Education
Constructive and positive change begins with education. Change within our criminal justice system will come through an educated citizenry. We in C4RJ want to help Washington State's citizens learn about the criminal justice system and its components. Toward that end, a Speakers' Bureau is being developed, consisting of experts in various segments of criminal justice. Members of this Bureau will be available to the public for informational presentations and participatory workshops.
Support
Many citizens are victims of crime. There are some victims who do not receive much consideration. In C4RJ we believe there are many victims of a single crime including: not only those whom crimes have been perpetrated against, their families and friends, as well as, the offender’s family and friends and the community at large. We therefore will develop or refer to existing support mechanisms throughout Washington State to support each of these groups.
Our Support Groups will be led by trained facilitators. These groups are not therapy groups, but a way in which to come to understand what has happened and what the family can do to help cause positive change in their family member. These groups will be located where families can meet to talk openly about their frustrations, concerns, and their pain. They will also be able to find answers as to how to deal with their personal situations.
Current locations for our Support groups are: Monroe, Puyallup, Seattle, and Tacoma. Other Support Groups will be developed on an as requested basis.
Services
Most concerned people want the justice system to incarcerate a person for the offense committed. Also, most concerned people want to provide the offender an opportunity to make positive changes while incarcerated. When an offender decides it is time to change, we at C4RJ believe society should be there to help facilitate that change. It is our goal to have services available for men and women to assist in their self-rehabilitation. These services should include education, mentoring, transition housing, and job training and placement. C4RJ as an organization will develop relationships between the state, county, and local corrections departments and the community to help individuals become constructive, law abiding, taxpaying citizens when they return to the community.
Avocacy
Most people get into difficulty with a system when the do not understand that system. It has been our experience that most citizens have had no desire to learn how the criminal justice system works until it personally affects them. Once it does personally affect them it becomes paramount for them to be able to work with a system which is difficult and cumbersome to understand.
As an organization, C4RJ will advocate to make the criminal justice system fair and understandable to all who are affected by it. We will assist those needing to understand the system, and we will assist the system in understanding all the citizens’ needs.
Research
When scientific and scholarly research is conducted and best practices are employed, no matter what the subject area, a system or function improves. C4RJ’s intent as an organization is to find and encourage the use of best practices within the criminal justice system. When we consistently strive to improve the justice system, we can and will reduce the number of men, women, and children committing second, third and more offences against their communities and fellow citizens.