These Guides Help Defendants Avoid the Legal System's Boobytraps

A consent decree ensures juveniles are not held more than 21 days in a Jackson, Miss., facility that was the subject of a lawsuit over the number of children it held and the conditions they faced. But opponents, including a youth court judge, say this is not solving the underlying problems facing the young offenders and even the plaintiffs in the suit says the larger issue is the approach to juvenile justice in the state.

Although the cash bail system has long been used in the US criminal justice system, many argue that it is biased based on socioeconomic levels. To reduce this bias, criminal justice researchers and data scientists have created a new risk assessment tool that uses an algorithm taking age, history of missing court and former crimes into account before making a recommendation on bail.

In 2017, New Jersey eliminated the cash bail system – meaning that potential offenders awaiting court could not be held in jail for money. Instead, judges use an algorithm that considers the individual’s criminal history, flight risk, and threat level to the community. As New York considers doing the same, it looks the impact it has made in New Jersey.

Leading up to Father’s Day, Philadelphia criminal justice organization Frontline Dads raised money to bail out fathers. Inspired by the annual Mother’s Day bailouts that happen around the country, Frontline Dad aims to not just free father’s, but raise awareness about the issue of cash bail as well. Beyond bailing out fathers, participants will also have access to services like haircuts, counseling, and job placement assistance.

From North Carolina to California, states and cities are taking a new approach to fines and fees – people are having their charges dismissed, warrants for minor offenses cleared, and many municipalities are actually saving money by spending less on collections. With a system that was built because it provided cities and states with revenue, there has been a realization that it disproportionately targets communities of color and often keeps people stuck in cycles of debt. With this national awakening, resources and networks are being created so other places can implement the same change.

Through a combination of protesters’ vigilance, mayoral leadership, anti-violence interventions, and de-escalation by police, Newark managed to avoid the violence that marred other cities’ responses in the initial burst of protest after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd. Newark has worked in recent years to reduce street violence using trained mediators. That team, aided by a resolve among protesters to prevent widespread looting and vandalism, helped prevent all but minor problems and arrests in the first volatile weekend of protests.

Frustrated by a tight labor market, two locally owned Grand Rapids employers discovered the virtues – economic, not just moral – of hiring formerly incarcerated people, whose gratitude for an opportunity translated into excellent performance and less risk of adding to rapid turnover. The employers helped guarantee success by paying for support services that made post-prison transitions easier. The employers then talked hundreds of other local employers into doing the same. Besides providing a business advantage, the program changes lives and is evidently contributing to much lower rates of recidivism.

Domestic abuse of the staff in the households of the 1% is often overlooked or ignored. But foreign missions in the US that abuse their domestic staff are finally being held accountable.

In Rochester, NY, the Center for Teen Empowerment, a nonprofit that trains youth in community organizing, personal development, and anti-violence, is working to bring kids off the street and into safety. The program, which started in Boston, is centered on four ideas: jobs (paying the youth hired as organizers), teamwork, agency (letting them build their own activist agendas), and peer influence. While hard to evaluate because of its situational, qualitative nature, city officials, including law enforcement, point to the program as a factor in the decrease in violence across the city.

The Defender Association of Philadelphia practices community-oriented public defense — also known as "holistic defense" — to connect clients with support services and resources that help address the root causes of crimes. The association works with social workers, investigators, and paralegals to get clients access to housing, food, jobs, and healthcare, as well as mental health and substance use treatment, with more than 150 people referred to treatment providers between September 2016 and January 2017.