Objective 3.3: Reform and Strengthen the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems to Ensure Fair and Just Treatment

Criminal and juvenile justice systems – at the federal, state, local, and Tribal levels – serve an important role in protecting communities and seeking justice for victims.  For these systems to be effective, they must be fair, open, and equitable; ensure that sanctions are proportional to the gravity of offenses committed; utilize evidence-based approaches; show mercy where appropriate; and promote rehabilitation.  For too long, however, these systems have not lived up to their promise.  The Justice Department is committed to using every tool available to become a national and international role model for innovative and effective criminal and juvenile justice reform.

Strategy 1: Promote Trust Between Communities and Law Enforcement
Community trust in law enforcement is essential to making policing more effective and less dangerous for officers on the street.  The Department will strengthen relationships between law enforcement officers and communities through continuous review and revisions of operating procedures.  The Department will also deploy resources to facilitate productive engagement between community and law enforcement leaders.  In addition, our grantmaking components will continue to provide funds to assist police departments around the country in improving their practices, including by promoting policies that benefit communities and enhance trust.  Most of our nation’s law enforcement officers do their difficult jobs honorably and lawfully.  Where appropriate, however, the Department will investigate whether law enforcement agencies are engaging in patterns or practices that deprive individuals of their federal or constitutional rights. 

Strategy 2: Improve Law Enforcement Transparency and Accountability
The Department must establish a culture of transparency and accountability.  In working towards this goal, the Department will undertake use-of-force reviews to assess policy compliance and de-escalation training opportunities.  The Department will seek to ensure that federal law enforcement and prosecutors incorporate changes in best practices, with a particular focus on trauma-information scenario-based training and social interaction skills.  Our law enforcement agencies will also continue to develop and implement new Justice Department policies, including policies regarding chokehold restraints, no-knock search warrants, and body-worn cameras.  Finally, the Department will support the training of our state, local and Tribal partners to learn, apply, and promote best practices.

Strategy 3: Reform Charging and Sentencing Practices
The Department will pursue reforms to charging and sentencing practices in federal cases, particularly those that involve drug trafficking offenses and crack/powder cocaine.  These reforms will work to eliminate racial and other disparities in the federal criminal justice system, promote the reasoned exercise of prosecutorial discretion, and foster trust and legitimacy in the communities we serve.  The Department will incentivize similar reforms for state, local, Tribal, and territorial jurisdictions through the Department’s grantmaking programs.

Strategy 4: Promote Innovation and Reform in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice System
Through our grantmaking programs and partnerships, the Department will incentivize criminal justice reform efforts at the state and local level that strengthen our communities and advance racial equity.  Specifically, the Department will partner with researchers and directly affected communities to identify, fund, and support innovative, evidence-informed justice reform strategies, and will subsequently circulate knowledge about these strategies across the nation.  We will support training, technical assistance, and other ways of sharing knowledge and resources so that promising approaches to criminal justice reform can be tested, refined, and replicated.  We will work on centering the voices of impacted individuals in planning and grantmaking activities.  We will use our grantmaking and technical assistance mechanisms to support state and local governments, community-based organizations, and other federally funded entities in building data capacity, thereby ensuring that decisions related to criminal justice reform are based on reliable, valid, complete, and timely information.  Finally, we will increase coordination among grantmaking and civil rights enforcement components to combat practices that push students, particularly students of color and those with disabilities, out of schools and into the criminal and juvenile justice systems.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Percent of federal law enforcement officers who receive Use of Force Sustained Training within a three-year period
• Percent of participants in Community Relations Services (CRS)-facilitated police-community relations programs who perceive stronger community capacity to address alleged inequities
• Percent of federal law enforcement officers equipped with body-worn cameras and associated training
• Percent of Justice Assistance Grant Program law enforcement grantees using innovative and evidence-based practices

Contributing DOJ Components: CRM, CRT, USAO, ATF, BOP, DEA, FBI, USMS, ATJ, COPS, CRS, OJP, OLP, OTJ, OVW, PARDON