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Publications
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The Guardianship Project: Implementing a New Model of Guardianship Services in New York City
Roohi Choudhry and Jim Parsons
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 PDF: 192 KB/48 pages
published: April 2008
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When people are incapacitated by age, illness, or disability, a judge will often appoint a legal guardian. In New York City, no public guardianship system exists to provide services to indigent people, so the Vera Institute implemented the Guardianship Project incorporating national best practices for care. Vera researchers studied the project’s implementation, providing a preliminary description of the program’s structure, services, and client needs. They suggest that the program has made significant progress toward providing clients with high-quality services, and many of its innovative features can be replicated elsewhere. While further research is needed, the Vera Guardianship Project appears to be providing high-quality, minimally restrictive services to people (especially those with limited means) who would not otherwise have access to such services. |
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Overcoming Language Barriers in the Criminal Justice System: Can Language Assistance Technology Help?
Insha Rahman, Joe Hirsch, Susan Shah
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PDF: 49 KB/12 pages
published: September 2007
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Justice agencies, especially those with limited resources, may not always be able to overcome all language barriers through bilingual staff. Ideally, agencies would be able to draw upon several language assistance options when communicating with individuals who do not speak English well. One of these options could be language assistance technology.
This report chronicles key discussions that emerged during a roundtable event convened and hosted by the Vera Institute in March 2007. Criminal justice agency staff and other attendees at the roundtable learned about language assistance technologies in development and in use and discussed the potential applications for such technologies in New York City’s justice system. |
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Vera Institute of Justice: A Brochure About Vera
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PDF: 856 KB/6 pages
published: September 2007
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The Vera Institute of Justice combines expertise in research, demonstration projects, and technical assistance to help leaders in government and civil society improve the systems people rely on for justice and safety. |
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An Ecosystems Approach to
Human Service Database Design
Derek Coursen
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PDF: 171 KB/18 pages
published: June 2006
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This article was published in the Journal of Technology in Human Services, Vol. 24:1, 2006. It describes a methodology as it was piloted in Vera's Adolescent Portable Therapy (APT) project.
Early client-tracking databases were strongly influenced by the structure of previous paper-based systems. More recently, there has been evolution toward databases that attempt to represent the interconnectedness of people in the human service environment. No consensus on best practices, however, has yet emerged. This paper presents a systems analysis technique and a data model based on one of the theoretical foundations of current social work practice: the ecosystems perspective. This approach facilitates a range of knowledge management and performance measurement capabilities that have so far been uncommon in client-tracking systems.
keywords: human services, systems analysis and design, data models,
client-tracking systems, case management systems, ecosystems perspective, ecomaps, knowledge management, performance measurement
Copyright ©2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Article copies available from the Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. doi:10.1300/J017v24n01_01 |
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Good Practices for Federal Panel Attorney Programs in the U.S. Courts of Appeals
Jon Wool and Claire Shubik
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PDF: 400 KB/43 pages
published: January 2006
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Throughout the country, public defense systems are struggling to perform their constitutional mandate, let alone to provide high quality representation. Considerable efforts are being undertaken to study and improve the performance of public defender offices. Less attention has been paid, however, to assigned counsel systems. Even in the federal courts—where assigned counsel are held to relatively high expectations—there is room for improvement. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has been working to assist the federal trial and appellate courts improve defense practices for criminal defendants who cannot afford to retain counsel. As part of this effort, the Administrative Office asked Vera to study how the nation's twelve Circuit Courts of Appeals select, manage, and compensate the private attorneys who accept assigned counsel appointments. Vera's study led to a report identifying good practices in these areas. |
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Childhood Loss and Behavioral Problems: Loosening the Links
Marcy Viboch
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PDF: 767 KB/16 pages
published: December 2005
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 A growing body of evidence suggests that schools and other child-serving systems can help young people with behavioral problems by asking whether they have lost someone they love and responding constructively when answers suggest a child is grieving. Such actions could influence whether a child's behavioral problems spiral into ever wider levels of misbehavior or subside with appropriate help in confronting the challenges of their loss. In 2003, staff at the Vera Institute of Justice began working with a small number of intermediate and elementary schools in New York City to explore the links between loss and student misbehavior. Vera's goal was to identify students who had lost a loved one and develop therapeutic responses to help them. This report, which draws upon existing research, promising practices, and the experience of Vera personnel, is designed to increase policymakers' and practitioners' awareness of how the loss of a loved one influences children's behavioral problems. It also offers suggestions on how to identify grieving children and intervene in cycles of misbehavior tied to grief. |
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Smoothing the Path from Prison to Home: A Summary and a Roundtable Discussion on the Lessons of Project Greenlight
James A. Wilson, Yury Cheryachukin, Robert C. Davis, Jean Dauphinee, Robert Hope, Kajal Gehi, and Timothy Ross
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PDF: 293 KB/28 pages
published: December 2005
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This report presents research findings about Project Greenlight, an ambitious prison-based reentry demonstration project that the Vera Institute of Justice conducted at the Queensboro Correctional Facility in Queens, New York, from February 2002 to February 2003.
