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Laurie Garduque, criminal justice program director for the MacArthur Foundation, reflects on her work in criminal justice reform

Laurie spoke to Salzburg Global during "Safe and Secure and Humane: Opportunities for the Future of Justice System Reform." This program took place between May 14 and May 19, 2022.

As criminal justice program director for the MacArthur Foundation, Laurie Garduque focuses on criminal justice reforms and juvenile justice. The latter is connected to her academic career and research with the National Academy of Sciences and the American Educational Research Association.

She explained, "I've always been interested in how scientific research could inform child and family policy. My background is in developmental psychology. The MacArthur Foundation was funding research, and they were interested in having someone like me who worked at the intersection of research and public policy. I came on board to help both the people who were conducting the research, as well as to think about new mechanisms for communicating the research to those audiences."

Laurie's work in child family policy and developmental psychology led her to work in criminal justice reform, specifically researching how people become involved in the justice system, adolescent development, and the law. The multi-faceted research covers the treatment of adolescents under the law and juvenile sentencing, racial, social, and economic inequality, and the influence of families and communities in advocating for a less punitive justice system.

In her years of focusing on juvenile justice and legal reform, Laurie has seen progress. There's also still much to be done. She said, "The juvenile incarceration rate has dropped by probably about 60%, while the number of juvenile arrests has dropped by half. Children in conflict with the law or involved with the law are more likely to remain in their community and to receive programs and services that work with them as well as their family.

"We're much more conscious of their mental health needs. (…) We worked locally and made changes which we then tracked and monitored in terms of their outcomes. We also worked with system actors to make those changes. They became our best advocates in terms of changing law and policy. I remain optimistic. However, I think some of those early efforts are in jeopardy because of the impact of the pandemic and the recent surge in crime," said Laurie.

The space provided by the Global Innovations on Youth Violence, Safety & Justice initiative has two significant roles for Laurie. First, as a representative of the MacArthur Foundation, one of the initiative's partners, she hopes that participants can share with and learn from each other equally.

Laurie said, "Participating in this for the U.S. is a good experience for us to pause and reflect. I think it's also important in terms of international relations to show that people from the U.S. are willing to be reflective about their own work. It's illuminating for the U.S. folks, in particular, to look at U.S. policies and practices [from] a cross-national perspective to see that there are options and alternatives to the way we respond to people in conflict with the law. Compared to other Western countries that are in similar situations, we are overly harsh, punitive, and retributive in our response. The evidence suggests that, in fact, that doesn't improve community safety. We need to look at others, to be both self-aware and self-critical about the choices that that the U.S. has made."

As participants return to their home countries, they take with them the ideas and perspectives shared during the program. Laurie believes this is what makes Salzburg Global a supportive platform for such a complex issue.

"Places like Salzburg Global have a very useful role to play. I know there's often skepticism about something like what Salzburg Global attempts to achieve, but it gives us hope. (…) I like to think that even in the face of what we see as these challenges and existential crises, we can still make progress."