Community justice and public safety: Assessing criminal justice policy through the lens of the social contract

Abstract

A reconceptualization of the idea of "community justice" is framed in the logic of the social contract and emphasizes the responsibility of the justice system for the provision of public safety. First, we illustrate the ways in which the criminal justice system has hindered the efforts of community residents to participate in the production of public safety by disrupting informal social networks. Then we turn to an examination of the compositional dynamics of California prison populations over time to demonstrate that the American justice system has failed to meet their obligations to provide public safety by incapacitating dangerous offenders. We argue that these policy failures represent a breach of the social contract and advocate for more effective collaboration between communities and the formal criminal justice system so that all parties can fulfill their obligations under the contract.

Behind closed doors: Considering a triphasic traumatic incarceration experience.

“…At least 60% of those released from prison find themselves incarcerated again 1 year or more after release (Cerda, Stenstrom, & Curtis, 2015). Proponents of the American carceral system and its practices suggest that the high number of those incarcerated simply rises as a result of the need to ensure justice, public safety, and the rehabilitation of unfavorable characters and actions (Sundt, Salisbury, & Harmon, 2016; Taylor & Auerhahn, 2015). Opponents of the carceral system suggest that the rulings that place one in prison and into the thralls of reintegration suggest that the rulings are often based on irrelevant, limited pieces of legal information and also on characteristics such as race, gender, and age (Steffensmeier & Demuth, 2006; Steffensmeier, Ulmer, & Kramer, 1998).…”