News

This funding will support national outreach, training, education, and implementation to help more people shape their own care and avoid unnecessary criminal legal system involvement A new $100,000 grant from the Sozosei Foundation will support the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law in expanding access to Psychiatric Advance Directives (PADs), legal tools […]

The Project In 2024, more than 20,000 people were released from North Carolina prisons, and over 76,000 were living under community supervision through the Department of Adult Corrections. “These people have served their time,” says Michele Easter, Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, “and it is in everybody’s interest that they integrate back into […]

What Americans Really Think About Justice System Errors When a criminal trial goes wrong, either an innocent person is convicted, or a guilty person goes free. Under the U.S. Constitution, the first error has long been understood to be far worse than the second. The Supreme Court has often quoted the English jurist Sir William […]

Filling a Gap: Our Work on Psychiatric Advanced Directives Dr. Marvin Swartz is the lead of the Behavioral Health Team at the Wilson Center for Science and Justice, a Professor at Duke University School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the Services Effectiveness Research Program. Throughout his career studying mental health care across emergency departments, inpatient […]

This is part two of a two-part series. For an overview of these tests, check out part one. The Problem In Iowa, a mother went public after her daughter was expelled from school when a cookie she brought to class tested positive for marijuana on a colorimetric field drug test. The cookie contained no marijuana. […]

The Scenario Imagine you are a college student driving home after a late practice. Your gym bag is in the backseat, there’s chalk on your hands, and a torn Splenda packet from this morning’s coffee is sitting open on the passenger seat. You get pulled over for a broken taillight. The officer spots the white powder […]

Driver’s license suspensions are often defended as a tool for accountability. North Carolina data shows it hasn’t solved the problem and has lasting consequences. In 2025, law enforcement across North Carolina made more than a million traffic stops. Most ended in a warning or no action at all. Of the citations that were issued, for […]

New Durham-based pilot study explores the impact of choice in direct financial assistance programs on health and recidivism for formerly incarcerated adults Researchers at the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law, Duke University School of Nursing, and the Duke Department of Population Health Sciences have partnered to launch SAFE HOPE (Supporting Adult […]