Young adults ages 24 and under pose a unique challenge to the justice system. Research suggests that the areas of the brain that regulate impulse control and reasoning don’t fully develop until people reach their mid-twenties.
Almost every week brings more grim news about the state of criminal justice in the United States: Unwarranted uses of force, fees and fines being used to balance municipal budgets, dire statistics about mass incarceration, protests in the streets… the list goes on and on.
Last week, the Center for Court Innovation and the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance convened Community Justice 2016, an international summit dedicated to improving safety, reducing the use of jail, and promoting trust in justice.
Since 2014, the Center for Court Innovation has worked with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to help plan and launch the Safety + Justice Challenge, a national initiative to reduce the use of jail across the United States.
The Center for Court Innovation seeks to advance the idea of procedural justice—encouraging justice agencies to treat individual arrestees, victims, defendants, and litigants with dignity and respect.