Leveraging Maximum Reform While Enforcing Minimum Standards

This Article focuses on criminal justice reform in the context of litigation. Specifically, it offers solutions for how to promote effective policies to reduce recidivism and ultimately keep the public safe from crime. It takes the position that litigation that merely focuses on constitutional violations of prison confinement is not complete without a focus on programming and supervision options upon return to society. Part I of the Article reviews some of the problems facing efforts to improve recidivism rates, specifically litigation that solely focuses on prison conditions.

Part II deals with programs that should be undertaken to reduce recidivism in order to obtain successful re-entry among offenders. Finally, Part III suggests strategies to deal with the broad goals, including using lawsuits as vehicles for systematic change.