Drawing upon research literature and demonstrated best practices, Greenlight sought to reduce recidivism among soon-to-be-released men by working with corrections and parole staff to address a spectrum of reentry issues during the last 60 days in prison. Despite these efforts, however, Vera researchers found that arrest rates among Greenlight's 348 participants were higher than those of two different comparison groups.
While disappointing, these findings present the field of prison reentry with a valuable learning opportunity. The technical and summary reports are supplemented by an edited transcript of an April 2005 roundtable discussion about the project that was attended by prominent researchers, expert practitioners, and former Greenlight and select Vera staff. The edited transcript covers many issues that could have factored into the disappointing outcomes and presents lessons for current and future programs that are designed to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for men and women returning to the community from prison. |
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Understanding Family Homelessness in New York City: An In-Depth Study of Families' Experiences Before and After Shelter
Nancy Smith, Zaire Dinzey Flores, Jeffrey Lin, and John Markovic
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PDF: 6.22 MB/179 pages
published: September 2005
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Families are accessing homeless shelters in record numbers in cities across the United States, and New York City is no exception. After a 10-year period of relative stability, the number of homeless families in New York City grew by 22 percent in 2001 and by another 35 percent in 2002. By 2003, there were more than 9,000 families living in the city’s homeless shelters on any given night. In response to this record demand for family shelter, in spring 2003 the Vera Institute of Justice collaborated with the New York City Department of Homeless Services, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and the New York City Housing Authority to conduct a series of research projects on homeless families including mapping sources of homelessness, conducting a unique survey of homeless families residing in shelters, and analyzing patterns of recidivism among families who leave shelters. This report describes the key findings from this research and is intended to help city officials and service providers shift responses to homelessness towards more cost-effective and preventive approaches, which are less disruptive for families.
 Due to the large size of this document, we are making it available in Adobe Acrobat format for download in sections. Select from the links below to download a section of the report:
You may also download this report as a single document. [6.2 MB/179 pages].
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Building Strong Police-Immigrant Community Relations: Lessons from a New York City Project
Anita Khashu, Robin Busch, Zainab Latif, and Francesca Levy
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PDF: 842 KB/38 pages
published: August 2005
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In 2004, the New York City Police Department and the Vera Institute of Justice collaborated on a series of forums to strengthen relations between police and new immigrant communities. The organizers recognized that because immigrants interact with law enforcement in a variety of ways, regular channels of communication and mutual understanding are essential to building trust and conflict resolution. During the forums, representatives of Arab-American, African, and emerging Latin-American immigrant communities met with police officials to discuss issues affecting their communities. This report describes the lessons learned from the resulting discussions and is intended as a guide for other police departments, local-level government officials, and community groups interested in building better relations between police and immigrant communities. |
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Translating Justice: A Guide for New York City's Justice and Public Safety Agencies to Improve Access for Residents with Limited English Proficiency
Anita Khashu and Cari Almo
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PDF: 134 KB/31 pages
published: June 2005
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In recent years, New York City has experienced unprecedented growth in the size and diversity of its immigrant population. As a result, a significant proportion of city residents have limited English proficiency or do not speak English at all. Finding ways to overcome language barriers is an emerging field, and New York City criminal and juvenile justice agencies have made great strides in addressing the needs of people with limited English proficiency. To help these agencies continue to develop cost-effective strategies for tackling language barriers, staff from the Vera Institute of Justice spoke with agencies and organizations locally and across the nation to discuss ways in which they have improved access to services for people with limited English proficiency. The resulting report, Translating Justice, is a summary of diverse efforts to bridge the language gap. It is intended as a guide for New York City criminal and juvenile justice agencies, which includes language access planning; translation of written communications; using bilingual employees; using professional interpreters; pooling resources; and using technology to overcome language barriers. |
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Adolescent Portable Therapy: A Practical Guide for Service Providers
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PDF: 900 KB/99 pages
published: March 2005
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Home-based treatment that combines family therapy and individual treatment to reduce adolescent drug use and address mental health problems and behavioral issues is now widely recognized as best practice. Vera's Adolescent Portable Therapy (APT) program weaves these elements into a coherent treatment model that can be practiced consistently. APT's treatment manual gives service providers and program planners a theoretical framework and procedures, techniques and case examples that will enable them to implement the APT model easily and effectively. The manual emphasizes:
