Overview:
Under the Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative, BJA has funded 10 demonstration criminal justice projects and one technical assistance provider. The goal of the initiative is to test proven problem-solving justice strategies in a wider variety of settings.
Since the early 1990s, problem-solving courts have evolved from a lone drug court in Miami-Dade County and a single community court in midtown Manhattan to thousands of initiatives. Research has demonstrated that, if implemented properly, the problem-solving approach can decrease recidivism, reduce crime, improve coordination among justice agencies, enhance services to victims, and increase trust in the justice system. Results like these have led to problem-solving justice being endorsed by national organizations such as the American Bar Association and the Conference of Chief Justices. BJA has been a central player in making all of this happen, providing seed money to new experiments, offering technical assistance, and encouraging research efforts.
The Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative aims to broaden the scope of problem-solving courts, testing their approach to wider defendant populations and applying key problem-solving principles (e.g., links to social services, rigorous judicial monitoring, and aggressive community outreach) outside of the problem-solving court context. The technical assistance provider under the grant is the Center for Court Innovation, which has had more than a decade of experience planning and operating problem-solving initiatives, researching problem-solving justice and providing technical assistance with the support of BJA.
In 2005, BJA kicked off the initiative with grants to the following jurisdictions:
Background:
This is the first time BJA has funded a Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. BJA convened a focus group in 2003 to discuss the problem-solving court movement, and the advantages and feasibility of BJA supporting a Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. The focus group included key representatives of the justice system, discussing the potential of developing a coordinated system-wide screening, assessment, and referral process that targets a population of offenders with diverse problems. The group discussed the advantages (e.g., reduced recidivism and system costs, improved client outcomes, improved coordination and collaboration with the justice system) and the feasibility of this new problem-solving model, identified several areas in which the courts and other justice system partners would need support and assistance to implement the model. Based on the feedback from the focus group, the director of BJA, Domingo Herraiz, supported the development and funding of the Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative.
Related Publications/Information:
Problem-Solving Justice in the United States: Common Principles (Fact Sheet)
Principles of Problem-Solving Justice
By Robert V. Wolf
An examination of the six principles that animate problem-solving justice. The principles are based on the Center for Court Innovation's experience developing problem-solving initiatives, an analysis of problem-solving projects from across the country, and feedback from leading practitioners.
Problem-Solving Justice
This web page offers resources, including publications and interviews, to support practitioners planning or operating problem-solving justice initiatives.
Expanding the Use of Problem Solving: The U.S. Department of Justice's Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative
By Robert V. Wolf
An in-depth look at the 10 projects awarded grants under the Bureau of Justice Assistance's Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. All the grantees are trying something new: expanding problem solving to include new populations, new geographic territory, or new agencies within the criminal justice system.
Overview of the Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative (Published in Government Executive)
By Brittany Ballenstedt
An update on some outcomes achieved by grantees under the original initiative and a look at the Bureau of Justice Assistance's effort to learn from failed criminal justice experiments.
Don't Reinvent the Wheel: Lessons from Problem-Solving Courts
By Robert V. Wolf
A review of nine practical strategis to break down the conceptual and in some cases practical barriers that separate specialized courts from each other and the world of problem-solving from traditional courts.
Fact Sheets and Self-Assessment Tools
The Center for Court Innovation has developed short primers on problem-solving justice:
Problem-Solving Justice in the United States: Common Principles
Using Data to Build Your Program
Engaging Stakeholders in Your Project
Publicizing Your Program and Its Successes
Finding the Resources to Help Your Program Thrive
Planning Checklist
Mapping Community Resources
Using Diversion as Part of a Problem-Solving Strategy
Developing a Community Service Protocol
Evaluating Your Program
Introduction to Problem Solving: Key Issues and Challenges
This curriculum is based on the agendas and participant handbooks created for two workshops held for grantee sites under the Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice. Intended to provide practitioners with the tools to initiate their own problem-solving initiative, it includes a number of resources that can be adapted for a variety of purposes. It is intended to assist court managers, judicial trainers, and other in putting on trainings at the local level, creating agendas and participant handbooks based on these materials. The hope is that it will help jurisdictions train their local system players in planning and implementing a community-based problem-solving criminal justice initiative.
Sample Documents
This page offers sample documents-everything from consent forms and intake assessments to program descriptions and brochures-used every day by problem-solving initiatives around the country.
"Bronx Community Solutions: A Video Introduction"
This documentary-style 8 minute video provides an overview of Bronx Community Solutions, an experimental project that brings the principles of problem-solving courts to every courtroom in a busy urban courthouse. By supervising low-level offenders in community restitution projects, linking offenders to on-site social services, and rigorously monitoring compliance, Bronx Community Solutions seeks to make punishments more meaningful and improve public confidence in justice. "Bronx Community Solutions: A Video Introduction" is available for free from the Center for Court Innovation, which operates Bronx Community Solutions with support from BJA's Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. The video was produced and directed by award-winning film maker Meema Spadola. To order a free copy on DVD, visit the publications page on the Center's web site.
Applying Problem-Solving Principles in Mainstream Courts: Lessons for State Courts"
By Donald J. Farole, Jr., Nora K. Puffett, Michael Rempel, and Francine Byrne
A summary of focus groups of judges in New York and California examining which practices of problem-solving courts can be integrated into conventional court operations. Published in The Justice System Journal, Volume 26, No. 1 (2005)
The Hardest Sell? Problem-Solving Justice and the Challenges of Statewide Implementation
By Greg Berman
An overview of the issues faced by states attempting to mainstream problem-solving innovation.
Engaging the Community: A Guide for Community Justice Planners
By Greg Berman and David C. Anderson
Tips for community justice planners about how to build stronger connections between neighborhoods and the criminal justice system.
Defining the Problem: Using Data to Plan a Community Justice Project
By Robert V. Wolf
A look at how community justice initiatives across the county have used concrete data to define local problems.
Beyond Big Cities: The Problem-Solving Innovations of Community Prosecutors in Smaller Jurisdictions
By Nicole Campbell and Robert V. Wolf
Beyond Big Cities: The Problem-Solving Innovations of Community Prosecutors in Smaller Jurisdictions
Examines the challenges and rewards of community prosecution programs in less populated and rural communities.
Surveying Communities: A Resource for Community Justice Planners
By Leslie Paik
Outlines how criminal justice officials can use community surveys to gather data about neighborhood public safety problems.
Learning from Failure
An effort by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, in collaboration with the Center for Court Innovation, to learn from failed criminal justice experiments.
Statewide Coordination of Problem-Solving Courts
A roundtable conversation about strategies states are using to support and monitor the development of problem-solving justice initiatives.
Contact Information:
Kim Ball Norris, J.D.
Senior Policy Advisor, Adjudications
Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice
Bureau of Justice Assistance
810 Seventh Street NW.
Washington, DC 20531
Tel: 202-307-2076
E-mail: Kim.Norris@usdoj.gov
Julius Lang
Director, National Technical Assistance
Center for Court Innovation
520 Eighth Avenue, 18th Floor
NY NY 10018
Tel: 212-373-8091
Fax: 212-397-0985
E-mail: langj@courtinnovation.org
Web site: www.courtinnovation.org
