With the help of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Center for Court Innovation convened the first ever international conference of community courts in Dallas, Texas on October 19-20, 2010. In attendance were criminal justice officials from dozens of American cities as well as delegations from England, Australia, Canada, Chile and Mexico.

An article examining the extent to which four jurisdictions offer full faith and credit to tribal court judgments and the role their tribal-state judicial forums have in fostering cooperative relationships between tribal and state court systems. This article was originally published in the Journal of Court Innovation Special Issue on Tribal Justice.

An article exploring the potential uses of Indian nations’ inherent authority and treaties to exercise jurisdiction over non-Indian criminal offenders. This article was originally published in the Journal of Court Innovation Special Issue on Tribal Justice.

An article examining the imposition of Western-style legal jurisprudence and “law” upon Native peoples. This article was originally published in the Journal of Court Innovation Special Issue on Tribal Justice.

This study examines pretrial release decision-making practices in tribal courts by pulling together evidence from focus group and survey responses, as well as tribal case law. This article was originally published in the Fall 2009 Journal of Court Innovation Special Issue on Tribal Justice.

This report provides critical information to tribal court judges about developing and sustaining effective community supervision programs. This article was originally published in the Fall 2009 Journal of Court Innovation Special Issue on Tribal Justice.

Reviewed by Aaron Arnold
This book review was originally published in the Journal of Court Innovation Special Issue on Tribal Justice.

With support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bronx Defenders launched the Center for Holistic Defense in 2010. The Center for Holistic Defense has issued its first "request for proposals" (or RFP), which will allow it to help three jurisdictions in the development of a holistic defense practice.

The Bronx Defenders, through its Center for Holistic Defense, is moving to shift public defense practice in the United States in a direction that is more aware of the client as a whole person with a broad range of challenges and needs that interconnect with their criminal case.
 
The organization, which provides free legal services to indigent residents of the Bronx borough of New York City, launched the Center for Holistic Defense in 2010 to help public defense offices around the United States learn how to incorporate holistic defense principles into their work. 

In its model of holistic defense, each Bronx Defenders client receives services from an interdisciplinary group of experts who work together as a team to address the client’s needs, both in terms of their criminal defense and with regards to other issues that may help the client improve their well-being and avoid further involvement with the criminal justice system.  The Bronx Defenders has staff trained in many disciplines in addition to criminal law, including social work, parent advocacy, family law, and immigration law.  The Bronx Defenders is able to be more responsive to clients’ needs while keeping the cost per case comparable to that of other public defense providers.  “Being able to offer more services is a function of allocation of resources. I resist the idea that providing services is an add-on; it is integral to public defense,” Steinberg said.

The Center for Holistic Defense, in partnership with the Center for Court Innovation, is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). For the second year in a row, a BJA grant has allowed the Center for Holistic Defense to issue a “request for proposals” (or RFP), which will allow it to help three additional jurisdictions in the development of a holistic defense practice.  Bronx Defenders will encourage the three jurisdictions—which will be chosen for their geographic and organizational diversity—to practice holistic defense in the way that makes the most sense for them.  In response to its previous solicitation, the Center for Holistic Defense assisted the Knox County (TN) Public Defender’s Community Law Office, the Wisconsin State Public Defender, and the Washoe County (NV) Public Defender in the development of holistic defense programs.

“We recognize that there can be a spectrum of holistic defense practice.  We want to encourage each jurisdiction to practice holistic defense in the way that is most appropriate to their fiscal and organizational circumstances.  For example, for those organizations that are deeply underfunded and struggling to cope under the burden of their caseloads, we would like to show that there are mechanisms for creatively using existing resources in their communities that will not increase costs,” Steinberg explained.

(Applicants who wish to be considered for the RFP should visit http://www.bronxdefenders.org/press/public-defender-offices-eligible-free-technical-assistance for more information. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, March 2, 2011.)