- Strength-based approaches to assessment and treatment;
- Integrated Cognitive-Behavioral (CBT) and Family Therapy techniques;
- Practical steps for helping adolescents reconnect with school;
- Techniques for helping adolescents and families to function within larger systems;
- Collaborative strategies for providing treatment within and across complex criminal and social service systems;
- Effective program staffing strategies;
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- Techniques for live field-based supervision of therapists
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Modeling Participant Flows in Human Service Programs
Derek Coursen and Bill Ferns
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PDF: 148 KB/17 pages
published: November 2004
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This article was published in the Journal of Technology in Human Services, Vol. 22:4, 2004. It describes a methodology as it was piloted in Vera's spinoff Family Justice, Inc.
Participants flow into, through, and out of human service programs in complex ways: into a program's screening process and out again without receiving services (ineligibility); from one internal state of receiving services to another (advances and setbacks); and out of and back into the program (repeating). Drawing on the traditions of the information systems field, we propose a methodology for defining and graphically modeling participant flows. The methodology, Status-Transition-Cycle (STC) mapping, assists in systems analysis and simultaneously suggests a data model convention for client-tracking systems.
keywords: human services, systems analysis and design, flow diagrams, data models, client-tracking systems, case management systems, administrative data
Copyright ©2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Article copies available from the Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. doi:10.1300/J017v22n04_04
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The Front Line: Building Programs that Recognize Families' Role in Reentry
Mike Bobbitt and Marta Nelson
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PDF: 85 KB/8 pages
published: September 2004
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People leaving prison often turn to their families for assistance. These families become the "front line" of reentry, providing people coming home with critical emotional and material support. But criminal justice systems have only recently begun to engage families in the transition. This Issue in Brief examines the trend towards providing family-focused reentry programming in prison and in the community, highlights ways that jurisdictions can and are structuring such efforts, and addresses the challenges involved. As an example of programming that engages family in reentry, the paper discusses the family reintegration program of Project Greenlight, a prison-based pilot program operated by Vera in partnership with the New York State Department of Correctional Services and the New York State Division of Parole. |
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Supporting Positive Student Behavior: A Guide for School Personnel
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PDF: 278 KB/47 pages
published: August 2004
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Affirm was launched in 2002 as a strategy for preventing school violence. The one-year demonstration project of the Vera Institute of Justice in partnership with the New York City Department of Education and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) sought to train and coach school-based law enforcement staff—known in New York City as school safety agents—in the theory and techniques of positive reinforcement. Affirm's curriculum, developed with the Oregon Social Learning Center, is presented in this easy-to-use, step-by-step manual that guides trainers in the classroom instruction and field coaching that made up the Affirm program. The NYPD's School Safety Training Unit has incorporated a condensed version of this curriculum into their training of all new school safety agents. |
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Foster Children and Education: How You Can Create a Positive Educational Experience for the Foster Child
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PDF: 776 KB/40 pages
published: July 2004
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When it comes to succeeding in school, foster children face unique challenges and obstacles that have them lagging behind their peers. This kit, designed primarily for use by caseworkers and educators, lays out those challenges and offers some simple, inexpensive lessons and tools that can enhance the educational experience of children in foster care. The lessons — including how to facilitate school registration and how to increase adult attendance at parent/teacher conferences — can be adapted for use in any community. They are drawn from the experience of Safe and Smart, a joint project of the Vera Institute and the New York City Administration for Children's Services that placed caseworkers in schools to support foster children |
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Reducing Gun Violence: An Overview of New York City's Strategies
Megan Golden and Cari Almo
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PDF: 127 KB/22 pages
published: March 2004
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This paper is designed for law enforcement and public safety agencies in the United States and worldwide that are looking for effective strategies to reduce gun violence and gun trafficking, which are growing problems worldwide. In the United States, despite a historic drop in crime since 1994, there has been a slight increase in gun crimes nationally in last few years. In contrast to the recent national trends, gun violence has decreased in New York City, a leader in reducing crime. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) attributes these declines to a range of initiatives it has implemented to combat gun violence. The paper describes seven of the strategies that the NYPD, in cooperation with other government agencies, has implemented to reduce gun violence, as described by the NYPD officials who manage them. The document also includes a section on resources for further information about gun violence reduction strategies. |
