Too many citizens feel our individual voices don’t matter to lawmakers relative to lobbyists and special interest groups. Economically speaking, that has proven true. So, how do we increase the marginal benefit of citizen voices relative to special interest groups, lobbyists and policy monopolies when it comes to lawmakers’ time and priorities on any given day? By taking a policy co-design strategic approach to criminal and juvenile justice issues that increases citizen inputs while respecting the time and attention limits of lawmakers and related influencer bureaucrats. Enter: Citizen Policy Work Groups.

The new Transforming Criminal and Juvenile Justice Commission (TCJJ) created by executive order to replace the old Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ), which was sunsetted by the Colorado legislature last year, 2023.

I offered public comment, again, this afternoon (February 5) showing a more inclusive stakeholder structure that incorporates affected citizen voices into the TCJJ goals and put together a 1 page (2 sided) policy memo presenting the benefits of co-design strategies in criminal justice related policies. They gave me an extra minute, so that was good!

Post Author: Krystyn Hartman is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs. This site is a test research project.

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Policy Work Groups posts are an extension of citizen PolicyWorkGroups.com.