SMART DECARCERATION PROJECT

As a result, social workers must be informed about and prepared to engage with issues related to the criminal legal system. The clients we serve, the participants in our research, the communities we support, all will somehow be impacted by the criminal legal system. Social workers are needed to provide services to justice-involved individuals, to develop and evaluate new practice and policy interventions, and to collaborate with community systems to envision new forms of justice. Social workers must be prepared to recognize and address inequities in the criminal legal system, and advocate for structural change, both inside and outside of the formal criminal legal system. Additionally, Promote Smart Decarceration has been identified as a grand challenge for the field of social work. The potential for social work to play an instrumental role in systems change as it relates to the criminal legal system has never been greater.

Primary location: Chicago United States