Innovations in Justice

Taught by Professors Amanda Berman and Hillary Packer, this course introduces students to the innovative ideas and practices around a justice approach where individual and community building and healing are at the forefront in the wake of dysfunction, calamities and crimes. This alternate approach is in contrast to a retributive system of justice where punishment, proportionate to the offense, is doled out to offenders and where victims are often sidelined. Students will explore the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of restorative and therapeutic justice and practice, in class, different techniques associated with various approaches. Students will also be asked to observe up to six hours in the community, related to their chosen research project and to write a significant paper that captures both their scholarly and field research.

Boskey Restorative Justice Fellowship

Established in 2019, the Boskey Restorative Justice Fellowship was founded thanks to a generous grant from the James B. Boskey Memorial Foundation. Each year, Kukin Program faculty competitively select two students to serve as Boskey Restorative Justice Fellows.  One fellowship is with Nichusak, the Lenape Center's Working Group on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's Crisis, and the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR). The second fellowship is with the Redhook Community Justice Center.

Nichusak and CLIHHR

Nichusak (meaning "my women friends" - women speaking to women in Lenape) is tasked with preventing and adequately responding to the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people (MMIP) in Lenapehoking, the traditional homeland of the Lenape. Boskey Fellows conduct research and engage in advocacy to reduce the risks and consequences of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons crisis, which is having a devastating impact on Lenape and other Indigenous communities in Lenapehoking and throughout the United States. With the support of Professor Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, the Fellows outline strategies to prevent risk factors, including harmful legal doctrines, housing vulnerabilities and other crimes, against Indigenous people that lead to MMIP cases and protect Lenape and other communities, searching for holistic, preventative solutions to a devastating crisis.

Red Hook Community Justice Center

The Red Hook Community Justice Center (Justice Center) is the nation’s first multi-jurisdictional community court, hearing criminal, housing and family matters under one roof with a single judge.  The Justice Center’s mission is to solve community problems: strengthening families, empowering youth, preventing evictions, addressing crime when it occurs and working to prevent crime before it takes place. The Boskey Fellow works directly with the Justice Center's presiding judge, along with their Court Attorney. The Fellow also participates in case conferences, observes court proceedings, assists the Judge and her Court Attorney with the criminal and housing court calendars, helps with drafting court decisions, and conducts legal research. During this experience, the Boskey Fellow will also work directly with Center for Justice Innovations (CJI).