In addition to supporting the jurisdictions selected under the BJA-sponsored program, the Center provides assistance to all comers through a website offering instructional material on developing a holistic practice. Center staff also provides direct technical assistance—through formal consulting relationships, site visits to the Bronx Defender offices, and being an informal resource center and depository of information—to help move more organizations towards holistic defense.

Robin Steinberg, executive director of Bronx Defenders, founded the Bronx Defenders’ in 1997 after years of practicing as a public defender and exposure to public defense practice across the nation. It became clear to her that to be more responsive to clients, public defense attorneys needed to broaden the scope of the services they offered.  “Clients come to public defenders with many challenges other than their criminal case.  Often those challenges, such as addiction, joblessness, possible deportation, or loss of housing, are more pressing than the criminal charges faced by the client, and if those issues are not addressed, clients are destined to cycle back into the criminal justice system,” Steinberg said. 

In the 2010 Padilla v. Kentucky decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that attorneys representing criminal defendants have an obligation to advise their clients of the risk of deportation associated with a guilty plea.  This ruling affirms the work of the Bronx Defenders, which has been demonstrating for nearly 15 years that zealous defense of criminal defendants must include a holistic assessment of the client’s needs, including understanding how collateral consequences like deportation by immigration authorities may impact defense strategy.

• Achieving stronger, community-focused partnerships that draw together activity across criminal justice services and other relevant agencies to secure effective, two-way communications between the Criminal Justice System and local communities;
• Building on the success of community justice projects and the problem-solving approach to enhance the visibility of the Criminal Justice System, solve problems for the community, and reform offenders and enable them to make amends;
• Increasing the intensity and visibility of community-restitution efforts;
• Keeping the public informed by improving the information the public receives about case outcomes and, in this way, helping ensure that the public sees a connection between the crime and the punishment meted out in response.

The paper describes community prosecution as “a major new initiative” for the Crown Prosecution Service that will strengthen the agency’s role and “ensure it will be better able to play its full role in community engagement alongside the police, courts, and other partners.”
The paper continues: “The aim of the approach is to enable the CPS to provide a more locally responsive service than it can at present and it will enhance the CPS’ ability to respond to local needs and circumstances.”

“The community prosecutor approach is about the way the CPS does business, rather than creating a cadre of ‘community prosecutors’, and delivery of it will be subject to local variations and circumstances. It is anticipated that all members of the CPS will, over time, come to regard themselves as community prosecutors.”

The Crown Prosecution Service began testing the community prosecutor approach in 49 sites across England and Wales over 12 months, starting in June 2009. Each site is testing:

• Crown Prosecution Service prosecutors’ taking more “community-aware” casework decisions;
• Increased Crown Prosecution Service involvement in problem solving for local crime and disorder priorities; and
• Increased visibility to communities and other agencies of the Crown Prosecution Service’s responsiveness to these priorities.

By the end of 2009, the community prosecutor approach in 30 of the pilot locations will be delivered alongside three other initiatives described in the consultation paper: community impact statements, community justice teams, and citizens’ panels.

Watch a short video in which Community Prosecutor Gaynor Zeki talks about the pilot program in Wakefield, England.

Increasing youth gang violence and the need for parents to know more about the resources available to them in their community were prime motivators for the fair. The name of the fair, “For The Kids (F.T.K),” mirrors the three-letter name trend of many juvenile gangs in upper Manhattan. The fair sent a strong anti-violence message and helped Harlem youth and local police officers interact in a positive way. 

Over 1,000 youth and parents attended. They had access to over 80 service providers, recruiters and local businesses with information and give-a-ways. Additionally, youth groups performed for the crowd.  Also in attendance were all the commanding officers for each of the police precincts in Harlem and  Borough Commander Chief Banks III.

The Justice Center, working with NYPD youth officers, conducted extensive outreach throughout Harlem to publicize the fair. More than 15,000 flyers were distributed and an email was sent to over 400 partners.