NCJA Outstanding Criminal Justice Program Award

Each year the National Criminal Justice Association recognizes four programs (one in each region) that showcase successful promising practices in criminal justice. The programs selected all address important criminal justice issues; demonstrate effectiveness based upon the programs stated goals; are a good example of the use of federal funds to initiate a program that is subsequently supported through state and local appropriations or are self sustaining; and can be easily replicated in other jurisdictions.

The recipients of this year's NCJA Outstanding Criminal Justice Program Award are:
• Red Hook Community Justice Center
• Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence
• The Next Door
• 100 Days and Nights of Summer

Northeastern Region: The Red Hook Community Justice Center

The Red Hook Community Justice Center is an ambitious experiment in problem-solving justice.  Located in a low-income community in southwest Brooklyn, the Justice Center is a community court that handles criminal, family and housing cases in one courtroom in front of a single judge. Rather than simply processing cases, the Justice Center actively seeks to solve neighborhood problems, including drugs, delinquency and quality-of-life crime.

The Justice Center combines punishment and help by offering a broad range of sanctions, including community restitution projects and on-site social services (drug treatment, job training, mental health counseling and others).  The Justice Center also works to prevent problems from becoming court cases, using the courthouse as the launching pad for a range of unconventional programs. These programs include an AmeriCorps program that engages 50 local residents each year in community service; youth development programs that provide leadership opportunities for local teens; and a youth court that seeks to intervene at the first signs of trouble in a young person’s life. 

Researchers have documented that the Justice Center has helped improve compliance with court orders, reduce levels of neighborhood fear and enhance perceptions of fairness among defendants.  Red Hook, once cited as one of the 10 most crack-infested neighborhoods in the country by Life magazine, is now home to the safest police precinct in Brooklyn.  The subject of a PBS documentary, the Justice Center is being replicated in more than six dozen cities around the world.  The Justice Center is the product of a JAG-funded public-private partnership that includes the Center for Court Innovation, the New York State Unified Court System and the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.

View NCJA's press release about this award winner.

Midwestern Region: The Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence

The Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) is a JAG-funded, multi-agency and community collaborative effort that was initiated in April 2007. The program is designed to quickly and dramatically reduce gun violence with sustained reductions over time. 

The initiative is a focused deterrence strategy loosely modeled after the Boston Gun Project in the mid-1990s.  The cornerstone is a partnership among multiple law enforcement agencies (local, state and federal), social service providers and the community that systematically gather information from multiple sources to identify and target violent street groups that continue to engage in violence. The group then delivers a clear and unified “no violence” message to these violent groups. The message explains that violence will bring law enforcement attention to the entire group, offers alternatives and articulates community norms against violence. Streamlined services including training, education and employment opportunities are made available to those willing to seek an alternative lifestyle.  The anti-violence message is powerfully communicated through a number of different mechanisms, including call-in sessions with probationers and parolees, direct contact (with street workers/advocates, police, probation and parole officers) and community outreach.  The core enforcement step is to ‘tax’ groups for violence — through any convenient legal means, such as drug enforcement — and create conditions within the group such that members will control each others’ violent behavior.

Initial assessments of the effort indicate a 55 percent reduction in group member involved homicides over an eight month period, with approximately 20 percent of the target population self-selecting CIRV services, and dramatically improved police-community relations.

View NCJA's press release about this award winner.

Southern Region: The Next Door

The Next Door, Inc. is a JAG-funded, faith-based organization in Nashville, Tennessee, dedicated to helping women with co-occurring disorders who are in crisis and equipping them to develop lives of wholeness and hope.

The Next Door has two locations, a residential transitional center, located in the heart of downtown Nashville, and a permanent housing complex not far from the center of the city. In each location, women are part of a supportive program that strives to move them from lives of poor choices and a sense of helplessness to productive, independent living.

At The Next Door’s downtown location, women in crisis, primarily those reentering society from incarceration, can find help rebuilding their lives. Since 2004, over 450 women have had the opportunity to experience a six-month structured curriculum at The Next Door designed to prepare them for living independently, establishing stable families, retaining meaningful employment and contributing back to the community.  The residential transitional facility on Eighth Avenue South provides a safe and secure environment for up to 52 participants, who come by referral and application to find not just housing, but also an array of services to address their physical, mental, spiritual and life skills needs, including recovery support services, employment search help, workforce skills, healthcare services, professional counseling, and family enrichment and educational activities, all provided by a supportive and compassionate team of staff, interns and volunteers.

View NCJA's press release about this award winner.

Western Region: 100 Days and Nights of Summer

The state of New Mexico has had one of the worst records for DWI crashes, injuries and fatalities in the United States for many years.  In an effort to combat this problem and at the direction of the Governor, the New Mexico State Department of Transportation applied for and received a federally funded Safety Belt grant.  The New Mexico Department of Public Safety combined the safety belt grant funding with internal funding to actively participate in the 100 Days and Nights of Summer traffic safety program.

Key components of the program include: enforcement (participation by enforcement agencies statewide and grants to support overtime enforcement activity), media (both paid and earned, especially checkpoint coverage), and community involvement and support.

This program consists of 100 DWI checkpoints conducted throughout the state of New Mexico during the 100 days and nights of summer (June through September).  New Mexico law enforcement agencies held 232 checkpoints and made 2,216 DWI arrests during the 2007 100 Days and Nights of Summer traffic safety campaign.  Officers issued 34,660 citations for speeding, 7,172 seat belt citations, 1,368 child restraint citations, 7,106 citations to uninsured motorists and just under 1,100 drivers were arrested for driving on a suspended or revoked license. In total, New Mexico law enforcement agencies made nearly 115,000 arrests or citations. 

Preliminary statistics indicate traffic fatalities in New Mexico declined by 15 percent in June, July and August during 100 Days and Nights of Summer enforcement, compared to the same months in 2006.

View NCJA's press release about this award winner.