How an Experimental Service in a Library Prevents Incarceration

The lawyers at Lathrop GPM created a strategy to settle civil rights claims by encouraging municipalities to use insurance money to pay settlements. The strategy helps inmates alleging bodily injury and wrongful conviction to recieve payouts and be absolved of their crimes without using taxpayer dollars.

Partners for Justice embeds trained "client advocates" inside public defenders' offices to address defendants' nonlegal needs (such as: housing, addiction treatment, and mental health services). This has demonstrably improved outcomes, including a nearly 50% increase in case dismissals or diversions in Delaware County and a fivefold increase in public service referrals across New Jersey pilot counties.

Since 2018, The Bail Project has turned $41 million in donated money into cash bail to free more than 15,500 people in dozens of cities from pretrial detention. The project grew out of the work of Bronx Defenders, which saw over a decade the people it bailed out nearly all showed up for court dates and most did not get into new trouble while out of jail. Now the Bail Project is expanding with new offices in four Southern states, a reflection of the region's high incarceration rates and racial disparities. In the campaign to end cash bail as a penalty for poverty, bail funds serve as a stopgap.

Public defenders' caseloads are too large for them to be able to provide the details that a loved one of an offender can provide in court. Participatory Defense programs train loved ones of the offender to be able to provide a testimony, often resulting in less severe sentences.

Many offenders get out of jail owing hundreds or thousands of dollars in court and parole fees but face barriers to financing and job acquisition, sticking them in a punitive, vicious cycle of debt and arrest. A program called the Clapham Set, perhaps paired with conditional cash transfers - may be a solution, as it erases fees for felons who complete rehab and job training upon release.

Felons get out of jail owing hundreds or thousands of dollars in court and parole fees, acting as an often insurmountable barrier preventing them from reintegrating into society and staying out of jail. What's worse, these fees often end up costing the state more than they produce. Two columns on a program called the Clapham Set, which erases or reduces debts for felons who take classes and job training.

The High Court Janakpurdham has implemented a multi-pronged court reform initiative that includes new help desks, SMS case alerts, LCD courtyard displays, online pleadings, virtual prison hearings, and community judicial dialogues. Altogether, this has reduced service seekers' dependence on middlemen, lowered costs for litigants and lawyers, and improved access to court information, particularly for elderly, low-literacy, and women visitors.

The Women’s Prison Project reviews Louisiana court cases in which women survivors of domestic violence who claimed they killed their abusive partners in self-defense were sentenced to life by a jury, often in trials that would be considered unfair today. The organization has helped release 10 abuse survivors by pushing for cases to be re-considered.

The Carmelite Prisoners’ Interest Organization works to release people unlawfully detained in Nigeria. At the same time, the organization provides legal representation and religious support to those awaiting trial.

In just one year, the Sacramento County Criminal Justice System reduced its backlog of court cases from 1000 to 100. To do so, they increased and prioritized efficiencies like night court, collaboration with prosecutors, and bringing in judges out of retirement.