Al Jazeera America recently ran an op-ed by Laura I. Appleman, associate dean of faculty research and a professor of law at Willamette University. In the op-ed, Appleman writes about the harm done when the voice of the community is removed from the criminal justice system. This exclusion of the public, she says, “is draining public coffers, filling up prisons and creating a continual sense of injustice.”
But there are solutions. She writes, “there are a variety of ways to return the community to the criminal justice system. These include community bail funds, community policing, state statutes mandating jury review of pleas, community involvement in parole and probation decisions and community-based courts, to name just a few.”