Awards

Our Neighbors in Action program was among five nonprofits to win Brooklyn Org’s prestigious annual Spark Prize, receiving $100,000 in recognition of the team’s dedication to building racial and social justice in Central Brooklyn.
 

The New York City Public Design Commission presented its 41st Annual Excellence in Design Award to our Brownsville Community Justice Center, whose youth leaders worked together to turn Osborn Plaza into a vibrant space for community events with new seating, awnings, and greenery.
 

Kellsie Sayers, the Center’s Director of Restorative Practices, was celebrated with Family Legal Care’s first-ever Leslie Abbey Access to Justice Award for her hard work helping to expand restorative justice to more people across New York City.
 

New York City Council Member Helen Rosenthal honored the Center for Court Innovation with a certificate of appreciation from the Council's Committee on Women and Gender Equity for the Center's work providing critical services for survivors of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The New York City's Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence named our RISE Project, working to address issues at the intersection of intimate partner and gun violence, as one of their NYC Advocates for 2020.

Out of over 2,200 submissions, "The Flossy Podcast: Climate Change & Environmental Racism" won NPR's Student Podcast Challenge. This podcast was created by the Men in Color group, a project of our Restorative Justice in Schools program at the High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media in Canarsie, New York. 

"From Defendant to Survivor: How Courts are Responding to Human Trafficking" was awarded Best Documentary in the Orlando Human Trafficking Awareness Film Festival. Watch the full film.

Brownsville Community Justice Center was selected to receive the Brooklyn Community Foundation's annual $100,000 Spark Prize, celebrating pioneering organizations advancing equity in the borough. 

Start Here: A Road Map to Reducing Mass Incarceration by Greg Berman and Julian Adler and our video From Defendant to Survivor: How Courts are Responding to Human Trafficking are both finalists for the The National Council on Crime & Delinquency 2019 Media for a Just Society Awards—an award to recognize media that furthers public understanding of social justice issues.

Red Hook Community Justice Center was selected as a finalist in the World Justice Challenge 2019 for its work to address the underlying issues, such as poverty, unemployment, and substance abuse, that bring people into the justice system. The Justice Center's work will be showcased at the World Justice Forum in the Hague, Netherlands. 

Two Center for Court Innovation efforts—our New Thinking podcast and Start Here: A Road Map to Reducing Mass Incarceration—were honored by the Vera Institute of Justice in its Best of 2018 review. 

Red Hook Community Justice Center was selected to receive the Brooklyn Community Foundation's annual $100,000 Spark Prize, celebrating pioneering organizations advancing equity in the borough. 

New York City's Supervised Release Program, which the Center operates in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the Bronx, was recognized as one of Harvard University's 2018 Innovations in American Government Award Top 25 Programs. The Center for Court Innovation was previously honored with this award in 2002 and 1998.

The Center for Court Innovation website earned Silver in the 2018 W³ Awards in the Non-Profit and User Experience categories. The W³ Awards celebrate digital excellence by honoring outstanding websites and other digital content.

Start Here: A Road Map to Reducing Mass Incarceration, by Greg Berman, director of the Center for Court Innovation, and Julian Adler, the Center's director of policy and research, was shortlisted for the 2018 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice. The list was chosen by a slate of judges, including Paul Krugman, the columnist for The New York Times and Nobel Prize winner.

The Brownsville Community Justice Center was honored in June 2018 at the Hester Street Annual Benefit for its innovative projects to promote economic development and community well-being, including the Belmont Avenue Neighborhood Incubator Project and neighborhood activation studies.

Two videos created by the Center for Court Innovation's Tribal Justice Exchange received Awards of Merit from the Best Shorts Competition. The videos—A Day at Puyallup GREAT Camp and What Does Reintegration Mean to You?—highlight the work of exemplary justice programs in Indian country.

The American Indian Film Institute selected What Does Reintegration Mean to You? for inclusion in the for the 42nd annual American Indian Film Festival. The film introduces viewers to the Muscogee (Creek) Reintegration Program through interviews with clients, staff and partners. The film was also nominated for the festival's Public Service Award.

In 2016, the Brownsville Community Justice Center's Belmont Revitalization Project was recognized for its efforts to transform Belmont Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn into a thriving business district and public space.

The Center for Court Innovation was honored in 2016 for its work to advance creative solutions to conflict in New York, including its efforts in Red Hook, Harlem, and Crown Heights.

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency selected the Center for Court Innovation's short film "They Treated Me Like A Person: Inside The Red Hook Community Justice Center" as a finalist in the TV/Video category of its 2016 Media for A Just Society Awards.

The Harlem Community Justice Center's Parole Reentry Court was honored in 2015 with a Justi Award by Northpointe for its work to reduce recidivism for recently incarcerated individuals returning to Harlem. The Justi Award recognizes organizations for developing programs, practices, and technology initiatives that make the justice system more effective. 

The Association of Prosecuting Attorneys presented the Red Hook Peacemaking Program with an award at the 2015 Innovations in Criminal Justice Summit, which recognizes cutting-edge criminal justice programs that can serve as national models for reducing crime and unnecessary incarceration. The award also honors the Native American mentors and advisors who assisted in planning, training, and implementation for the Peacemaking Program. 

In 2014, the Center for Court Innovation was honored by Groundswell, a public arts organization, for its work to engage young people in neighborhoods like Red Hook, Brownsville, and Crown Heights in mural projects designed to transform symbols of disorder into works of art.  

