All Blog

Compassionate Justice: The Smartest Investment We Can Make in Public Safety

Julie Truschel December 8, 2025

If you work in criminal justice long enough, whether in probation, parole, policy, courts, or corrections, you start to see patterns. Not just in criminal behavior, but in what actually works to change it. I’ve been honored to work in this system for decades and year after year, the data confirms one truth: punitive systems may control behavior temporarily, but compassionate systems transform it. Compassionate justice should not be mistaken

Read More »

Lived Experience of Hope and Healing at APPA 2025

Julie Truschel November 13, 2025

I had the genuine pleasure of being part of a deeply meaningful presentation at the 2025 American Probation & Parole Association (APPA) Training Institute in New York. Being in that room – surrounded by colleagues who care deeply about human dignity, meaningful reintegration, and the future of community supervision – reminded me why I do this work. It was an honor to facilitate this session featuring the powerful journey of

Read More »

The Community Justice Overseas Territories Network: Connecting Probation Across Borders

Julie Truschel September 30, 2025

Building Bridges Across the Overseas Territories The Community Justice Overseas Territories Network (CJOT) was born from a simple but powerful idea: no probation professional should feel isolated in their work.  Across the fourteen British Overseas Territories (BOTs), nine have permanent populations and probation services: These services vary in size and scope, with many probation officers working alone. That reality sparked the creation of CJOT—a supportive network linking professionals across BOTs

Read More »

Understanding Decarceration: A Shift in Criminal Justice Reform

Julie Truschel February 17, 2025

In my ongoing exploration of alternatives to incarceration, I recently came across the term decarceration. While I stay up to date on criminal justice terminology and the meaning seems clear from its parts, it wasn’t in my dictionary and I had never heard it used explicitly as the opposite of incarceration. So, where did it come from, and what exactly does it mean? The term decarceration first emerged in the

Read More »

Home for the Holidays: The Case for Alternatives to Incarceration

Julie Truschel December 23, 2024

Prisons are often depicted as places of rehabilitation, and some institutions are working towards this image, but the reality for many inmates is starkly different. Instead of focusing on personal growth and reintegration into society, time spent in prison often becomes a cycle of stagnation. Inmates might engage in routine activities—working in prison industries, attending mandatory programs, or simply passing time in recreation—but these actions rarely address the root causes

Read More »

Juneteenth and the American Criminal Justice System

Julie Truschel June 19, 2024

For over two centuries in America, millions of African Americans were subjected to brutal conditions under the institution of slavery. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declaring all slaves free, many remained in bondage. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston and announced the end of slavery in Texas, that the last enslaved African Americans were

Read More »