How 'the incarceration capital of America' embraced criminal justice reform

U.S. courts are offering war veterans who face jail time the choice of rehabilitation. This helps them adjust to civilian life and reduces repeat offences.

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.

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 some states, cash bail has been eliminated and this measure has seen significant results including lower jail populations, lower re-offense rates for people released on bonds and less jail time for those accused of low-level crimes. These results in states with bail reform laws suggest that bail reform works and serves as inspiration for other states looking to enact similar policies.

After kids spend time in one of New York City's community-based incarceration facilities, they are enrolled in an "aftercare" program, which includes group meetings and mentoring, to help with the transition. As Milwaukee continues to reform its youth prison system, it is looking to New York as one promising model to consider.

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.

Activists, and lawmakers have been proposing ideas for prisoner reentry, or supporting former prisoners by finding work, housing, and healthcare, in order to reduce the trend of prisoners being released, committing another crime, and returning to prison. Philadelphia, which has a high recidivism rate, is one of the cities that is already implementing solutions.

Chicago's Cook County Jail seeks to short-circuit the cycle of violence by involving young men from the city's most violent zip codes in a program that includes counseling, conflict resolution and anger management. The Sheriff's Anti-Violence Effort, or SAVE, then connects them with services once they're released to find housing and employment. Results are preliminary, but so far more than 80 have gone through the program and 20 were released, with just two ending up back in jail.

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.