Episodes

This podcast covers the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Red Hook Community Justice Center, with highlights including speeches from New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson, and honoree Stuart Gold, of Cravath, Swain, and Moore. The following is a transcript RAPHAEL POPE-SUSSMAN: Hi. This is Raphael Pope-Sussman of the Center for Court Innovation. Tonight we are here at the Brooklyn Museum, celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Red ...

This podcast is part of a series highlighting innovative approaches to reducing violence and improving health outcomes among at-risk minority youth at the nine demonstration sites of the Minority Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. One of these demonstrations sites is the Youth ALIVE! anti-violence program in Oakland, Calif. Rafael Vasquez of Youth ALIVE!’s hospital-based violence intervention program, Caught in the Crossfire, joins the Center in this podcast to discuss Caught in the Cros...

Lama Hassoun Ayoub, researcher and co-author of Coming Home to Harlem, discusses the impact of the Harlem Parole Reentry Court on the lives of parolees returning to Harlem after incarceration. The following is a transcript AVNI MAJITHIA-SEJPAL: Hi. I’m Avni Majithia-Sejpal, Senior Writer at the Center for Court Innovation. In today’s New Thinking podcast we’re talking about reentry courts, specifically, the Harlem Parole Reentry Court in New York City operated by the Harlem Community Justi...

John Chisholm, district attorney of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, joins the New Thinking podcast to discuss community prosecution, diversion, and his work to reduce mass incarceration and racial inequities in the justice system.

In this podcast, Anne Marks, executive director of the Youth ALIVE! hospital-based anti-violence program in Oakland, discusses the history and mission of Youth ALIVE!, its partnerships with local public health and law enforcement agencies, and how funding under the Minority Youth Violence Prevention Initiative is increasing the organization’s capacity to serve high-risk minority youth. The following is a transcript RAPHAEL POPE-SUSSMAN: Hi, this is Raphael Pope-Sussman with the Center for ...

In this podcast, Kari Kerr and Kristi Hall-Jiran talk about Safer Tomorrows, Grand Forks, North Dakota’s Defending Childhood Initiative. Safer Tomorrows implemented universal violence prevention programming in public, private, and rural schools across Grand Forks County, beginning with pre-kindergarten and extending to high school. The initative is part of the Department of Justice’s Defending Childhood Demonstration Program, which funded eight sites across the country to respond to the prob...

Jill Smialek and Dr. Jeff Kretschmar discuss the Cuyahoga County Defending Childhood Initative, which seeks to address violence against children in one of the country’s most violent areas – Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Their unique approach includes the creation of an integrated, county-wide screening, assessment, and service system for children ages 0-18 who have experienced violence and trauma. The initative is part of the Department of Justice’s Defending Childhood Demonstration Program, which...

In this podcast, Center for Court Innovation researchers Rachel Swaner, Lama Ayoub, and Elise Jensen discuss their National Institute of Justice funded report on the United States Department of Justice’s Defending Childhood Demonstration Program. The program, which began in 2010, funded eight pilot sites across the country to address children’s exposure to violence. The Center produced a series of reports on six of the eight sites, as well as a report that condenses lessons learned across t...

Katheryn Lotsos and Stephen Forrester from the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children discuss their organization’s approach to supervised visitation. Supervised visitation is frequently required by courts in child welfare or domestic violence cases and allows children to meet with non-custodial parents in a secure and controlled environment. The Society’s therapeutic model includes safety planning, parent education classes, special training for the professionals supervisi...

Center for Court Innovation researcher Sarah Picard-Fritsche discusses the risk-need-responsivity model for working with offenders and the Center’s efforts to develop a screening tool for misdemeanor offenders. The following is a transcript Raphael: Hi. I’m Raphael Pope-Sussman at the Center for Court Innovation and in today’s podcast, we’re looking at risk-need assessment tools for offenders. Our guest is Sarah Fritsche, associate director of research here at the Center. Sarah, thank you ...

Dr. Susan Chinitz, a psychologist with specialties in the areas of infant mental health and developmental disabilities in infancy and early childhood, and a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discusses the new Strong Starts Court Initiative, which will enhance the capacity of Family Court to bring positive changes to court-involved babies and their families. (April 2015) The following is a transcript SARAH SCHWEIG: Hi, I’m Sarah Schweig of the Cent...

New York University Law School Professor James Jacobs, author of “The Eternal Criminal Record” (Harvard University Press), discusses the proliferation of electronic criminal records and the challenges they pose for a free society. (March 2015) The following is a transcript RAPHAEL POPE-SUSSMAN: Hi, I’m Raphael Pope ­Sussman of the Center for Court Innovation, and today I am speaking with James Jacobs, professor of criminal law at New York University and the director of NYU Center for Resear...

