The W. Haywood Burns Institute is a left-of-center nonprofit organization which calls for far-left criminal justice and public service policy implementation to dismantle alleged “structural racism” in the United States. The Institute has called for an end to race-blind policymaking in the criminal justice system and called for increased government funding for social services in ethnic and racial minority communities. ¹ The W. Haywood Burns Institute is based in the city of Oakland, California. ²

History

The W. Haywood Burns Institute was founded by its current president James Bell in 2001 ³ and initially started out as a project of the Youth Law Center, a left-of-center public interest law firm that works in foster care and the juvenile justice system to implement left-of-center policy. ⁴ The center has called for banning group foster care homes and barring children in foster care who commit crimes from being incarcerated. ⁵

The W. Haywood Burns Institute became an independent organization in 2003 after a rapid expansion of its work in policy advocacy and community organizing. ⁶

Activities

The W. Haywood Burns Institute operates programs designed to promote left-of-center criminal justice and social policies in low-income communities of color.

Community Justice Network for Youth

The institute operates the Community Justice Network for Youth (CJNY), which is a national network of over 125 organizations, advocacy groups, residential facilities, community-based programs, and community service providers that work to implement left-of-center, youth-oriented criminal justice policies in poor communities of color. ⁷

CJNY in turn runs the Transformative Schools Network, a group of organizations pushing for left-of-center education policy including increased government services in schools; provides curriculum that promotes a left-of-center understanding of the juvenile justice system; and creates task forces to promote its preferred policy solutions. ^{8 9 10}

CJNY features left-of-center organizations. These include Lambda Legal, the Vera Institute for Justice, the Arab American Action Network, the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP), and the far-left Black Youth Project 100 (BYP 100). ¹¹

Credible Messenger Mentoring Movement (CM3)

The Credible Messenger Mentoring Movement (CM3) is another one of the institute’s initiatives that works toward advancing left-of-center criminal justice policy goals through community-led initiatives. ¹²

CM3 calls on communities to implement two programs to advance its policy goals. First, CM3 calls for the establishment of a “national credible corps” to mentor and recruit “cadres” of local criminal justice activists and connect them with local law enforcement agencies. Second, CM3 advocates for the development of a training and technical assistance consultancy to assist communities in working with such credible corps organizations and implementing left-of-center criminal justice policies. ¹³

Research and Databases

In addition to running its grassroots initiatives, the W. Haywood Burns Institute often publishes reports discussing alleged racial and ethnic disparities throughout nation. ¹⁴ One 2009 report, entitled “Keeper and the Kept: Reflections on Local Obstacles to Disparities Reduction in Juvenile Justice Systems and a Path to Change,” explores alleged local obstacles to reducing racial disparities in the juvenile justice system and provides a number of approaches for changing the system. ¹⁵

Written in 2009 by James Bell, Michael Finley, Clinton Lacey, and Laura John Ridolfi, the report calls for governments to create jurisdictional assessments, developing work plans, form a governing collaborative with community input on criminal justice decisions, establish consistent meetings, and collect increased criminal justice data to inform policy decisions. ¹⁶

The institute also developed and hosts a tool called the “United States of Disparities.” The tool allows users to carry out f customizable searches that purports to show racial and ethnic disparities in incarceration in every state across the nation, using data acquired from the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. ¹⁷

Funding

The W. Haywood Burns Institute has received donations from numerous major left-of-center funding outfits such as the Ford Foundation, Liberty Hill, Reissa Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, and the Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing. ¹⁸ In 2003, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation awarded a 3-year, $200,000 grant to the W. Haywood Burns Institute in the area of education. ¹⁹

The Atlantic Philanthropies is an organization from which the institute received 2 grants totaling $600,000. ²⁰ The first grant was the $350,000 Project Support: Eliminating Pathways to the Juvenile Justice System grant, which Atlantic Philanthropies awarded to the Institute in 2009 for an 18-month term. ²¹ In 2014, the institute received a second, $250,000 grant from Atlantic Philanthropies for the Discipline Disproportionally Project. ²²

The MacArthur Foundation is one the W. Haywood Burns Institute’s largest supporters, providing the organization with $6.41 million in funding between 2006 and 2019 to fund projects in juvenile justice and criminal justice. The institute was also a recipient of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. ²³

In 2013, the W.K Kellogg Foundation provided the W. Haywood Burns Institute with a $150,000 grant to fund projects to create “equitable communities.” ²⁴