The Robin Hood Foundation honored the Center for Court Innovation in 2013 for creating a number of innovative programs designed to reduce recidivism and help people get their lives back on track. The Red Hook Community Justice Center and Judge Alex Calabrese were spotlighted as exemplary of the Center's success.

In 2013, the Center for Court Innovation was one of ten nonprofits honored by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as part of the Center for Economic Opportunity's NYC Innovative Nonprofit Awards. The Center was recognized for its work to reduce poverty in Red Hook by offering meaningful alternatives to incarceration.

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency honored the Center for Court Innovation with three separate PASS Awards for 2011: one for its film Testing New Ideas, one for its podcast series New Thinking, and one for its comic book guide to criminal justice reform Learning by Doing. In 2010, the Center for Court Innovation was awarded a PASS Award for Daring to Fail, its book of interviews with criminal justice leaders, and for I Got Arrested! Now What?, its comic book guide to the juvenile justice system.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation, one of the oldest and most storied civil rights organizations, has awarded the Center for Court Innovation's Save Our Streets Crown Heights project their Martin Luther King Jr. peace award for 2011. The award honors those who make a significant contribution to advancing the cause of nonviolence. 

Midtown Community Court has won the 2010 Serving Youth Opportunity Award given by the New York City Employment & Training Coalition. The award honors Midtown's Times Square Youth program, which provides basic job skills and employment assistance to troubled young people.

The Center for Court Innovation was selected as the winner of the 2009 prize, which honors the influential management theorist. More than 600 organizations applied for the distinction.

The Center's website was named one of the top ten court websites of 2008 by Justice Served.

The Red Hook Community Justice Center received the Outstanding Criminal Justice Award from the National Criminal Justice Association in August 2008.

In June 2007, the National Association of Drug Court Professionals honored the Center for Court Innovation with its National Leadership Award, in recognition of New York State's efforts to “go to scale” with drug courts. Also honored were New York State Chief Judge Judith Kaye (Ret.) and the New York State Association of Drug Treatment Court Professionals.

The Broadway Association, which has represented businesses in Times Square since 1911, presented its 2007 Golden Scroll Award to the Midtown Community Court in recognition of the court’s 13 years "fostering, promoting, and improving public safety and quality of life in New York City."

The American Bar Association presented the 2006 "Organizational Lawyer as Problem Solver Award" to the Red Hook Community Justice Center. Recipients are acknowledged for their use or promotion of collaboration, negotiation, mediation, counseling, decision-making and problem-solving skills to help parties resolve a problem in a creative and novel way.

The Citizens Budget Commission awarded its Prize for Public Service Innovation to the Center for Court Innovation in 2004. The Citizens Budget Commission is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civic organization devoted to influencing constructive change in New York City and New York State government. Through its Prize for Public Service Innovation, the commission seeks to identify and highlight a New York City or State government agency that demonstrates an innovative approach to providing government services.

In 2004, the Center for Court Innovation received First Prize in TechFoundation's TechGrants program.

The Red Hook Community Justice Center received the 2003 Rudy Bruner Silver Award for Urban Excellence. The Rudy Bruner Award seeks to discover and celebrate urban places that are developed with such vision and imagination that they transform urban problems into creative solutions.

The Center for Court Innovation received the Innovations in American Government Award from the Ford Foundation, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Council for Excellence in Government. The Innovations in American Government Awards are given to "exemplary achievements in government problem-solving." The award, considered to be among the nation's most prestigious public service honors, recognized the Center for its unique role in fostering court innovation in New York State and nationally. In 2002, the Center for Court Innovation was named one of the top 15 innovations in the history of the Innovations in American Government Award.

The Brooklyn Felony Domestic Violence Court, which the Center helped establish in 1996, was one of three projects selected to receive an Honorable Mention in the NACM Justice Achievement Award contest in 1999.

The Brooklyn Treatment Court was selected by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals as a Mentor Court in 1999. The Mentor Drug Court Network is based on the premise that local drug courts are the best place to educate and train drug court practitioners planning or implementing new drug courts in other jurisdictions.

In 1999, the Midtown Community Court was awarded a Heart to Heart Award from Encore Community Services, an organization that serves the needs of the elderly in Midtown Manhattan. The Court was honored for "improving the quality of life of individuals in the Times Square community."

The Crown Heights Community Mediation Center received the Jewish Heritage Award in 1999. Given by the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney's Office, the Jewish Heritage Award recognizes people and organizations whose work benefits the Jewish community.

In 1999, the Center for Court Innovation was honored as a semifinalist in the Council of State Governments' Innovations Award Program.

The Midtown Community Court's computer technology was included in the 1997 Innovation Collection, housed at the National Museum of American History as part of the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards.

The Municipal Art Society of New York, a champion of excellence in urban design, planning and preservation, awarded its Certificate of Merit to the Midtown Community Court in 1996. The Society recognized the Court for its "revolutionary approach to fighting quality-of-life crimes which has been responsible for saving many offenders while providing greater security for all New Yorkers."

The Midtown Community Court's computer technology received worldwide recognition by taking the top prize at Windows World Open 1995 for public sector innovation. An international competition, the Windows World Open recognizes the best in Windows development.

The National Association for Court Management, the largest organization of court management professionals in the world, awarded its 1994 Justice Achievement Award to the Midtown Community Court. NACM's Justice Achievement Award recognizes "exemplary court and individual performance in the improvement of judicial administration."