Criminal courts tailored to veterans multiply as wars wind down

Jailing convicted criminals has shown that it neither changes illegal behavior, nor reduces the rate of re-incarceration. Brooklyn’s Red Hood Community Justice Center has given many guilty defendants of minor crimes treatment and individual assistance without incarceration. A new survey shows that community courts reduce costs, decrease jailed inmates, and drop the crime rate.

Mental health courts divert people with mental illness from prison into community-based programs with treatment, counseling, and court supervision. These programs graduate around 50% of participants, reduce recidivism, and have saved counties an estimated $485 million in avoided incarceration costs over 15 years.

In Seattle, the over-policing of drug users has been extensive and frequently racially biased. Looking for a new solution, the LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) program, driven by a harm reduction philosophy, is connecting users with key social services rather than punishment.

Mississippians who receive earned probation for crimes that do not carry a death sentence or involve deadly weapons will now have access to high-school equivalency education, alcohol and drug counseling, re-entry and employment services—and perhaps, most importantly, "Thinking for a Change," an evidence-based cognitive behavioral-therapy program.

Therapeutic courts like the Anchorage Wellness Court were born out of a desire to reduce recidivism rates and deflate ballooning prison populations. For many, they have become the answer to breaking the cycle of criminal behavior while treating people with substance abuse issues.

For first-time youth criminal offenders, the traditional American jury falls short in encouraging behavioral change and may even set the juvenile on a course for repeated crimes. Washington, DC’s Youth Court is a jury that tries juveniles for minor non-violent offenses and offers peer pressure to prompt positive behavioral change. The DC Youth Court is one of many in the United States that reduces crime and future court costs.

In Boone County, Missouri the Habilitation Empowerment Accountability Therapy (HEAT) program offers young men an alternative to incarceration for drug-related offenses. The program works primarily with black men, many of whom bring issues of childhood and generational trauma, to work together toward their treatment plans, finding employment, and behavioral therapy. Fundamental to all of HEAT’s programming is the consideration of underlying factors like education, exposure to violence, and socioeconomic forces.

Minnesota’s Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) program takes a restorative, rehabilitative approach to sex offender re-entry and has lowered the risk of recidivism by 88%. The initiative provides participants with a group of volunteers that help them with emotional support, job finding, and challenge and shift the attitudes and behaviors that led to the committed crime. The rise of the #metoo movement has given way to the complexity of sexual assault, restorative justice, and rehabilitation – making programs like CoSA both more necessary and challenging to sustain.

Kansas City Municipal Court deals with over 40,000 cases of domestic violence per year, but the implementation of a compliance docket aims to reduce how many of those offenders come back to court. By forming a relationship with the people on the docket and leveraging accountability as well as requiring a series of classes, the court has been able to successfully decrease the number of reoffenders.

After years of being the incarceration capital of America, Louisiana began changing its laws in 2017 to cut the number of people in prison, prompting a drop of seven percent in the prison population and savings of $12 million. The funds will be reinvested in education, job training and other programs in prisons and jails for those about to be released. But many challenges remain, including stigma from employers and landlords, and skepticism by the state's attorney general.