Today, there are literally thousands of problem-solving courts that are testing new approaches to difficult cases where social, human and legal problems intersect. These include community courts that seek to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods struggling with crime and disorder, drug courts that link addicted offenders to treatment instead of incarceration, and domestic violence courts that emphasize victim safety and defendant accountability. In recent years, many in the field have sought to "go to scale" with problem-solving justice, testing key problem-solving principles outside of the specialized court context. For example, the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice launched the Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative, which funded ten demonstration projects around the U.S. This page contains numerous resources to help practitioners interested in applying problem-solving techniques more widely at the local level.

The Center for Court Innovation and the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance are soliciting applications from U.S. community courts interested in becoming mentor sites. The mentor sites will provide real-life examples for criminal justice officials nationwide who are interested in new approaches and want to know the nitty-gritty “how to” details of implementing and sustaining a community court approach, particularly beyond a single neighborhood. The mentor sites will model how justice system players can develop new skills, utilize new tools, and embrace new strategies.

Mentor sites will receive technical assistance at no charge from the Center for Court Innovation, which has been developing new justice models and providing technical assistance to practitioners for more than 15 years. Among other things, Center staff will visit each mentor site to provide guidance on hosting high-quality, structured site visits; developing to-the-point answers to other jurisdictions’ questions; and addressing any current challenges. In addition, the Center for Court Innovation will create for each mentor site a promotional brochure. The mentor sites will be prominently featured on www.courtinnovation.org and nearby practitioners will be encouraged to contact them for assistance. Since only five mentor sites in the entire country will be selected, the designation will be an honor to be highlighted to community stakeholders, state and local court leaders and, perhaps most significantly, government and private funders.

To apply to become a mentor site, download the request for proposal. The application deadline is Oct. 31, 2008.

A community event at Bronx Community Solutions in New York.

Problem-Solving Principles
What are the underlying principles that animate problem-solving justice?

• Enhanced Information
• Community Engagement
• Collaboration
• Individualized Justice
• Accountability
• Outcomes

Fact Sheets and Self-Assessment Tools
The Center has developed short primers on problem-solving justice:

• Problem-Solving Justice in the United States: Common Principles
• Using Data to Build Your Program
• Engaging Stakeholders in Your Project
• Publicizing Your Program and Its Successes
• Finding the Resources to Help Your Program Thrive
• Planning Checklist
• Mapping Community Resources
• Using Diversion as Part of a Problem-Solving Strategy
• Developing a Community Service Protocol
• Evaluating Your Program

Sample Documents
The Center has collected sample documents from problem-solving initiatives around the U.S. These documents show how various projects have adapted the principles of problem solving to their local circumstances. These documents can also serve as models for other practitioners.

Curriculum
"Introduction to Problem-Solving: Key Issues and Challenges"
A curriculum intended to provide practitioners with the tools to initiate their own problem-solving initiative.

Theron Bowman has been chief of the Arlington Police Department since 1999. In January 2007, he participated in a roundtable, assembled by the Center for Court Innovation and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, to discuss failure and innovation in criminal justice, a transcript was published in the first issue of the Journal of Court Innovation. In June 2007, he spoke with the Center further about how he encourages innovation in Arlington.


Chief Bowman at the "Failure Roundtable" held in the Center for Court Innovation's
New York office in January 2007

Q: It sounds like you do a lot of experimenting with new ideas. How do you create an environment that welcomes experimentation?
You have to engrain this philosophy into the culture of the organization, until it becomes who you are. We have a fairly elaborate awards and recognition system where we recognize desirable behavior. We make a big deal when employees engage in innovations, and make sure that everybody knows about them. We have throughout the city what we call the BEST program that challenges employees to create new ways of becoming more efficient and more effective, and though the BEST program selected projects receive some sort of monetary or gift award at the city level. So we reward good behavior, we talk about it every time we get the opportunity to put it in front of employees, and we encourage innovations. Employees know that innovation is good and that mistakes are sometimes inevitable.

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