In 2024, the Center for Justice Innovation’s Gender and Family Justice team hosted its first virtual conference focused on abusive partner intervention programming; featuring 23 thought leaders and practitioners from the field sharing lessons learned about developing, implementing, and facilitating trauma-informed and culturally responsive programming.
Governments across the country are shoring up responses to crime, rather than minimizing the need for these responses in the first place. Highlighting recent research and encouraging examples of innovation, this policy brief makes the case that community safety is part of community justice, and that public safety investment needs to be expanded "upstream," beyond the boundaries of the criminal legal system.
The Manhattan Misdemeanor Mental Health Court helps people with mental health issues and co-occurring disorders engage meaningfully in social services that seek to reduce their involvement in the justice system. Launched in March 2022, our team works with participants to craft meaningful and individualized responses to the myriad intersectional issues that people living with serious mental illness face. Simultaneously the team addresses treatment needs while considering the quality of life and public safety concerns of the community.
This fact sheet provides a brief description of the history, approach, and documented results of the Midtown Community Justice Center, one of the country's first problem-solving courts. It also gives an overview of the Justice Center's programming in areas such as social services, community engagement, and diversion programs.
Housing justice is a through line in the Center for Justice Innovation’s efforts to build safety and racial justice. In our new video, you’ll meet tenants, Center staff, and partners from the community and government working to prevent evictions, respond to tenant needs, and support access to safe, stable, and affordable housing.
In New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) houses, tenants regularly experience months without cooking gas, weeks without electricity, and days without heat. The NYCHA Utility Accountability Act is pending state legislation that advances racial justice by reducing tenant rent during utility outages and will provide much-needed relief for these disruptions to daily life. Learn more about the NYCHA Utility Accountability Act.
In collaboration with the Housing Solutions Lab at New York University’s Furman Center, this new report explores ways that actors in the justice system and housing agencies can partner to break the cycle of housing insecurity and system involvement. Using a national survey, practitioner interviews, and program assessments, the paper explores the innovative policies and programs and the keys to successful collaborations in this space.
To effectively address the problem of mass incarceration, prosecutors must adopt ways to respond to cases involving violence that don’t rely on jails and prisons. The "Prosecutors and Responses to Crimes of Violence: Notes from the Field" document offers in-depth case study findings and is intended as a tool for jurisdictions looking to expand alternative approaches to crimes of violence.
Researchers Lenore Lebron and Tia Pooler discuss their ongoing efforts to oversee the use of the CCAT in the field, including identifying trends, monitoring accuracy, and confirming responsiveness to associated populations. Tia and Lenore present recommendations for jurisdictions collecting and using their own data.
Arielle Freedman, Associate Director for Pretrial Clinical Practice at the Center for Justice Innovation, underscores the importance of using the CCAT interview as a starting point for building a foundation of trust and rapport with participants. She encourages practitioners to be responsive, person-centered, and aware of their own internal biases and projections in their work with participants.
