of Brooklyn Defender Services offers a view from the other side of the adversarial process, discussing prosecutors' impact at key decision-points in his clients' cases and the prospects for reform in a time of increasing scrutiny of prosecutorial discretion.
On our New Thinking podcast, an audio portrait of Make It Happen, our program working with young men of color in Crown Heights, Brooklyn affected by violence. Through interviews with participants and practitioners, the episode explores the intersections of trauma, involvement with the justice system, and the lived experience of race.
On 'New Thinking,' author John Pfaff outlines his argument for how prosecutors have contributed to mass incarceration and considers how much can be expected from the emerging breed of progressive D.A.'s. This is the first in our podcast series on the power of prosecutors.
On our 'New Thinking' podcast, Afua Addo, our coordinator of Gender and Justice Initiatives, explains our project aiding justice-involved black women who are survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault.
For many proponents of the use of pretrial risk assessments, the hope is they provide an evidence-based counter to racial bias in the criminal justice system. However, as has become apparent with the more widespread adoption of the tools, they can also end up reproducing the very racial bias they were intended to disrupt. This paper grapples with the question of whether it is possible to address the problematic aspects of risk technologies without abandoning their use.