People

James Bell is the founding president of the W. Haywood Burns Institute. He has attended California State Polytechnic University, Hastings College of Law, and Pomona College. He has consulted with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and has worked on the administration of the South African youth justice system with the country’s governing African National Congress party. ²⁵

1. “What We Do.” Burns Institute. Accessed July 6, 2021. https://burnsinstitute.org/what-we-do/
2. “W Haywood Burns Institute.” Nonprofit and Charity Reviews and Ratings | Donate, Volunteer, and Review | GreatNonprofits. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://greatnonprofits.org/org/w-haywood-burns-institute.
3.  “W. Haywood Burns – Burns Institute.” Burns Institute – Burns Institute. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://burnsinstitute.org/w-haywood-burns/.
4. “YOUTH LAW CENTER – GuideStar Profile.” GuideStar Nonprofit Reports and Forms 990 for Donors, Grantmakers, and Businesses. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/94-1715280.
5. “What We Do.” YLC. Youth Law Center. Accessed July 6, 2021. https://www.ylc.org/what-we-do/.
6. “W. Haywood Burns Institute, Community Justice Network for Youth, 200101928.01.” Mott Foundation. Last modified July 20, 2020. https://www.mott.org/grants/w-haywood-burns-institute-community-justice-network-for-youth-200101928-01/.
7. “What We Do: Services.” Burns Institute. Accessed July 6, 2021. https://burnsinstitute.org/what-we-do/#services.
8. “We Mobilize.” Community Justice Network for Youth. Accessed July 6, 2021. https://cjny.network/we-mobilize/.
9. “We Support.” Community Justice Network for Youth. Accessed July 6, 2021. https://cjny.network/we-support/.
10. “We Engage.” Community Justice Network for Youth. Accessed July 6, 2021. https://cjny.network/we-engage/.
11. “Member Organizations.” Community Justice Network for Youth. Accessed July 6, 2021. https://cjny.network/about-us/cjny-members/.
12. “What We Do – Burns Institute.” Burns Institute – Burns Institute. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://burnsinstitute.org/what-we-do/#services.
13. “What We Do – Burns Institute.” Burns Institute – Burns Institute. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://burnsinstitute.org/what-we-do/#services.
14. “Resources – Burns Institute.” Burns Institute – Burns Institute. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://burnsinstitute.org/resources/.
15. “Keeper and the Kept: Reflections on Local Obstacles to Disparities Reduction in Juvenile Justice Systems and a Path to Change.” Office of Justice Programs. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://www.ojp.gov/library/abstracts/keeper-and-kept-reflections-local-obstacles-disparities-reduction-juvenile.
16. “Keeper and the Kept: Reflections on Local Obstacles to Disparities Reduction in Juvenile Justice Systems and a Path to Change.” Office of Justice Programs. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://www.ojp.gov/library/abstracts/keeper-and-kept-reflections-local-obstacles-disparities-reduction-juvenile.
17. United States of Disparities. “United States of Disparities.” United States of Disparities. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://usdata.burnsinstitute.org/#comparison=2&placement=1&races=2,3,4,5,6&offenses=5,2,8,1,9,11,10&year=2017&view=map.
18. “Who We Are – Burns Institute.” Burns Institute – Burns Institute. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://burnsinstitute.org/who-we-are/.
19. “W. Haywood Burns Institute, Community Justice Network for Youth.” Mott Foundation, July 20, 2020. https://www.mott.org/grants/w-haywood-burns-institute-community-justice-network-for-youth-200101928-01/
20. “The W. Haywood Burns Institute | Atlantic Philanthropies.” The Atlantic Philanthropies. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/grantees/the-w-haywood-burns-institute.
21. “Project Support: Eliminating Pathways to the Juvenile Justice System | Atlantic Philanthropies.” The Atlantic Philanthropies. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/grants/project-support-eliminating-pathways-to-the-juvenile-justice-system.
22. “Discipline Disproportionality Project | Atlantic Philanthropies.” The Atlantic Philanthropies. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/grants/discipline-disproportionality-project.
23. “W. Haywood Burns Institute.” MacArthur Foundation – MacArthur Foundation. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://www.macfound.org/grantee/w-haywood-burns-institute-40362/.
24. “W. Haywood Burns Institute.” W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Accessed February 18, 2022. https://www.wkkf.org/grants/grant/2013/06/w-haywood-burns-institute-p3022917.
25. “James Bell – Burns Institute.” Burns Institute – Burns Institute. Accessed February 19, 2021. https://burnsinstitute.org/staff/james-bell/.