The Biden/Harris Administration faces many challenges, from systems and policies that do not work for or benefit all Americans to stark social and political divisions. Multiple courses of action will ...be necessary, and there must be commitment and investment for the “long haul.” When considering the nation’s challenges, overarching themes emerge that must be addressed. For instance, recommendations for justice reform cannot be followed without significant focus on race and equity. This focus will also be needed in considering solutions to affordable housing shortages, economic crises, and social and economic immobility concerns. In a similar vein, if the interests and rights of our nation’s children are not recognized now, the social consequences will impact every aspect of their livelihoods—and those of future generations. The recommendations put forward by the Global Alliance are bold and will take time to fully implement. The implementation of these recommendations will challenge our systems and our policymakers to acknowledge our past and reenvision the future—and they will help address the multifaceted behavioral health and well-being needs of our nation, its communities, and its people. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
How can we improve the effectiveness of criminal justice reform efforts? Effective reform hinges on shared understandings of what the problem is and shared visions of what success looks like. But ...consensus is hard to come by, and there has long been a distinction between “policy talk” or how problems are defined and solutions are promoted, and “policy action” or the design and adoption of certain policies. In this essay, we seek to promote productive thinking and talking about, as well as designing of, effective and sustainable criminal justice reforms. To this end, we offer reflections on underlying conceptual and practical considerations relevant for both criminal justice policy talk and action.
While criminal justice reforms aimed at reducing the size of pretrial detainee population are being implemented across the U.S., little is known about their impact on the labour market. Using ...difference-in-differences approach, we find that the 2017 New Jersey Criminal Justice Reform increased the employment probability among blacks in their prime working age (i.e. 25-54) by 4.2 to 6.8 percentage points; its effect among whites is negligible. Labour force participation, full-time job status, and working hours among blacks also increased. Our findings suggest that individuals not detained pretrial are absorbed by the formal labour market and that this contributes to an overall increase in employment.
When calls for reforming criminal justice arise, they frequently target particular—rather than systems-level—problems. This approach can be effective when only a few such problems exist. But it risks ...worsening rather than improving crime and justice by ignoring many other problems, including system-level issues that undermine efforts to promote safety and justice and to do so cost-efficiently. At the same time, this approach can contribute to continued investment in micro-level changes that ultimately achieve little or fail, in part because they do not address systemic problems. By contrast, systemic change—focused on changes throughout criminal justice and on criminal justice as a system—holds the potential to escape from this Sisyphean vicious cycle and to create greater public safety and justice at less cost.
Extensive research has explored public confidence in the criminal justice system and opinions about punishment, but less research has explored attitudes about criminal justice errors, including error ...related to race and racism. Drawing on the theory of colorblind racism, the current study examines attitudes about whether systemic racism exists in the criminal justice system and, if so, how the issue can best be addressed. Specifically, we examine the rhetoric respondents use to describe the role of systemic racism in the criminal justice system, paying particular attention to the presence of colorblind rhetorical frames. Findings indicate that although a majority of respondents believe systemic racism exists, many respondents attribute the problem to specific individuals or policies rather than institutions and organizations. Moreover, those who believe systemic racism does not exist often rely on colorblind rhetorical frames that justify or minimize existing racial disparities in criminal justice outcomes. These findings suggest reasons for optimism regarding efforts to address racial injustice as well as some potential obstacles.
In recent years, we have witnessed a tide of government apologies for historic laws criminalising homosexuality. Complicating a conventional view of state apologies as a progressive effort to come to ...terms with past mistakes, queer theoretical frameworks help to elucidate the power effects and self-serving nature of the new politics of regret. We argue that through the discourse of gay apology, the state extolls pride in its present identity by expressing shame for its ‘homophobic past’. In doing so, it discounts the possibility that systemic homophobia persists in the present. Through a critical discourse analysis of the ‘world first’ gay apology from the parliament of the Australian state of Victoria in 2016, we identify five key themes: the inexplicability of the past, the individualisation of homophobia, the construction of a ‘post-homophobic’ society, the transformation of shame into state pride and subsuming the ‘unhappy queer’ through the expectation of forgiveness.
