Center for Court Innovation, Red Hook Community Justice Center

Organization Description

The Center for Court Innovation is the only one of its kind in the country: an independent public-private partnership that works to promote institutional change and new ways of thinking about justice. The Center achieves its mission through a combination of demonstration projects, technical assistance, and rigorous research to determine what works and what does not.  The Center is the winner of national prizes for innovation from the Drucker Institute, the National Criminal Justice Association, the American Bar Association, the National Association for Court Management, the Ford Foundation, and Harvard University. The Center has received numerous competitive-bid grants from the United States Department of Justice, including its selection as the sole technical assistance provider for the Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative, as well as a grant to study the lessons from failed criminal justice experiments of the past.  

The Center has developed numerous nationally-recognized demonstration court projects within the five boroughs of New York City that have achieved well-documented results such as reducing crime, increasing compliance with judicial directives, reforming sentencing practice, and improving public trust in justice. The Center has established itself as a leader in community court planning and implementation, producing dozens of research reports and practitioner tools - many with the help of the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Center’s community court model was recently featured by U.S. “drug czar” Gil Kerlikowske in President Obama’s National Drug Control Strategy as an innovative approach to substance abuse and crime. Mr. Kerlikowske visited the Red Hook Community Justice Center in May 2010.

Guggenheim Internship Description

The Guggenheim intern will work directly with the Red Hook Community Justice Center's director, developing and implementing a new Center project on the cutting-edge of juvenile justice reform.  This is a new initiative (scheduled to launch in early-2013), and thus it is hard to specify the day-to-day responsibilities of the internship.  That said, the intern will have an opportunity to work directly with court-involved youth (as well as social workers, attorneys, planners, and court personnel), and s/he will assist the director on a range of tasks and projects related to perations, planning, implementation, administration, technology, research, data collection, and more.

This internship will involve work on a new initiative for jail-bound young adults (ages 16-21) sentenced in Brooklyn Criminal Court on misdemeanor cases.  The program will target individuals who reside in, or were arrested in, the police precincts of Southwest and Central Brooklyn, who have two or more arrests within the past year or three or more arrests within the past two years. The goals of the program are to reduce reliance on ineffective and expensive short-term jail sentences; provide restorative and meaningful sanctions and interventions designed both to hold offenders accountable and assist them in avoiding re-involvement in the justice system through the provision of responsive services addressing factors contributing to their wrongful behavior; and offer offenders the opportunity to avail themselves of the services and support of a well-established array of services and partnerships with neighborhood providers.  By targeting younger offenders coming through the criminal court and offering them alternatives to incarceration, the program seeks to intervene with a population particularly vulnerable to the legal and collateral consequences of justice system involvement and confinement.

Intern Qualifications

This is an amazing opportunity for an ambitious self-starter.  The ideal candidate will be interested in criminal and/or juvenile justice reform issues and be comfortable working with young people.  Additionally, s/he will have a working knowledge of MS Excel, Access, and Word, as well experience using social media in a professional setting.

Expected start time: 9:00 am

Expected end time: 5:00 pm

Required dates: None: available between 06/10/2013 through 08/16/2013

Internship Length: 8-10 weeks

Additional Information: Since this internship will involve direct work with court-involved youth, a background check will be required.