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Preventing Homelessness Among People Leaving Prison
Nino Rodriguez and Brenner Brown
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PDF: 267 KB/12 pages
published: December 2003
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Every day, people are released from prisons across the country and many of them do not have a place to live. Policymakers and practitioners are beginning to pay attention to this issue and have developed at least three main approaches: prohibiting inmates from leaving prison without a place to live; providing housing as part of services to help ex-offenders stay sober or get a job; or providing comprehensive transitional services, including housing. Through a partnership with the New York State Department of Correctional Services and the New York State Division of Parole, Vera implemented the latter approach in a pilot program called Project Greenlight. This installment of Vera's Issues in Brief series discusses homelessness among returning prisoners, the implications it has for government agencies, and examples of corrections agencies' approaches to the problem. It also details Project Greenlight's housing assistance program and outlines insights from Greenlight's experience for practitioners who are facing a similar problem. |
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Reinforcing Positive Student Behavior to Improve School Safety: An Evaluation of Affirm
Ajay Khashu, Thomas Mariadason, Daniel Currie, and Robin Campbell
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PDF: 283 KB/39 pages
published: September 2003
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Can police personnel in schools be effectively trained to engage with students in positive ways to encourage and reinforce good behavior even as they continue enforcing discipline codes and criminal laws? To find out, Vera researchers evaluated Affirm, a training program delivered to 644 police personnel assigned to New York City public schools and another 84 school personnel from April 2002 to June 2003. The results, which are documented in this report, show that school safety agents can be effectively trained to play this more complex role, but they also suggest that a better overall safety climate can be achieved only through the coordinated efforts of all professional staff in a school. |
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Improving Public Defense Systems: Good Practices for Federal Panel Attorney Programs
Jon Wool, K. Babe Howell, and Lisa Yedid
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PDF: 420 KB/44 pages
published: June 2003
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How can courts better meet the requirements of Gideon v. Wainright, the Supreme Court decision that guaranteed criminal defendants a right to representation regardless of their ability to pay? As part of its strategic planning process, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts asked Vera to identify and discuss good practices for selecting, managing, appointing, and compensating private counsel, or "panel attorneys," in federal courts. This report draws upon a review of the written panel attorney plans of all 94 federal judicial districts, interviews with panel attorney representatives, federal public and community defenders, judges, and court administrators, as well as close analysis of three districts that had made significant efforts to improve their panel systems—Maryland, the Western District of Oklahoma, and Oregon— to identify practices that advance the quality of defense representation, as well as those which improve monetary and other efficiencies.
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Respite Care: An Alternative to Foster Care for Status Offenders in New York City
Eric Weingartner and Andrea Weitz
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PDF: 390 KB/32 pages
published: July 2002
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Most adolescents who skip school, run away, or rebel in other ways do not need to be placed in foster care. Across the country, however, parents desperate to control children who engage in what the justice system calls "status offenses" are turning to government as a last resort. Their children might spend months in a foster care group home, but these families are unlikely to receive the help they need. This publication explores the problem nationally and in New York and outlines a potential alternative—respite care. As defined by Vera, a respite care program specifically for status offenders would briefly separate parents and children and use mediation to reunite and prepare them to take advantage of services in their communities. The success of such a program would provide a real solution for families in crisis and conserve scarce, expensive public resources. Vera's research and planning leading up to this publication are steps toward mounting a demonstration of respite care in New York City. |
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Police Oversight Project, City of Albuquerque
Richard Jerome, P.C. and the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC)
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published: May 2002
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In 1998, the city of Albuquerque passed the Police Oversight Ordinance,
which created a new civilian oversight system and mandated an
independent evaluation of that system within a few years. Richard Jerome
and the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC) carried out this evaluation, which includes recommendations for
improving the system. Their report, [PDF: 116 pages/ 2.5 MB], is posted on the PARC web site. |
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Racial Profiling
Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC)
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PDF: 36 KB/13 pages
published: May 2002
