Community Justice takes all of us. Our team at Queens Community Justice Center was joined by the Amazin’ Mets Foundation, the Muslim Bar Association of New York, and Queens-based juice shop We Juicing to provide 300 turkeys, free Mets tickets, and delicious juices to the Queens community.
“Reentry to me, is a second chance at life,” said Ramon Semorile, who runs the Reentry Anonymous Group at Bronx Community Solutions. Ramon and his team gathered community partners together at Hostos College in the Bronx to connect people returning from incarceration to help with housing, health care, employment opportunities, and other crucial needs. After the resource fair, returning citizens spoke on a panel about how their own experiences with incarceration and reentry help them to support others now embarking on the same journey.
Think of probation as an enormous testing period: will you be able to adhere to the thicket of conditions governing your daily life? Fail at any of them and you could be sent to prison. At the heart of this testing ethos is drug testing, affecting almost all of the 2.9 million people on probation in the U.S. The tests are time-consuming, expensive, and traumatic. There is also little evidence justifying their use.
This evaluation of the Driver Accountability Program—an alternative sentencing program for people arraigned on driving-related charges—finds that the program has both improved street safety and cut back on the harms of the criminal legal system.
The Center for Justice Innovation is driven by a singular idea: local communities are critical to transforming justice. We believe the only way to create safe, flourishing neighborhoods is with a full-spectrum approach we call Community Justice, one that runs from communities to systems and back again. This guide outlines five key actions to drive community-led, evidence-based change in communities of all shapes and sizes.
Despite the devastating impact intimate partner violence has on communities, responses to people who cause harm have evolved little over the past few decades. This article, originally published in Families in Society, outlines New York City’s comprehensive approach to engaging people who cause harm in intimate relationships, featuring real examples from our court- and community-based programs.
One in four women and one in seven men have experienced intimate partner violence. Domestic violence is not a private issue, it is a community issue that calls for community-based solutions. Like our RISE Project shows every year with a bike ride, press conference, and candlelight vigil, Community Justice means raising our voices for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“When Brownsville wins, everybody wins.” The [B]Live Music and Arts Festival has brought thousands of community members together over the years for music, dance, creativity, and connection in Brownsville, Brooklyn. A celebration of Brownsville’s resilience and talent produced by young people from the neighborhood, it’s a powerful example of what Community Justice can look like. Organized in partnership with BRIC, this year’s [B]Live featured delicious food, art exercises, local service providers, and performances from iconic artists like Dave East, Cassidy, and Jesse Royal.
New York City courts have been applying some of the principles of harm reduction to increase access to substance use treatment. But how much can they incorporate an approach which views individual wellness and avoiding coercion as axiomatic? NYC RxStat, an interdisciplinary group of public health and safety experts, partnered with us to facilitate an event on this question and more. This report documents the day's major themes.
This module in the CCAT Training Series explores the nuance to collecting and using criminal justice data in a way that acknowledges past system harms towards marginalized groups and that strives for equity and transparency in the present and future.
