Justice Innovation

Court reform programs:since our founding in 1996, the center for Justice Innovation has been pioneering creative reforms to make incarceration a last resort in new york city and beyond. In partnership with new york's office for court administration, the center responds to crime with alternatives to incarceration, supervised release, and specialized court programs. The center emphasizes an approach that addresses the root problemthrough mental health and substance use treatment; employment, education, and housing services; and restorative justicewe reduce the well-documented harms of the system while laying the groundwork for meaningful, long-term safety.

National initiative: the center is a national leader in developing, studying, and disseminating a wide variety of innovative Justice models. Through the center's national initiatives and research department, staff conduct mixed-method, multi-site evaluations of community, court, public health, Justice, and education programs, as well as research to promote new thinking about how different systems (e.g., education, public health, criminal Justice) can address problems of violence, crime, and safety. The department's training and technical assistance side provides hands-on, expert assistance to reformers around the world, including through facilitating site visits at model programs; providing training on a range of topics, from community Justice to domestic violence; maintaining an array of online learning resources; and offering intensive planning and implementation support to jurisdictions seeking to launch new models. Research informs programming, programming informs research, and both research and practice inform our efforts to train and assist communities across the u.s. and internationally in adopting tailored reforms.

Community safety: too often, institutional responses to issues of crime and safety are purely reactive, coming into play only after harm has been done. The center for Justice Innovation takes an "upstream" approachplanting the seeds for genuine, long-term safety and Justice by investing in communities. Factors affecting community safety and well-being include economic and employment opportunities, access to affordable and quality housing, strong family and community relationships, medical care and mental health services, and more, and so our programming supports those needs. We recognize that residents are the experts on their own communities, and that no decisions about Justice and safety can be adequate without incorporating the perspectives and participation of community members themselves.

Center core:the center's core planning and operations staff respond to requests for planning assistance from the court system; provide supervision and oversight court programs throughout new york city and state; and develop and implement funding, communications, and technology strategies that support this work.

Policy:focused on the development of the center's policy priorities and new ventures, with an eye toward advancing leading-edge ideas and practices across the organization. In addition, the policy team is focused on developing and implementing efficient, evidence-based court practices in partnership with the new york state unified court system, as well as other criminal Justice stakeholders. This work includes developing a model for individualized jail population review that aims to reduce the new york city jail population in order to help ensure the closure of rikers island, and to serve as a model for other large jurisdictions to reduce pretrial incarceration.