International Criminal Justice Reform: Learning from the US Experience

The U.S. Government and U.S.-based experts have exported the U.S. model of criminal justice for decades. Countries across Latin America, among other places, have undergone major reforms to adopt U.S.-style adversarial courtroom trials, drug sentencing guidelines, bail, plea bargaining, and case management practices. But is the U.S. system a model for export? Clearly there are some features of the U.S. justice system that should be emulated, but recent research shows that the system does not always work as intended, resulting in practices that can be discriminatory, inefficient and costly.  

What have we learned from recent analysis on recidivism, diversion, youth sentencing and re-integration that might alter the content of our international technical assistance?

Please join us in this next Innovations in Governance series, where U.S. and international experts will discuss recent research on the U.S criminal justice system as well as lessons learned from other countries.

SPEAKERS

• Chris Spera, Division Vice President, Health & Environment, Abt Associates
• Sarah Jalbert, Justice Account Manager, Abt Associates
• Brent Evan Newton, Former U.S. Sentencing Commission
• Jonathan Monsalve, Brooklyn Justice Initiatives, Center for Court Innovation
• Jenny Murphy, Former Senior Rule of Law Advisor at USAID and State/INL
• Jennifer Lewis, Senior Governance and Rule of Law Advisor, USAID
• Yemile Mizrani, Technical Director, Democracy International

Watch the Session

Learn more about our work on Governance & Justice:
Justice Research and Evaluation
National Prisoner Statistics and Corrections Reporting Programs
Abt Insights:  Community Supervision
Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP)
Justice, Rights & Empowerment

Learn more about our Innovations in Governance Series