Criminal Justice Transition Coalition Releases Recommendations for Incoming Administration and Congress

The 2009 Criminal Justice Transition Coalition released a report last week providing recommendations for the incoming Obama administration on criminal justice issues. The report: Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Next Administration and Congress was developed by experts in a broad range of criminal justice areas to identify essential issues and policy recommendations for the next administration and Congress.

The following is taken from the report: "After the 2008 elections, America’s policymakers will take a fresh look at the criminal justice system, which so desperately needs their attention. To assist with that review, leaders and experts from all aspects of the criminal justice community spent months collaboratively identifying key issues and gathering policy advice into one comprehensive set of recommendations for the new administration and Congress. This catalogue is the fruit of those labors.

More than 25 organizations and individuals participated in developing policy recommendations across 15 broad issue areas. They then vetted those recommendations with a broader group of experts, representing a diversity of philosophies and points of view, to assess the substantive and political viability of each recommendation. For each issue area, the document:

· Identifies and summarizes problems;
· Evaluates possible solutions and identifies potential areas of agreement;
· Indicates which parts of government have jurisdiction;
· Notes potential supporters of the identified solutions and discusses opposing arguments;
· Identifies experts who can provide further analysis;
· Indicates the authors of that particular section; and
· Provides hyperlinks to other materials that explore the issues in greater depth.

In addition, the first few sections of the catalogue provide a broad overview of the
criminal justice system as it now exists; indicate objectives that must be afforded priority
consideration; identify items for executive and legislative action; and list participating
individuals and organizations."

The catalogue is available online at www.2009transition.org, at www.constitutionproject.org, and at the websites of many of the participating organizations."