Spotlight
New Measures of Public Safety: A Youth-Led Vision in Saint Paul
A new report from our colleagues in the Government Performance Lab draws on research co-conducted with World Youth Connect, a youth-led organization, and insights shared by young people in Saint Paul, MN to propose a novel approach to incorporating community insights to create actionable indicators of public safety that measure observable changes in behavior. The indicators were created for the city of Saint Paul as part of the GPL’s ongoing collaboration with Saint Paul’s Office of Neighborhood Safety.
In Spring 2024, we’ll explore the promise and peril of new forms of surveillance in the criminal legal system—how advances in technology may improve and/or hinder accuracy and efficiency in law enforcement; allow for reductions in physical barriers of incarceration and detention, while also enabling carceral infrastructure to seep from behind bars out into communities; and herald new discriminatory targeting, deepening or compounding existing inequities. We’ll be joined by academics, practitioners, and impacted community members to unpack cutting-edge technological advancements in criminalization and punishment—exploring improvements to the administration of justice and the reproduction of hierarchies of control and domination. Click here to register for the series on Zoom.
Research from Faculty and Affiliates
News and Commentary
Harvard Researchers Say Jail Educational Programs Reduce Recidivism, Violence
Harvard Crimson, April 10, 2024
Featured: Marcella Alsan and Crystal Yang
Sheriff releases results of Harvard’s IGNITE study
WNEM, April 3, 2024
Featured: Marcella Alsan and Crystal Yang
‘If you don't name it and fight for it, you won't get there’
Harvard Law Today, March 27, 2024
Featured: Andrew Manuel Crespo
Could troubling police, media response to Stuart murder happen again?
Harvard Gazette, February 29, 2024
Featured: Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Black America as canary in coal mine of democracy
Harvard Gazette, February 26, 2024
Featured: Cornell William Brooks, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, and Sandra Susan Smith
The Roundtable brings together leaders from across the Commonwealth, including community organizers, social/racial justice organizers, academics/researchers, policymakers, criminal legal system agency heads, and judges. The overall goal of the Roundtable is to profoundly influence future policies, practices, and procedures in Massachusetts that will help to eradicate sources of racial inequities and resulting disparities in the courts.