Women and gender-expansive people are uniquely vulnerable to the widespread violence, dysfunction, and lack of access to essential services on Rikers Island. This report contains policy recommendations to safely and effectively reduce the number of these individuals in New York City jails to below 100 in order to achieve the planned closure of Rikers Island by 2027.
Bronx Heroin Overdose Prevention and Education (HOPE), a new initiative of Bronx Community Solutions, addresses substance use issues with a harm-reduction model at the precinct level. By giving clients the option of accessing community services instead of appearing in court, Bronx HOPE gives Bronx residents the opportunity for rehabilitation and connection to community rather than jail or options that don’t address the underlying issues.
The Bronx Community Justice Center works to create a safer, more equitable Bronx through community-driven public safety initiatives, youth opportunity, and economic mobility efforts focused in the South Bronx. Our vision is to support the South Bronx community to become a safe and thriving place where local ownership, community-led investment, and youth opportunity can flourish. The Bronx Community Justice Center works toward this vision by focusing on community safety, restorative practices, and youth and economic development.
Intimate partner violence poses a challenge to jurisdictions weighing the imperative of reducing pretrial detention against potential risks to survivors. Our study of practices across the country found few specialized pretrial alternatives in these cases. Our research brief highlights the handful of specialized practices we did uncover along with recommendations for new approaches. Five case studies and “Notes from the Field” add further context.
In 2019, the Center for Court Innovation received funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to assist five states in the development and implementation of statewide strategic plans for their Veterans Treatment Courts (VTC). The selected states were California, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Each state participated in a needs assessment process that included a document analysis and stakeholder interviews.
An alternative to the traditional system, Project Reset has looked to innovate again by partnering with arts institutions to create meaningful arts-based programming. Project Reset’s partnerships with the New Museum and the Brooklyn Museum are the latest chapter in a longer history of work in the arts.
Currently implemented in more than a dozen cities around the country, jail Population Review Teams (PRTs) are one strategy to reduce jail populations. Funded by the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) and with guidance from ISLG, the Center for Court Innovation conducted a quantitative research study of the PRT model and its impacts in three sites through the spring of 2020: Lucas County, Ohio; Pima County, Arizona; and St. Louis County, Missouri.
This brief provides an overview of participatory research and discusses different ways that reentry programs can engage impacted populations (e.g., formerly incarcerated persons, past program participants) in the evaluation of their programs. It also summarizes key benefits of this approach, potential challenges and how to navigate them, and provides examples of how to build off existing participatory engagement strategies.
Opportunity Youth Part is a New Rochelle City Court initiative that serves emerging adults who are facing misdemeanor or felony charges and are not in school, are unemployed or under-employed, and are typically disconnected from positive services. The court takes a community-centric approach to resolve cases and incorporates restorative justice and procedural fairness practices with the goal to support the participants’ success.
The Family Healing Project uses restorative practices to offer supportive spaces for individuals and families, after incarceration. Evidence shows that strong social support is positively correlated with stable housing and that stable housing greatly reduces the risk of re-arrest amongst formerly incarcerated people. Yet support for people coming home is often narrowly focused on material needs, while heads of households, primarily women of color, shoulder the emotional, psychological, and spiritual challenges for all.