Community courts provide a flexible, tailored approach to justice in local communities. There are many diverse community courts ranging from peer-to-peer courts, mediation, restorative courts, and more. Some function on their own and some complement traditional courts. Their high adaptability, however, makes it hard to evaluate them.
Impact Justice, with support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, manages The National Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Resource Center (PRC). The PRC helps state, local, and tribal agencies to implement PREA standards. The PRC also supports the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) audit function.
The Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Justice Mental Health Collaboration Program is designed to improve outcomes for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), mental illness, or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse who come into contact with the justice system. Part of that involves Police-Mental Health Collaboration (PMHC) programs.
Join the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program for their webinar “Telehealth Implementation Support Tool Demonstration” on February 8, 2021, at 3:00–4:00 p.m. ET. Presenters will demonstrate the Telehealth Implementation Support Tool, which was created by staff from RTI International.
Join the National Center for State Courts for their upcoming webinar “Strengthening Families: What Role Can Courts Play in Upstream Family Preservation?” on February 4, 2021 at 4:00–5:00 p.m. ET. This webinar will focus on helping courts strengthen their collaborative community roles to help at-risk families affected by the opioid crisis and substance use disorders prior to a petition or child welfare involvement. These preventative, upstream measures can decrease the negative impact on children and help families stay together.
In October 2020, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, together with their partners Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, National Center for State Courts, and RTI International, launched the Strengthening the Sixth website (https://strengthenthesixth.org/). The website offers helpful information about the application of the Sixth Amendment along with various carefully curated resources.
As an alternative to interrogation and standard interviewing techniques, Steve Kleinman, a career military intelligence officer, makes a case for cognitive interviewing in the webinar “BJA Upholding the Rule of Law Webinar: Cognitive Interviewing.” According to Kleinman, cognitive interviewing avoids leading questions, enhances recollection, and helps interviewees to provide more detail, which improves interview integrity. Kleinman outlines the steps for conducting a cognitive interview.
In their efforts to support police-mental health collaboration (PMHC) and to encourage high-quality partnership-based interventions, The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center developed a PMHC self-assessment tool. This tool helps law enforcement agencies and their behavioral health partners assess their efforts in responding to people with mental illnesses and/or co-occurring substance use conditions.