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By Naomi Friedland Jason Baum, 49, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, mainly in San Mateo. He said that despite being college-educated and coming from a good family, he still found a path toward incarceration. When Baum was arrested in 2013, he was working as a recruiter in the tech space, an industry he had been in since 1999.  Baum utilized his time in prison to reflect and better himself. “I used this time as if I were in school,” he said.  Baum said his mother would t

By: Wyatt Lim-Tepper A Curiae recently celebrated the Northern District of California’s Conviction Alternatives Program’s 10th anniversary and Reentry Court’s 15th anniversary—honoring the participants, stakeholders, and staff who have made these programs such a success. One of the judges I work with suggested I read the foreword of Questlove’s Hip Hop Is History,   where he describes planning the 50th anniversary celebration of Hip Hop , condensed into a 10-minute Grammy per

By: Naomi Friedland After spending his teen and early adult years involved with the criminal justice system, Jesse Agles has dedicated his career to helping youth going through similar struggles.  Agles, 28, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and was involved with the criminal justice system since he was 12 years old. He was arrested every year from then until the age of 21 and served his first term at age 19.  He got involved with A Curiae seven years ago while he was fig

By: Wyatt Lim-Tepper This summer, A Curiae hosted its first Community Day, bringing together clients, colleagues, and staff to connect on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Alameda, CA. It was our first public-facing event that, admittedly, was set with resistance and reservation. The thought of planning a large event, the cost and coordination, and mostly, the worry that people wouldn’t show up (the same reservation and nerves of being that high school junior having a party a

By: Wyatt Lim-Tepper This summer, we were fortunate to host Griffin from NYU , who joined A Curiae to research and develop policy around...

Thank you so much to Planting Justice who hosted our community day last week with one of our reentry court teams. It was a beautiful day...

By: Wyatt Lim-Tepper In July, I had the privilege of visiting the Western District of Washington (WDWA) to learn about their approach to...

By Haley Neumann On July 17th, I had the honor of attending a Conviction Alternatives Program (CAP) graduation for the first time in...

by Cynthia Ngan A Curiae is looking to build pro-social engagements with community partners that give our participants and staff...

By: Wyatt Lim-Tepper In reflecting on where I am today and how I envision A Curiae in the future, one particular experience stands out in...

By: Mark A. Sherman, JD, LLM In a previous post, I discussed the grassroots movement that led to the proliferation of problem-solving...

By: Mark A. Sherman, JD, LLM In my previous post, I discussed the grassroots movement that birthed federal problem-solving (PS) courts, a...

By: Mark A. Sherman, JD, LLM For two decades, a quiet revolution has been taking place within the federal criminal legal system. Federal...

I’m not a lawyer, but I work with judges and attorneys daily. I’m not a nurse, but I help develop health interventions for people with...

By: Jenee Fortier I have a very serious love of travel - any opportunity to see a new part of the world, I take. Last year I found a...

By: Sachin Sharma A Curiae was thrilled to have Ellen Leonida join our board earlier this year and last week, I had a chance to sit down...

By: Sachin Sharma A Curiae was launched in early 2023 with a mission to provide support for the court and clients on supervision through...

By: Jenee Fortier The intersection of criminal justice and environmental justice is a critical issue that often goes overlooked. I myself...

Last week, I was lucky enough to observe the Federal Judicial Center’s Quality Improvement program in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Northern...

A Curiae held its first in-person board meeting and meet-and-greet a few weeks ago. As a primarily virtual organization, this was our...