Serial failures to redress social, legal, and economic injustice and structural racism underpin violence and disproportionally shape politics, policing, and judicial systems around the world. Yet bold reforms in different jurisdictions suggest that cross-cutting interventions can be cost-effective and foster more humane, inclusive and healthier societies. What can we learn, share and take to scale for long-term results?
This working group will focus on public communication of justice reform and justice transformation: how to present policy to persuade public institutions and communities about the need for criminal justice transformation and what it means. Achieving citizen and community buy-in for any reforms is critical in order to change attitudes, behaviors, and investments. Within a democratic society, public support is necessary in its own right, as well as through ensuring legislators feel they can enact long-term reform (rather than classic political short-term thinking, often fueled by populism or public mistrust). Transparency and accountability are key elements of public service, to improve performance and to combat systemic corruption. Public outreach will also be examined in order to ensure direct engagement of broad stakeholder voices, particularly those of racial, ethnic, religious, rural, and other historically-disadvantaged communities to ensure their perspectives and experiences are also adequately heard and shared.
The initial focus group meetings in January 2021 showed a desire to build out connections and conversations across the profiles who participated in the three different focus groups as originally constructed, to work on more specific points of intervention and some big, potentially transformative ideas that could help shape the future of criminal justice systems.
Participants in this initiative may join as many working groups as they want to and which they feel are relevant to their own work. Outcomes from each will be shared with the broader group to keep everyone informed of the work of the different groups and to allow them to join other conversations during the year if they would like to.
Each working group will meet virtually approximately once per month. By September 2021, each will have produced a report of findings and recommendations, in which they will:
As per the strong interest expressed by Fellows during the initial set of focus group meetings, they should also identify specific global examples of transformation that may serve to inform ideas for other places and jurisdictions represented by other Fellows.
In many countries around the world, including the United States, there is growing recognition among policymakers and reform advocates that effective criminal justice reform must look beyond the toolkit and institutions of the criminal justice system itself. In a growing number of settings, innovations based on community-centered, cross-sectoral approaches and socially integrative methods of engaging young people and violent offenders before, during, and after they encounter the criminal justice system, are proving to be more humane, just, and effective.
To catalyze global research-based exchange to tackle youth violence and promote youth safety and criminal justice reform, including the seeding of new strategies in the United States, Salzburg Global Seminar is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and the David Rockefeller Fund on a major multi-year initiative.
The initiative will address the current structural, legal, economic, and social weaknesses and inefficiencies of judicial and custodial systems across multiple countries and jurisdictions. Working with diverse stakeholders from around the world, including young adults, it will identify the most innovative and effective approaches, tools, and technologies, in and outside the criminal justice system, to enhance public safety and community cohesion, reduce crime and incarceration, and help transform judicial and prison systems.
Key trends and drivers that will influence the future of reform efforts worldwide include:
This multi-year initiative aims to:
In addressing these three goals, the initiative aims to accelerate systems change and lasting results at three levels:
For each level of intervention, the participants in the initiative will identify and evaluate approaches, tools and technologies in four specific fields:
Salzburg Global, partners and participants in the initiative will communicate and disseminate the most promising research-based strategies to reduce rates of violence, incarceration, and recidivism to policymakers and communities in the US and globally through publications, media, products, video interviews/documentaries, targeted recommendations, and a future cross-sector research agenda.
