Miscellaneous

Write Globally, Read Locally

By Anne Skove, Esq.

What happens to reports from national research organizations? Are they like trees falling in unpopulated forests? Are they the sound of one hand clapping?

We ask not only because we were once part of such an organization, but because it's a legitimate question -- do these reports make a difference? Does anyone read them? Who?

Supposing They do read them -- do They follow up with action?

Case in point: the recent NACDL study about prosecuting misdemeanors. Such prosecutions used to be part of the tough on crime or (now widely discredited) broken windows theories. In today's world of jail overcrowding, tight budgets, and arrays of sentencing alternatives, prosecuting misdemeanors sometimes seems like overkill.

What of it? Most people don't know the NACDL from the NLADA (indeed, even we get them mixed up on occasion!) Those that do might well be called The Choir, and you can guess the effects of reading the reports.

This particular report has gotten a slew of media coverage. The timing was right. The Massive Waste phrase in the title is eye-catching in this day and age. Follow the money (or lack thereof)! Too, there's a there but for the grace of God go most of us when it comes to misdemeanors.

The NADCL had some fine publicity surrounding the release of the report.

So it was interesting and refreshing to read an op-ed in the local paper (OK, so it was written by a criminal defense lawyer) about how this report found its way to the county criminal justice commission. See Being Smart and Tough on Crime, Bill Gallagher, Cincinnati Enquirer (May 17, 2009).

Both the report and the op-ed do what many don't: draw from real-life examples. Too often, it's blah blah blah (and for bloggers, blag blag blag), feet nowhere near the Earth we call home. What is working well in particular jurisdictions? What new ideas are being tried out? What are the outcomes?

Hey social scientists, do we get points for using the word outcomes in a sentence? We joke but outcomes is a word everyone -- Joe taxpayer, Joe law & order, and Joe in the ivory tower can agree on. Good reports can trickle down, but they have a better chance when they are written from a trickle-up perspective, using real-life lessons, hard data, and a media blitz.

See also Minor Crimes, Major Report, court-o-rama (April 29, 2009).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on May 17, 2009 (boomark / email).