JIL @ GW Law

What would it look like to redesign the criminal legal system?

Justice Innovation Lab (JIL) and The George Washington University Law School launched a first-of-its- kind partnership – JIL@GW – to answer this question. 

At JIL@GW, students work alongside legal practitioners, data scientists, researchers, and human-centered design specialists to tackle the justice system’s most pressing and complex problems. JIL@GW helps communities improve justice system outcomes, using real-world criminal justice data, systems-thinking, and human-centered design.

JIL’s first-of-its-kind project integrates three components  – experiential course work, quantitative and legal research, and multi-stakeholder convenings – in service of solving problems identified by communities around the U.S. JIL@GW is building the evidence base for what a more fair and effective justice system could look like.

Read more about JIL’s partnership with GW Law and the research projects conducted by GW Law students. Download a JIL@GW Overview to learn more.

JIL@GW Experiential Course

Our 3-credit seminar course at GW Law allows students to learn through action. Students think critically about the criminal legal system, while simultaneously helping solve real-world justice problems. The syllabus includes disciplines not typically taught in law school, such as systems-thinking, project management, statistics, storytelling, teambuilding, and human-centered design. Nearly 80 law students have now participated in the JIL@GW course. The course is ready to be scaled to support our partner academic institutions, which would enable us to assist more jurisdictions.

Research

JIL@GW’s quantitative and qualitative research focuses on criminal justice innovations to evaluate whether community-driven reforms are achieving their objectives.  

Our first law review article, “Prosecutors in the Passing Lane: Racial Disparities, Public Safety, and Prosecutorial Declinations of Pretextual Stops,” was published in the San Diego Law Review in Spring 2024. This article describes how a policy to reduce nonpublic safety pretextual traffic stops reduced inequitable treatment without adversely impacting public safety.

Our second article, “The Prosecutorial Paradox: How Race-Neutral Prosecution Drives Racial Inequality and How to Fix It,” will be submitted in 2024.

JIL@GW faculty Jared Fishman and Jarvis Idowu lead a panel conversation on police accountability and data-informed justice reform.

FAQs

Convenings

Each year, JIL@GW hosts workshops and expert panel discussions to grapple with the most pressing justice issues of our time. JIL@GW convenes diverse voices from across the criminal legal system, government, and academia to improve justice system outcomes. Topics include innovations in prosecution, racial disparities in incarceration, forming authentic community partnerships, police accountability, and artificial intelligence.

  • The class drop/add window for the Fall 2024 semester is August 25-September 5.

  • 6378-10 Selected Topics in Crim. Law

  • No! We’ll teach you everything you need to know. As a former student shared, “Don't worry if you don't have a statistics background -- all you need is even the slightest enthusiasm about rethinking the status quo of the criminal justice system.”

  • Jared Fishman, JIL’s Executive Director and course instructor, will be happy to answer your questions. He can be reached at: jared.fishman@justiceinnovationlab.org.

What former students are saying

“This is an excellent and unique course like nothing else at GW. It was an extremely fulfilling experience and reminded me why I came to law school.”

“TAKE THIS CLASS. You won't get anything else like this experience in law school. Every class was not only extremely informative, but you leave class with a new energy towards and desire for criminal justice reform.”

“I learned and developed practical skills and I know I will be a better lawyer ( and human being ) after taking this class. I got way more experience with real-life lawyers and professionals in the legal field ( via interviews ) than a lot of my internships and especially in comparison to other law school courses.”

“It’s probably the most creative class I’ve ever taken—the kind of course that has the ability to help facilitate a new wave of innovative law students.”

“It’s easily my favorite class in law school and would recommend it to everyone. It’s so unique because our projects are solving real problems in real jurisdictions.”

“Take it! One of the only hands-on classes you will get in law school. You get to go out into the real world and speak to people in the criminal justice system and tackle real problems.”