At the kick-off summit for the Minority Youth Violence Prevention initiative, Dr. Joel Fein, a pediatrician and emergency medicine physician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, discusses youth relationships with authority, family dynamics, and how trauma and stress affect the developing brain. (February 2015)

William R. Kelly, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Criminology and Criminal Justice Research at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses his new book, “Criminal Justice at the Crossroads: Transforming Crime and Punishment,” and the costs of mass incarceration. The following is a transcript RAPHAEL POPE-SUSSMAN: Hi. This is Raphael Pope-Sussman for the Center for Court Innovation. Today I’m speaking with William Kelly, professor of sociology at the University of Te...

Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital in Binghamton, New York is working with community partners to develop a restorative, strength-based program that will divert high-risk youth from gang involvement as well as violent behavior. At the kick-off summit for the Minority Youth Violence Prevention initiative, Nancy Frank and Ralphalla Richardson discuss how they became interested in partnering with police to help stop the cycle of harm in some of Binghamton’s struggling neighborhoods. The foll...

Some people mistakenly think that when teenagers experience intimate partner violence, it’s less serious than when adults experience it, explains Andrew Sta. Ana, supervising attorney of Day One, which seeks to end teen dating violence. “There’s this idea, ‘Oh, teen DV. That must mean domestic violence or intimate-partner violence ‘lite’… I think that what’s important to recognize about teen dating violence, particularly as it affects young women, is that [the age group of 18 to 24 has] the ...

David Marshall, editor of The International Rule of Law Movement: A Crisis of Legitimacy and the Way Forward, discusses the international rule of law as an industry–one that has been promoted as offering solutions in post-conflict and fragile states and that too often fails. Marshall discusses some of the reasons for these failures and outlines some alternative approaches to interventions in fragile states. (September 2014) The following is a transcript SARAH SCHWEIG: Hi, I’m Sarah Schweig...

Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell discusses how law enforcement leadership can promote new “smart” strategies–including community engagement and prevention-oriented diversion approaches–that can effectively and efficiently keep communities safe, address the symptoms and causes of criminal activity, and alleviate prison overcrowding. (August 2014) SARAH SCHWEIG: Hi, I’m Sarah Schweig of the Center for Court Innovation and today I’m speaking with Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell. Chi...

Simon Fulford, chief executive of Khulisa U.K., explains how and why his not-for-profit brought a successful South African prisoner reentry program to the United Kingdom. SIMON FULFORD: You walk into an English prison, you’ve got a group of 10 young offenders. If you hand them anything more than one piece of paper, they would probably throw it back in your face. ROBERT V. WOLF: Hi, I’m Rob Wolf, director of communications at the Center for Court Innovation. Today I’m with Simon Fulford, w...

In this New Thinking podcast, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer discusses his plans for community-based solutions to problems like truancy, gun violence, and prison overcrowding. (July 2014) MIKE FEUER: For leaders and for elected officials, speaking skills are highly overvalued relative to listening skills, which are frequently under-valued. ROBERT V. WOLF: Hi, I’m Rob Wolf, director of communication at the Center for Court Innovation. Welcome to another New Thinking Podcast. Today I’m...

Miguel Samper Strouss, the vice-minister of criminal policy and restorative justice in the Colombian Ministry of Justice and Law, discusses the challenge of returning law and order–and trust in justice and government–to the rural regions of his country that have been devastated by 50 years of guerrilla fighting. (June 2014) MIGUEL SAMPER STROUSS: The only law enforcement agency that they know is the FARC, the guerilla groups or the former paramilitary groups, so right now what we have to d...

In this New Thinking podcast, Tracey L. Meares, the Walton Hale Hamilton Professor at Yale Law School, outlines the four components of procedural justice and their power to enhance perceptions of government legitimacy. She also discusses how procedural justice is incorporated into Chicago Offender Notification Forums, an anti-violence intervention that she helped design. (June 2014) TRACEY MEARES: Our forums were organized around legitimacy and the idea is this—is that if legitimacy works, ...

Timothy C. Evans, chief judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County in Illinois, explains how courts can help mitigate the collateral consequences of justice system involvement. Among other things, courts can reach out to those affected to educate them about their rights and options, Evans says in this New Thinking podcast. Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans of Cook County, Illinois, participates in a panel on “Minimizing the Collateral Consequences of Justice Involvement” at Community Justice 201...

Courts need to assess offenders for traumatic exposures so they can match them to effective services and improve treatment outcomes, says Kathleen West, an expert on trauma-informed care and lecturer at the University of California. In this New Thinking podcast, West discusses what we know about the impact of trauma on litigants and the justice system. (April 2014) Kathleen West participates in a panel on linking defendants to services at Community Justice 2014. KATHLEEN WEST: Trauma expos...