The Center for Justice Innovation’s International Justice Initiatives department empowers justice reformers globally through a range of transformative programs and partnerships.
El Salvadoran delegation visits Neighbors in Action
By focusing on people-centered justice, the International Justice Initiatives department champions reforms that prioritize the needs and rights of individuals within the justice system. This approach supports justice processes that are accessible, equitable, and responsive to the communities they serve. Our team collaborates with legal and community change makers to develop and implement community justice models that foster local engagement to address unique societal challenges, promote alternatives to incarceration, and advance gender and family justice. Through training, research, and peer-to-peer exchanges where we not only share best practices but also listen and learn from our colleagues around the world, we strive to create a more just and humane global justice landscape that upholds the dignity and rights of all individuals, particularly the most marginalized.
For more information, contact Natalie Reyes at nreyes@innovatingjustice.org.
Our International Justice Initiatives Team Convenes with Mexican Delegates
In 2024, International Justice Initiatives team members, Lina Villegas and Natalie Reyes convened in Washington, D.C. with Mexican delegates and presented the results of a 3-year project with the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission. The overall purpose of this two-day convening was for a Mexican delegation from the justice sector to study the model of drug treatment courts in Washington D.C. and Maryland and to raise awareness about models of alternatives to incarceration. The delegation included the Chief Justices of the Superior Courts of Justice from Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chiapas, Mexico City, Coahuila, Hidalgo, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas.
Building Restorative Justice in Colombia
In 2024, our Director of International Justice Initiatives Natalie Reyes delivered the inaugural class for a diploma program led by Colombia’s Superior Council of the Judiciary, the USAID/Colombia Inclusive Justice Activity, and several legal and civil society organizations.
The talk, exploring restorative justice, therapeutic justice, and judicial management models, aimed to promote restorative justice across Colombia’s justice system.
Watch the full recording in Spanish above, with multiple subtitle options available.
Access an interactive, digital-only version of the document by clicking here.
An Overview of Criminal Justice Reform in the United States – Switzerland
This overview, created in partnership by the Embassy of Switzerland in the United States of America and the Center for Justice Innovation, provides a look at criminal justice reform in the United States, walking through the broad continuum of public safety and criminal justice from crime prevention at the community level to corrections and reentry. Released in 2023, it was accompanied by a visit from the Swiss Embassy discussing the overview and its lessons and applications globally.
The Melbourne Neighborhood Justice Centre
International Mentor Community Court – Neighbourhood Justice Centre
The Center for Justice Innovation selected the Neighbourhood Justice Centre (NJC) to serve as an international mentor court for jurisdictions across the world seeking to promote the use of community justice. While the Bureau of Justice Assistance does not fund international work like the NJC, the NJC endeavors to replicate the same principles and practices of the Center’s person-first community court model. The NJC’s approach works: participants are 27% less likely to recidivate, and twice as likely to successfully complete Community Corrections Orders compared to the Victorian state average for medium to very high-risk case participants.
The Neighbourhood Justice Centre opened in the Melbourne inner-city suburb of Collingwood in 2007, reflecting the values of its surrounding community and increasing public confidence in the justice system. It is the first community justice center in Australia and has been a designated International Mentor Community Court since 2017.