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This paper from the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC) discusses the disparate impact of our criminal justice system on racial and ethnic minorities and suggests some new ways to analyze the troublesome issue. |
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Families as a Resource in Recovery from Drug Abuse: An Evaluation of La Bodega de la Familia
Eileen Sullivan, Milton Mino, Katherine Nelson, and Jill Pope
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PDF: 586 KB/85 pages
published: May 2002
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This report evaluates La Bodega de la Familia (The Family Grocery), a program in New York City that works with the families of drug users who are under justice system supervision, with the goal of promoting the users' recovery. Researchers compared outcomes for Bodega participants with outcomes for a comparison group of drug users and family members, and conducted in-depth interviews with a subsample of both groups. The proportion of Bodega drug users who reported using illegal drugs declined from 80 percent to 42 percent over the six-month study period, significantly more than in the comparison group. Bodega family members also got medical and social service needs met at significantly higher rates than those in the comparison group. |
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A Study of the PINS System in New York City: Results and Implications
Eric Weingartner, Andrea Weitz, Ajay Khashu, Robert Hope, and Megan Golden
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PDF: 455 KB/38 pages
published: April 2002
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Following the recent passage of a New York State law that raises the age limit for petitioning a youth as a Person in Need of Supervision (PINS) from 16 to 18, and a Vera Institute report that studied the likely impact of the law, the New York City Administration for Children's Services commissioned the Vera Institute to perform a close study of city PINS cases. Researchers examined 200 PINS cases in Brooklyn and Queens to see how agencies in these boroughs respond to families in crisis and which children spend time in foster care as part of the process. |
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Reports by Police Monitors Supported by PARC
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published: March 2002
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Part of the mission of the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC), a subsidiary of Vera, is to support the external oversight of law enforcement agencies. This often means assisting individuals, committees, or agencies responsible for monitoring police departments. Those monitors are required to document their findings about the reform process. When PARC is involved, its staff help produce and disseminate these reports. See Monitors' Reports for detailed descriptions of these reports and links to the on-line versions.
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Reducing the Foster Care Bias in Juvenile Detention Decisions: The Impact of Project Confirm
Dylan Conger and Timothy Ross
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PDF: 277 KB/51 pages
published: December 2001
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Children in foster care who are arrested for delinquent acts are more likely than other children to be sent to juvenile detention to await their trials, even when they are charged with the same type of crime as their nonfoster peers. The results can be damaging for the children and expensive for taxpayers. For the first time anywhere, this report quantifies the foster care bias in detention decisions and shows that a relatively simple intervention can eliminate it for juveniles facing low-level offenses and with no prior records. The report also identifies obstacles to eliminating these disparities in more serious cases.
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Reinforcing Positive Student Behavior to Prevent School Violence: Enhancing the Role of School Safety Agents
Hema Sareen
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PDF: 253 KB/22 pages
published: October 2001
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In 1998, when New York City transferred responsibility for its 3,500 school safety officers from the Board of Education to the police department, it was part of a nationwide trend. The U.S. Department of Justice, through its office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), was encouraging officials across the country to place law enforcement personnel inside schools in order to improve student safety.
Police and school officials in New York believed they could work together to refine the school safety agents' role and effectiveness. They asked Vera to explore how safety agents could be better marshaled as a resource to reduce school violence. This report proposes a specialized training for school safety agents that recognizes the value of positive reinforcement in improving student behavior. It is the initial design for Affirm, a demonstration project Vera launched in 2002, in partnership with the New York City Department of Education and the New York Police Department. |
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A Model for School Safety: Assessing the Accomplishments of two Brooklyn Neighborhoods in the First Year
Melorra Sochet
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PDF: 152 KB/18 pages
published: March 2001
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A description of the efforts of principals, teachers, school safety agents, police officers, and parents from two Brooklyn neighborhoods to develop strategies for making their schools and communities safe for students.
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The Nuts and Bolts of Implementing School Safety Programs
Melorra Sochet and Catherine Berryman
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PDF: 328 KB/98 pages
published: November 2000
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Helps teachers, principals, and school administrators identify effective and appropriate school safety programs. The manual identifies programs from around the country and describes the resources needed to implement each program.
