The promise of justice reinvestment

Abstract: This article examines the notion and practice of Justice Reinvestment (‘JR’), an emerging approach addressing the high social and economic costs of soaring incarceration rates. JR invests in public safety by reallocating dollars from corrections budgets to finance education, housing, healthcare, and jobs in high-crime communities. Key distinguishing features of JR (including justice and asset mapping, budgetary devolution and localism, and the desirability of bipartisanship) are briefly outlined, followed by discussion of its recent emergence and application in the United States, and to a lesser extent in the United Kingdom. The prospects for the adoption of JR approaches in Australia are then considered, with particular reference to the high imprisonment rates of Indigenous people. If JR is to be promoted in the Australian context it is important that it be subject to critical scrutiny and therefore some of the key problems are briefly outlined, before a conclusion which emphasizes the potential benefits of JR.

Stolen past: Shattered futures, aboriginal justice in Canada

It is acknowledged that Canada's criminal justice system has some major flaws, particularly with respect to its application to various ethnic subgroups. Aboriginal Canadians are one subgroup particularly sensitive to the problems in the system as is reflected by their disproportionately high rates of criminality and incarceration. Over the past 50 years many programs have been developed and recommendations have been made to alleviate the tensions Aboriginals find within the system. However, the situation today is essentially the same. Aboriginals are still overrepresented within the system and solutions that have been brought forward have had little success in stemming their flow into the system. Blame for Aboriginal mistreatment in the system has been placed at all levels from line police officers to high-level officials and politicians and attempts to resolve problems continue as an on going process. However, many of the recommendations and reforms have revolved around culture conflict. Although this thesis recognizes the importance of culture conflict in the overrepresentation of Aboriginals within the Canadian criminal justice system, it has also recognized that culture conflict alone is not responsible for all the flaws within the system as it pertains to Aboriginals. This thesis is of the opinion that in order for reforms to the criminal justice system to be successful, the context in which the system is operating must also be considered. Variables such as geographic isolation, economic disparity and social/political stability are viewed as operating in conjunction with culture, ultimately influencing Aboriginal treatment within the system. The conclusions drawn from this study confirm that when these factors operate together, the overrepresentation of Aboriginals within the Canadian criminal justice system is inevitable. Thus all three variables, culture conflict (social/political stability being part), geographic isolation and economic disparity must be address within the system if any significant changes in the crime rates or incarceration rates of Aboriginals is to be expected. In addition, primary research indicated the influence of cooperation as a factor in moderating the effects of criminality; not just cooperation among Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals, but also cooperation among differing Aboriginal communities. It was argued that when all these issues are addressed, Aboriginal peoples in Canada will have the strength to repair their shattered futures.

A report from the National Hispanic Conference on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, July 28-30, 1980, Washington, D.C.

Item 968-H-1

Affirmative action in Salt Lake's criminal justice agencies : a report /

Includes bibliographical references.

Colonial justice in Virginia;

Mode of access: Internet.

Skeleton of justice,

"The product of collaboration between Edith Roper, who brought to America her own records, set down while she was newspaper correspondent for several years in the Nazi courts, and Clara Leiser, who rendered into English and helped arrange these records for the American reader, including occasional comments of her own."--p. [2]

Criminal justice and democracy in the Western Hemisphere.

"April 1989."

Reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act [microform] : runaway and homeless youth : hearing before the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, second session on H.R. 1801, hearing held in Washington, DC, January 29, 1988.

"Serial no. 100-72."

Death penalty [microform] : hearing before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, first session, July 16, 1987.

"Serial no. 142."

Handbook of resources for criminal justice evaluators.

August 1978.