Who gets to decide which reforms to the criminal justice system receive the imprimatur of “evidence-based”? To combat what she sees as the monopoly over these decisions created by the high cost of the current evaluation model, Angela Hawken founded BetaGov, offering free and fast evaluations of public policy programs. What is more, as Hawken explains on our New Thinking podcast, the ideas tested generally come from practitioners, or even clients, inside the systems themselves.

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Nashville’s top public defender Dawn Deaner explains why she thinks public defending has been “set up to fail” and how working to engage the community—both those who need public defenders and those who never will—is a lifeline for a profession in crisis.

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As part of our series on prosecutor power, Scott Hechinger of Brooklyn Defender Services offers a view from the other side of the adversarial process, discussing prosecutors’ impact at key decision-points in his clients’ cases and weighing the prospects for reform in a time of increasing scrutiny of prosecutorial discretion. (Episode chosen as ‘Best of 2018‘ by the Vera Institute of Justice.)

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An audio portrait of Make It Happen, our program working with young men of color in Crown Heights, Brooklyn affected by violence. Through interviews with participants and practitioners, the episode explores the intersections of trauma, involvement with the justice system, and the lived experience of race. (Episode chosen as ‘Best of 2018‘ by the Vera Institute of Justice.)

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On ‘New Thinking,’ author John Pfaff outlines his argument for how prosecutors have contributed to mass incarceration and considers how much can be expected from the emerging breed of progressive D.A.’s. This is the first in our podcast series on the power of prosecutors.

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In this New Thinking podcast, Judge Courtney Wachal and Megan Sartin, the offender accountability coordinator, explain the operations of the Kansas City Domestic Violence Court, an Office on Violence Against Women designated mentor court.

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The Center for Court Innovation’s Greg Berman and Julian Adler discuss their new book, Start Here: A Road Map to Reducing Mass Incarceration.

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Since 2016, the community court in Eugene, Oregon, has met every week in the downtown library. It’s part of an effort getting a lot of attention on the West Coast to bring problem-solving justice to friendlier settings. On our ‘New Thinking’ podcast, hear about Eugene’s success with the new model.

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On our ‘New Thinking’ podcast, Afua Addo, our coordinator of Gender and Justice Initiatives, explains our project aiding justice-involved black women who are survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault.

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On our New Thinking podcast, the Oakland-based architect explains her firm’s mission to use design to counter incarceration and promote the use of restorative justice. She also discusses her work on our Near Westside Peacemaking Center in Syracuse, N.Y.

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