5 Key Lessons For Criminal Justice Reform
By: Dc Design
Tags: California, Prison Reform, Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Reform, Human Centered Design

As the founder of DC Design, a firm focused using human-centered design to address social challenges, I was truly struck by Judge Manley’s words and actions. They serve as a direct challenge to the current way of distributing justice within our legal system. While Judge Manley’s view is derived from his work within the court system, I’ve come to see how these approaches, which fundamentally align with those we’ve developed as a design firm, are essential for improving not only the criminal justice system but also our other social systems like foster care and education as well. While his work takes place in California, the challenges he points out and the core of the solutions he advocates for are applicable across our country.

The fundamental question that Judge Manley is asking through his work and that we should all be asking as well is, what is the goal of our criminal justice system?

If our goal is to punish those we believe have committed crimes (link to 2/3rd of people in jail have not been convicted of a crime) by locking them up only to have them commit crimes again upon release, we should just keep doing what we’re doing now (link to current state of criminal justice).

However, if the goals are to reduce crime, reduce the number of people incarcerated in America, keep the public safe, and help ensure offenders can get back on their feet so they too can contribute to our society, we need a new approach.

From this interview with Judge Manley, I’ve pulled out five specific suggestions that should serve as guideposts for how we can begin to change the status quo. What excites me so much about these insights is that there is a growing body of evidence showing their efficacy.

Our work at DC Design further indicates that these approaches are essential to breaking the “miserable outcomes in criminal justice.”

The five approaches are:

We need to become human-centered in our approach to criminal justice.

Judge Manley says that a lot of the problem stems from the fact that judges and the criminal justice system doesn’t understand how to work with these folks.” We need to understand that every person who is convicted of a crime is different. Crimes are carried out by people who have other unmet needs. It’s hard for most people to be empathetic toward those who we see as criminals, but trying to understand these underlying needs is essential if we want to change outcomes for everyone.

We need to see the individual people affected by crime and our legal system — whether those are the victims, their families, or those who commit the crimes themselves. We need to treat them according to their individual needs if we want to have any hope of creating a system that does more than just lock people up only to have them end up back in jail.

2. We need to reevaluate the responsibilities of those within the criminal justice system.

What is the goal and responsibility of the police officer? The jail warden? The judge? The citizens?

These are all questions we should be discussing as a society. Regarding judges, the traditional role of the judge has been to interpret the law and dole out punishment to those in their courtrooms but there is a strong argument to be made for giving judges more discretion over the types of punishment and treatment that they assign. This should be based on the goals of rehabilitating offenders while maintaining public safety.

As Judge Manley points out, the current system of assigning cookie cutter punishments isn’t working to address the underlying issues that lead offenders to commit crimes in the first place.

Instead, let’s start looking at all of these roles as holding some level of responsibility for ensuring those who ended up in jail can successfully reintegrate into society.

3. We need to move beyond our siloed approach to confronting these problems and work together where doing so would produce the best results.

Judge Manley talks about how drug and mental health treatments are always kept separate when at times, combining them would be more beneficial overall. The reality is that siloed approaches to addressing these issues are the norm. Departments in most governments don’t talk to each other or share data as frequently as they could. Nor do they work together to create wholistic plans for rehabilitation of those who’ve committed crimes. But, the unmet needs of a former inmate directly correspond to his or her likelihood of returning to custody later on.

Only by recognizing that education needs, housing needs, employment needs, and mental health needs are all interrelated can we begin to create a well rounded plan for helping people get back on their feet.

4. We need to define problems by understanding the needs of all who are or will be affected by a solution.

Only then can we garner the buy-in needed to move change forward and only then can we ensure that change will be beneficial and lasting. Judge Manley alludes to this when he says, “Until you get a complete commitment from everyone to change, nothing happens.”

In our work at DC Design, we’ve seen important this step. This is also one of our greatest areas of focus and expertise. One stakeholder that doesn’t feel included in crafting a new solution can derail the entire process. So much of our work revolves around making sure that those who are affected by the system from the sherrif to the victim, to the offender are heard.

5. As citizens, we need to become educated on what’s happening.

We have a responsibility to do the right thing for ourselves, but also, for our fellow man. To sit on the sidelines and hope things get better isn’t enough. We need to educate ourselves on the options available to hold our government accountable and then we need to be willing to enable the best form of treatment for those who have ended up in jail.

The NIMBYism demonstrates our lack of willingness as citizens to engage with these issues and provide real solutions that change the status quo. In our democracy, the options that exist for those in need come down to our willingness to engage with the issues and support solutions that will help.

If we remain ignorant to what’s going on, we become enablers of injustice because whether we like it or not, we’re stakeholders in all of this as well.