Healing Criminal Justice is the story of the rediscovery of the healing power of community within the criminal justice system. The book chronicles Judge Jeffrey Tauber’s experience as one of the nation's first drug court judges and leader of the drug court movement at a time when it struggled to change an unjust system from within, and how the nascent drug court field was transformed into the most important criminal justice reform in a century.
Judge Tauber recalls his visits to native cultures worldwide as well as his experience as a saxman playing in Oakland's blues clubs, and how both contributed to his understanding of the most critical element in the criminal justice system: community. He lays out his vision of a future where society, recoiling from its overindulgence in imprisonment, returns to its historic reliance on community as the key to controlling criminal behavior.
Judge Jeffrey Tauber is the founding president and president emeritus of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP). He is currently the Director of Reentry Court Solutions, an educational initiative that maintains an archival website for the industry, and provides technical assistance, training, speaking, and consulting services to the field.