The Crisis in America's Criminal Courts: Improving Criminal Justice Outcomes by Transforming Decision-Making

The Crisis in Americas Criminal Courts highlights the need for evidence-based reforms to address ineffective, unfair, and expensive systems. William R. Kelly proposes providing decision-makers with professional clinical experts to assess and advise on mitigating circumstances, rebalancing incarceration, managing risk, and changing the culture of the courthouse to focus on behavioral change.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 15 November 2023
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

The Crisis in Americas Criminal Courts highlights a range of issues faced by judges, prosecutors, and public defenders within an ineffective, unfair, and costly criminal justice system. While some argue that crushing caseloads and court dockets constitute a crisis, author William R. Kelly suggests that a more significant crisis lies within the courts, leading to profound downstream effects on criminal justice performance and outcomes. Kelly proposes evidence-based reforms to address this crisis, including providing key decision-makers with professional clinical experts to assess and advise on mitigating circumstances that bring individuals into the courts. Additionally, the book emphasizes the need for incarceration for dangerous or violent offenders, risk management for most others, and a focus on behavioral change to reorient the culture of the courthouse and rethink crime and punishment.

Weight: 331g
Dimension: 232 x 151 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538189382