Our approach
How we’re working toward a more just system
1. Select partner jurisdictions
The United States does not have a single “criminal justice system,” but thousands of local, independent systems. Criminal justice reform requires working at the county and city levels, where the majority of criminal cases are handled. Making real change requires understanding local context and working closely with local partners to address each jurisdiction’s unique drivers of inequity. Justice Innovation Lab prioritizes working with jurisdictions that can serve as models for the rest of the country by seeking communities with: leaders committed to problem solving, sufficient quality and quantity of data, available community resources, and a significant challenge with widespread impact.
3. Understand the data
Justice Innovation Lab works with local partners to map existing justice system practices and procedures to identify unique challenges and opportunities for improvement. We assess these systems maps and analyze case-level data to identify and measure outcomes at key decision points in the criminal legal process, such as when a person is stopped, arrested, charged, dismissed, diverted, or sentenced. We measure disparities in outcomes to identify root causes of systemic inequalities and guide discussions with the jurisdiction on what and how to change.
2. Focus on decision-makers
Justice Innovation Lab partners with decision-makers who have the power to make impactful changes to the criminal legal system. We collaborate extensively with local prosecutors, who bring 95% of all criminal cases in the United States and have widespread authority and discretion to drive reforms. We also work with judges, police departments, health departments, and community organizations, as they each bring unique capabilities to foster positive change.
“We help criminal justice decision-makers think more broadly about what justice means.”
4. Drive innovation
Justice Innovation Lab integrates systems mapping, data analysis, and human-centered design to help our partners understand their jurisdiction as it is and imagine what it could be. To facilitate building a culture capable of sustaining data-informed progress over time, we lead workshops with multiple stakeholders inside and outside the justice system to set public safety priorities, improve data literacy, and identify system levers to improve outcomes. Our curriculum gives participants the opportunity to engage with concepts, perspectives, and community members that promote innovative ideas for change.
5. Build solutions
Redefining what it means to achieve justice requires new tools, new skills, and a more holistic approach to achieving safety. Justice Innovation Lab helps communities improve their justice systems by harnessing the power of data, facilitating values-driven decision-making, and building innovative solutions. We foster effective conversations on challenges facing the community, help stakeholders develop alternatives to existing practices, identify new metrics to measure what is important to the community, and assist jurisdictions in designing prototype solutions to identified problems in order to improve outcomes, reduce inequality, eliminate unnecessary incarceration, and offer alternatives to prosecution.
6. Implement change
After a jurisdiction has developed a promising alternative to existing practice, Justice Innovation Lab helps implement the change and measure its effectiveness based on chosen metrics. We use data analysis and human-centered feedback processes to assess success and identify potential improvements. We also work with jurisdictions to scale prototypes into fully-realized solutions, implement technical data solutions that create a sustainable process for extracting, cleaning, and returning data to allow for accurate analysis and decision-making, and share outcomes and learnings to inform and advance the field.
Download a copy of our Growth Prospectus.
