In this webinar, Tom Leversee will present a framework for expert witnesses that focuses on brain science, developmental age/crime trajectories, and psychosocial maturity and desistance.
Mental health professionals in the juvenile justice system frequently serve as expert witnesses in court cases in which juveniles face the possibility of being prosecuted as adults. Many youths have been directly entered into the adult court system due to the seriousness of their offense(s), w
Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) due to adverse childhood experiences and other incidents are common in justice-involved settings. The extant literature is filled with calls for attention to this issue. In this webinar, we will discuss the prevalence of TBI. We will review the existing research related to TBI in correctional settings and highlight systemic issues and possible barriers to effective identification, treatment and monitoring. Dawn Pflugradt and Danielle Ciccone-Coutre will propose solutions for improving our responses to incarcerated people with TBI once they’ve identified them.
In this webinar with Dr. Spence, a world-renown expert in the treatment and assessment of justice-involved people with autism, we will examine the ways criminal justice systems fall short in ensuring the safety and effective rehabilitation of this vulnerable and challenging population. It’s a much-needed conversation that will shine light on how we can improve outcomes.
In 1967, President Johnson’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice outlined a massive set of recommendations (involving law enforcement, courts, corrections, etc.). Unfortunately, many of these recommendations were never implemented, and few actual reforms have occurred. The largest issue has been the sheer volume of traffic through the legal system (often resulting in incarceration) and the culture of control and punishment, which are largely untouched by the reform efforts. The volume can be addressed by more citations which require fines and fees – or restorative justice – for misdemeanor offenses (broken-window types of offenses). Moving from public safety approaches to public health models will also alter the reach of the justice system; this is evident in the legal system’s handling of drug- and alcohol-related issues. This webinar will provide a brief exploration of these and related issues.
This webinar will explore the evolution of juvenile drug treatment courts. Where the legal system has too failed many who enter it, practices that focus on client engagement and behavior change (such as Motivational Interviewing) have improved outcomes. Jennifer Wyatt and Margaret Soukup are the authors of Motivational Interviewing Skills in Action for Juvenile Drug Treatment Court Teams and will share highlights from that publication that are specific to youth and applicable to other settings. Attendees will receive a download of this document.
The Compassion Prison Project began as the brainchild of award-winning producer Fritzi Horstman, whose own childhood trauma helped shape its conception. Over the course of several months in 2019-2020, Fritzi and a dedicated team of facilitators and volunteers partnered with incarcerated men at the Kern Valley State Prison (KVSP), a maximum-security prison in Central California. Together, they created powerful tools to address and heal from childhood trauma. The project is often known for its documentaries, “Step Inside the Circle” and “Honor Yard.” This webinar conversation explores the evolution of this project and its core values of compassion, humanity, accountability, nonviolence, generosity, and equity.
The jury is back in on what kinds of approaches can help reduce crime, make our communities safer, and build better lives along the way. Newly published findings report that 45% of all state prison admissions in the United States are due to violations of probation or parole—by way of new offenses or technical violations. Community corrections has become a paradox, not only failing in its mission to divert and remediate, but making matters worse.
Join host David Prescott and guest speaker Aya Gruber for the next Safer Talk webinar. The Feminist War on Crime explains how feminists, in their quest to secure women’s protection from domestic violence and rape, became soldiers in the war on crime and contributors to mass incarceration by emphasizing white female victimhood, expanding the power of police and prosecutors, touting the problem-solving power of incarceration, and diverting resources toward law enforcement and away from marginalized communities. Today, many feminists grapple with the problem of hyper-incarceration in the United States, and yet commentators on gender crime continue to assert that criminal law is not tough enough. This punitive impulse is dangerous and counterproductive. In order to reverse this troubling course, Gruber contends that we must abandon the conventional feminist wisdom, fight violence against women without reinforcing the American prison state, and use criminalization as a technique of last—not first—resort.
This webinar will explore therapeutic jurisprudence, an approach to law that aims to positively impact the psychological well-being of the accused person. The case for therapeutic jurisprudence is particularly strong when we consider questions about how society treats individuals with severe mental illness diagnoses and intellectual disabilities.
Shannon Moroney was a high school teacher and counselor in 2005 when violence tore her life apart. Her husband was in custody after confessing to the sexual assault and kidnapping of two women.
Shannon tells the story of her husband’s arrest, trial, and sentencing, and the insights she gained about justice and healing and the relationship between the two as she struggled to triumph over tragedy. Openly sharing her experiences, reading selected pieces from her book and using photos and artwork to illustrate her journey, Shannon leads you through an unforgettable ordeal and offers practical personal and professional strategies for building resilience. Her story teaches us that there is hope even in the most desperate moments of the human condition.