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Five Years of Jury Reform: What Jurors are Saying
Julia Vitullo-Martin and Brian Maxey
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PDF: 1063 KB/71 pages
published: August 2000
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Five Years of Jury Reform: What Jurors Are Saying discusses substantive jury reforms and jurors’ evaluations of the reforms during the Citizens Jury Project’s five-year demonstration phase. Since April 2000, the Fund for Modern Courts has operated the project. |
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The Use of Citizens Surveys as a Tool for Police Reform
Robert C. Davis
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PDF: 76 KB/12 pages
published: July 2000
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Citizen surveys, long used by researchers to test hypotheses about police-citizen interactions, have recently be deployed as a tool for promoting police reform. This paper examines the citizen survey's potential role in creating more accountable and effective police forces, drawing on examples from Chicago, Illinois; Queens, New York; and St. Petersburg, Russia.
The study provided the framework for an international meeting on the use of citizen surveys as a tool for police reform, one of a series of meetings on democratic policing hosted by Vera and supported by the Ford Foundation. Abstracts [PDF: 11 pages/142 KB] of other papers presented at the meeting are also available. |
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The Appearance Assistance Program: An Alternative to Detention for Noncitizens in U.S. Immigration Removal Proceedings
Oren Root
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PDF: 37 KB/9 pages
published: May 2000
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In this speech, Appearance Assistance Program (AAP) director Oren Root places the AAP in the context of U.S. immigration enforcement policy and discusses the AAP's success as an alternative to detention for noncitizens in removal proceedings. |
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Year 2000 report: Vera Institute of Justice
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published: January 2000
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Describes Vera's demonstration projects as of 2000: the Citizens Jury Project, the Appearance Assistance Program, La Bodega de la Familia, Project Confirm, and Safe and Smart. Discusses the agendas of Vera's research, planning, and technical assistance departments. Also describes Vera's involvement with the South African Bureau of Justice Assistance. |
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Integrating Family-Focused Interventions Into the Criminal Justice System
Carol Shapiro
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PDF: 179 KB/14 pages
published: December 1999
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This paper describes La Bodega de la Familia's innovative new treatment methodology, family case management. It concludes with suggestions for promising areas within the criminal justice system where this approach could be applied and training could be useful.
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Approaches to School Safety in America's Largest Cities
Vera Institute of Justice
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PDF: 266 KB/63 pages
published: August 1999
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Shows the ways in which school systems and state and local governments in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia structure their institutions to address school safety.
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The Appearance Assistance Program: Attaining Compliance with Immigration Laws through Community Supervision
Megan Golden, Oren Root and David Mizner
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PDF: 123 KB/17 pages
published: September 1998
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This booklet describes the Appearance Assistance Program, highlighting innovative strategies designed to increase compliance. |
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Teaching Brain Power, Not Gun Power: Low Intensity, Low-Cost Programs for Juvenile Weapons Offenders
Jennifer Trone and Darlene Jorif
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PDF: 105 KB/22 pages
published: May 1998
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A practical guide to planning programs for less serious juvenile weapons offenders. |
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Adolescent Pathways: Exploring the Intersections Between Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice, PINS, and Mental Health
Molly Armstrong
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PDF: 428 KB/38 pages
published: May 1998
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A look at the three systems — juvenile justice, PINS ("persons in need of supervision"), and mental health — that make primary demands on the placement resources of the Administration for Children's Services.
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Beyond Blame and Panic: Institutional Strategies for Preventing and Controlling Adolescent Violence
Jennifer Trone, Molly Armstrong, and Mercer Sullivan
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PDF: 449 KB/20 pages
published: April 1998
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Beyond Blame and Panic outlines the strategies for reducing adolescent violence, highlighting practical innovations in courts, child welfare agencies, schools, and community-based organizations.
