Traditional law enforcement approaches have shown limited effectiveness, prompting development of community violence interventions (CVIs) that target highrisk individuals through holistic programming. Project Restore (PR), a 12-month CVI serving 30 men from two rival street crews, achieved notable success with all participants completing the program without new arrests for violent acts and the community experiencing a 28% greater than expected reduction in shooting incidents. This study examines how PR influenced participants’ social networks to better understand potential mechanisms underlying these violence reduction outcomes. Read here.
Project Restore Bed-Stuy (PRB), a gang-violence intervention pilot program, concluded in January 2024. This report summarizes the key learning and evaluation findings of PRB, from January 2023–June 2024. Read here.
This report reveals how New York City jails continue to inflict solitary confinement on people in its custody, in violation of state law and local regulations, with devastating and deadly consequences. Read more here
New York's New Death Penalty compiles and analyzes data on in-custody deaths in New York State between 1976 and 2020 and offers policy recommendations for curtailing the number of deaths behind bars. Read more here.
A fiscal analysis of pending justice reforms in 2021 in New York State finds that implementing them would collectively save and/or generate an estimated $1.52 billion for the state annually. Read more here.
This dissertation by former CfJ Director of Programs Cameron Rasmussen explores forces that promote and hinder accountability-taking within the carceral system through interviews with 11 formerly incarcerated men. Read more here
The National Executive Council at the Center for Justice partnered with The CUNY Graduate Center to highlight structural incarceration and found that incarceration rates in New York City census tracts with public housing developments outstrip the incarceration rates in census tracts without public housing, even though crime rates are equivalent. Read more here
Columbia University’s Center for Justice, with Release Aging People in Prison/ RAPP, the Correctional Association of New York, the Osborne Association, the Be the Evidence Project/Fordham University, and the Florence V. Burden Foundation, coordinated a symposium in Spring of 2014 to discuss the rapidly growing population of elderly and aging people in prison. A series of papers emerged from the symposium. Together, they provide a rich overview and analysis of aging people in prison from some of the best thinkers in this field. Read more here.