"You have so much help, there is no reason to fail," said Tisha
Wallace, one of several hundred parolees currently working with the
innovative Harlem Reentry Court created by the Center for Court Innovation.

The story of the Center for Court Innovation begins in 1993 with the
creation of the Midtown Community Court, an effort to address
low-level crime in Times Square. Combining punishment and help, the
Court sentences low-level offenders to perform community
service—paying back the communities they had harmed—and provides social services like drug treatment, mental health treatment and job training. The success of this single experiment, which has been
credited with reducing street crime and improving public trust in
justice, led to the establishment of what is now the Center for Court
Innovation.

With the support of New York State’s chief judge, the Center for Court
Innovation serves as an engine for ongoing court reform in New York.
The Center advances the concept of problem-solving justice – the idea
that instead of just processing cases, the courts should seek to have
a positive impact on defendants, victims and communities.

According to Greg Berman, the director of the Center for Court
Innovation, "At the end of the day all social problems—poverty,
addiction, mental illness—find a way to the courts. A court case is
essentially a window of opportunity to make a positive difference in someone’s life. This idea is at the heart of all that we do."

The Center for Court Innovation is a team of researchers, planners,
technologists, social workers and attorneys that works to reform the
justice system by launching demonstration projects, from large-scale reform efforts like the Red Hook Community Justice Center to smaller experiments like the Brooklyn Mental Health Court.

Unveiled in 2005, the Bronx Community Solutions is one example of The Center for Court Innovation’s success. The project, which seeks to
apply a problem-solving approach to justice to misdemeanor cases in
the Bronx, has changed sentencing practice: the use of jail as a
response for minor offenses has been reduced dramatically.

According to Berman, "The most innovative aspect of what we do is
actually getting courts to articulate they have a goal. Courts have a
unique responsibility not just to safeguard fairness and due process
but to change the behavior of offenders, to enhance the safety of
communities and to help victims get the services they need."

"We owe an intellectual debt to many people and Peter Drucker is
certainly on this list," said Berman. "We have learned through
Drucker that good intentions are not enough. If you are going to
engage in experimentation, you’ve got to rigorously monitor
performance."

According to Drucker’s Seven Sources for Innovation Opportunities, an unexpected success can be a symptom of a unique opportunity. This was the case at the Red Hook Community Justice Center in southwest Brooklyn, where court officers—uniformed officers charged with ensuring the safety of the building and its inhabitants—have taken an unexpectedly active role in the neighborhood. "Court officers in Red Hook have gone out of their way to create a welcoming face to the facility. They host toy drives, they tutor local children, they coach youth baseball. They have bought into the whole idea of solving local problems before they even come to court," Mr. Berman explained.

Beyond New York, the Center disseminates the lessons learned from
innovative programs, helping criminal justice reformers around the
world launch their own problem-solving experiments. "Now is a unique
moment where real change of the criminal justice system may be
possible," said Berman. "We have shown that meaningful alternatives to incarceration and a problem-solving approach to justice can make a
difference."

For more information please contact: Greg Berman

One area of massive influence, of the many we could list, is Peter Drucker's achievement in bringing business leaders to see the community as the responsibility of the corporation: "Leaders in every single institution and in every single sector have two responsibilities. They are responsible and accountable for the performance of their institutions, and that requires them and their institutions to be concentrated, focused, limited. They are responsible also, however, for the community as a whole."

One measurable result of how Peter inspired leaders across the sectors to collaborate for the greater good is that collaboration, alliances, and partnerships across the three sectors, building the healthy community that cares about all of its people, became the powerful shared vision of principled corporate leadership and their social sector partners.

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The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University is a think tank and action tank whose purpose is to stimulate effective management and ethical leadership across all sectors of society. It does this, in large part, by advancing the ideas and ideals of Peter F. Drucker, the father of modern management.

“The purpose of the annual Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation is to find the innovators, whether small or large; to recognize and celebrate their example; and to inspire others.” For more information about the Drucker Award, please visit the Institute website at druckerinstitute.com.