Problem-Solving Defenders in the Community: Expanding the Conceptual and Institutional Boundaries of Providing Counsel to the Poor
![handle is hein.journals/geojlege14 and id is 411 raw text is: Problem-Solving Defenders in the Community:
Expanding the Conceptual and Institutional
Boundaries of Providing Counsel to the Poor
CAIT CLARKE*
INTRODUCTION
Two major initiatives in criminal justice are now at the forefront of legal,
academic, and policy-making debates. The first is the community justice trend,
which includes community policing, community prosecution, community courts,
and community sentencing.' The second is the problem-solving movement.2
This includes problem-solving policing strategies and the rise of specialized
problem-solving courts such as drug courts, domestic violence courts, mental
* Lecturer and Research Associate with John F. Kennedy School of Government's Program in Criminal
Justice Policy and Management. S.J.D. Harvard Law School, L.L.M. Georgetown University Law Center, J.D.
Catholic University School of Law. The Author is currently the Project Manager of the Executive Session on
Public Defense (ESPD) and Assistant to the Director, Graduate Program at Harvard Law School. The Author
would like to extend her appreciation for reading and commenting on earlier drafts to: Jim Neuhard, Cliff
Keenan, Peter Friedman, Adele Bernhard, Lawrence Friedman, Roger Conner, Dori Spivak, Maximo Langer,
Robin Steinberg, Lenny Noisette, David Freedman, Robbie Frandsen and Charles Ogletree. Special thanks to
Nancy Gist for her ongoing support.
1. E.g., COMMUNITY JUSTICE, AN EMERGING FIELD (David R. Karp ed., 1998). See also Roger Conner,
Community Oriented Lawyering: An Emerging Approach to Legal Practice, NAT'L INST. OF JUST. J., Jan. 2000,
at 27. For articles on community lawyering, see http://www.communitylawyering.org. Community prosecution
attempts to redefine the institutional prosecutorial role in controlling crime and promote order by creating direct
communication links and collaborative working relationships between individual prosecutors, citizens, and the
police in neighborhoods to abate specific problems and public safety threats. For a discussion of community
prosecution, see e.g., CTR. FOR CT. INNOVATION & BUREAU OF JUST. ASSISTANCE, U.S. DEP'T OF JUST.,
COMMUNITY PROSECUTION: PROFILES OF AN EMERGING FIELD (2000) (series of white papers profiling outstanding
community prosecution programs in Austin, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; and, Indianapolis,
Indiana) (on file with Author and available at the Center for Court Innovation, www.courtinnovation.org)
[hereinafter COMMUNITY PROSECUTION PROFILES].
Engaging the community to solve problems and achieve social and economic equity drawn on the wisdom of local
constituencies is an approach that is not limited to lawyers or legal institutions. For example, PolicyLink is an
organizations that engages the community as a source of rich resources, perspectives and opportunities for positive
growth and lasting change. PolicyLink's President, Angela Glover-Blackwell who is a lawyer by training, and staff
recognize that government agencies are too disjointed to coordinate treatment for poor children and others in
communities. See e.g. PolicyLink, Perspectives on Regionalism: Opportunities for Community-based Organizations to
Advance Equity (Jan. 2000); PolicyLink, Community-based Initiatives Promoting Regional Equity: Profiles of
Innovative Programs from Across the Country (Feb. 2000) (both publications available at www.PolicyLink.org).
Lawyers can, however, become effective at leveraging their advocacy skills to coordinate programs and services,
ensuring that they serve individuals, children and families in socio-economically deprived communities.
2. The term movement is used loosely in this context to suggest an emerging field and to identify general
community justice and problem-solving trends within criminal justice circles. Basically, these movements are
shifting attitudes and events worth noting rather than well-defined social movements.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/geojlege14&div=21&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most