Judging for the 21st Century: A Problem-solving Approach

Abstract

The notion that judges should apply a problem-solving approach to the matters that come before them is not new. Mental health practitioners, for example, have long contended that mental illness is a health issue rather than a criminal law matter, and that the criminal justice system is ill equipped to deal with people who are mentally ill. In the 1980s, it was the turn of the addiction community to arguethat incarceration alone did little to break the cycle of drug use and crime for substance-addicted offenders.