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Bridging Drug Treatment and Criminal Justice
Jennifer Trone and Douglas Young
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PDF: 182 KB/16 pages
published: November 1996
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This report explores the growing partnership between drug treatment and criminal justice professionals exemplified by the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP) program, which Vera monitored for four years. |
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Thirty-Five Year Report, Vera Institute of Justice
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published: January 1996
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Describes Vera's demonstration projects as of 1996: the Citizens Jury Project, the Appearance Assistance Program, La Bodega de la Familia, the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, and Job Path. Discusses Vera's research and planning: the initiatives to ensure justice for children, explore new drug treatment options, and develop alternatives to eviction from public housing in narcotics cases. Includes a description of Vera's method and a history of the Institute's previous efforts to encourage just practices in public services. |
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Bail Bond Supervision in Three Counties: Report on Intensive Pretrial Supervision in Nassau, Bronx, and Essex Counties
Vera Institute of Justice
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PDF: 93 KB/36 pages
published: August 1995
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From 1988 through 1994, Vera tested a model of intensive pretrial supervsion developed to relieve jail overcrowding. This report presents the model, describes the demonstration project, and raises issues for further exploration. |
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How to Use Structured Fines (Day Fines) as an Intermediate Sanction: An Implementation Manual
Barry Mahoney with Judith A. Greene, Julie Eigler, and Joan B. Green
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PDF: 661 KB/84 pages
published: January 1995
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Published by the Vera Institute of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Describes, in detail, how to plan and implement a day-fine system. |
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Diverting Drug Offenders to Treatment: Year Three of DTAP Expansion
Douglas Young, Denise Cocoros, and Timothy Ireland
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published: January 1995
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Vera's third report on a model program that offers nonviolent defendants in felony drug cases the option of attending a long-term residential drug treatment program instead of prison. Examines the program's high retention rate: 61 percent of defendants complete treatment at a rate at least one-and-a-half times greater than any comparable program's rate-and discusses how legal pressure can influence retention. Vera's first two DTAP reports are also available. |
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Reinventing Guardianship: Subsidized Guardianship, Co-Guardians and Child Welfare
Meryl Schwartz
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published: January 1993
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Examines subsidized guardianship as an alternative for some of the 400,000 children in foster care in this country, and proposes a new use of guardianship to prevent foster care placement. |
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The Staten Island Day-Fines Project: Research in Brief
Laura A. Winterfield and Sally T. Hillsman
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Download now
PDF: 131 KB/8 pages
published: January 1993
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Published by National Institute of Justice
A brief overview of a pilot program in Staten Island, New York that implemented a new sanction in criminal court — day-fines, so called because the fine amount is tied to an individual offender's daily earnings and ability to pay the penalty, rather than based on a particular crime regardless of the offender's means. |
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Justice Informed: The Pre-Sentence Report Pilot Trials in the Crown Court, Volume 1
James K. Bredar
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published: January 1992
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Published by Vera Institute of Justice, London Office
Reports on a series of pilot projects coordinated by Vera in five trial courts in England. The projects tested the practicality of requiring presentence investigation reports in most felonies. |
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Justice Informed: The Pre-Sentence Report Pilot Trials in the Crown Court, Volume 2
James K. Bredar
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published: January 1992
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Published by Vera Institute of Justice, London Office
Reports on a series of pilot projects coordinated by Vera in five trial courts in England. The projects tested the practicality of requiring presentence investigation reports in most felonies. |
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Moving Up the Day of Reckoning: Strategies for Attacking the "Cracked Trials" Problem
James K. Bredar
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published: January 1992
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Published in The Criminal Law Review, Sweet & Maxwell, Ltd., London.
A proposal for improving court procedure in England by plea decisions, in order to avoid the need to prepare for trial when defendants intend to plead guilty. |
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The Delta Program: A Program Plan for a Day Drug Treatment Program for Bronx Drug Felony Offenders
Vera Institute of Justice
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published: January 1992
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This report describes the planning and operations of the Delta Program, a mandatory day treatment alternative for drug-abusing offenders who would otherwise be incarcerated. |
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Alcohol, Drugs and Crime: Vera's Final Report on New York State's Interagency Initiative
Douglas Young, Mark Usdane, and Luis Torres
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published: January 1991
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Details a four-year project, requiring collaboration across state agencies, to develop and implement a prison-based program preparing inmates for a drug-free transition to the community. |
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Punishments in the Community and the Principles of Desert
Andrew von Hirsch, Martin Wasik, and Judith Greene
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published: January 1989
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Published in Rutgers Law Journal, 20(3):595-618
Proposes a sentencing framework based on desert principles that makes extensive use of noncustodial penalties. By principles of desert, the authors mean that comparative sentences of punishment should be determined chiefly by the seriousness of the crime. |
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Job Path: A Project of the Vera Institute of Justice
Abigail Norman
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published: January 1987
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This pamphlet provides an overview of Job Path's mission and operations since 1978 in helping people with developmental disabilities move into stable jobs in the mainstream workforce through training and ongoing support. |
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Expanding the Victim's Role in the Criminal Court Dispositional Process: The Results of an Experiment
Robert C. Davis and Elizabeth Connick
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::: View a short film about Vera. [Go]