Treatment courts have been part of the criminal justice system for nearly three-and-a-half decades. The first treatment court, an adult drug court, began in 1989 in Florida, and due to the success of ...drug courts in reducing criminal recidivism rates, the intervention has evolved to address other problems and populations, such as veterans treatment courts (VTCs) and family treatment courts (FTCs). Treatment courts have been credited with promoting criminal justice reform, as they offer a rehabilitative approach to justice, as compared to historical punitive models. Research, however, has consistently shown that racial and ethnic minorities have lower completion rates in some treatment courts than their white counterparts. This study is the first statewide evaluation to use the Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) Program Assessment Tool to assess for racial and ethnic disparities in programming across several types of treatment courts (n = 30). Results showed that 64.9% of white participants completed treatment court, whereas all other races had completion rates less than 30.0%. Implications for treatment court practice are discussed in reference to staff training, the quality of treatment participants receive for substance use and mental health disorders, future research, and other key components of the treatment court model.
Problem-solving courts were created as a means of therapeutic jurisprudence. They arose in the context of the post-deinstitutionalization influx of defendants with behavioral and social problems ...entering the criminal court system. Seeing that typical judicial practices were poor solutions for individuals primarily facing problems such as homelessness, substance use disorders, and mental illness, courts developed specialized dockets as a solution to the problem of not being able to restrict the flow of these individuals into courtrooms. Although highly regarde, mental health courts (MHCs) and drug courts (DCs) can harm people with mental illness and addiction and contribute to the oppression of disenfranchised populations, including racial and ethnic minorities. By tying access to needed treatment to criminal justice system involvement, MHCs and DCs can increase criminalization of mental illness, subject individuals to long-term collateral consequences, and interfere with social policy reforms that would dismantle the prison-industrial complex (PIC). As forensic mental health professionals, we must reflect on our practices and consider the impact that our professional decisions have on the patients that we serve, and on society as a whole, and advocate for criminal justice and healthcare system reforms that truly free individuals in need of mental health or substance use treatment from the grasp of the PIC.
Risk assessment algorithms are increasingly-and controversially-being used to inform whether criminal defendants are released or held in custody prior to their adjudications. A representative sample ...of Californians (n = 420)-the most recent state to consider eliminating cash bail and adopt an algorithmic approach to pretrial detention-was used to assess public knowledge and general support for the new law. The sample evidenced limited awareness of bail reform, was mixed in support of change to the existing system, and believed that an algorithm would augment rather than decrease racial and socioeconomic disparities in the criminal justice system. In terms of actually implementing a risk assessment algorithm for the purpose of pretrial decision making, it is ultimately a human decision maker who must apply a decision threshold and determine whether a given risk level is sufficient to occasion a particular course of action (e.g., deny pretrial release). The sample was also queried about their pretrial decision thresholds. The average respondent's decision threshold for "low risk" (or pretrial release) was 33%, indicating a 33% or less likelihood of failing to reappear or committing a new crime was tolerable, and 60% for "high risk" (or confinement), indicating a likelihood of 60% or greater of failing to reappear or committing a new crime was acceptable to deny a defendant release. Incorporating the public's values into the decision-making process is likely to promote the legitimacy of the use of risk assessment algorithms in the criminal justice system.
The issue of overloaded, and backlogged courts is not new. Despite the 2016 Supreme Court of Canada R. v. Jordan ruling which set a "presumptive ceiling" of 18 months for summary and 30 months for ...indictable cases respectively, the issue can be traced back decades before. In particular, the Supreme Court of Canada has intervened three other times on the issue of unreasonable delays, and the corresponding section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (section 11 (b)). Despite these interventions, the underlying problems which cause court delays remain unaddressed. As a result, new solutions to this persistent problem ought to be considered. This article aims to explore whether or not restorative justice (RJ) is a feasible alternative. In particular, RJ appears to be more efficient, cost less, and result in lower levels of recidivism and higher levels of satisfaction among participants. Despite these benefits, it will be argued that RJ is unlikely to be considered for broader use in Canada due to the political landscape and prevailing beliefs among Canadians regarding punitive punishments. Changes to the Criminal Code might help rectify this dilemma.
