Logo for InfluenceWatch InfluenceWatch

Donate
Other Group

Crime and Justice Institute (CJI)

Website:

www.cjinstitute.org/
Location:

Boston, MA
Type:

Left-of-Center Criminal Justice
President & CEO:

Spurgeon Kennedy

Contact InfluenceWatch with suggested edits or tips for additional profiles.

The Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) is a left-of-center criminal justice research and advocacy organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. The institute works with federal, state, and local police and correctional institutions to reduce prison populations, reduce recidivism, aid reentry of criminals into society, and promote racial equity.

Parent Organization

The Crime and Justice Institute is a division of Community Resources for Justice (CRJ), 1 a charitable organization based in Boston, Massachusetts that advocates for policy and supports programs to promote safety, justice, and inclusion. 2 Other divisions of CRJ include Social Justice Services, devoted to aiding those transition out of prison, and Community Strategies, which supports adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. 3

Activities

The Crime and Justice Institute claims to provide nonpartisan policy analysis, consulting services, research, and technical assistance to influence the criminal justice system and improve public safety in America. 4 CJI does this through assessing correctional systems, developing policy, building the capacity and implementation capabilities or functions of the criminal justice system, researching and evaluating criminal justice issues, conducting risk and need assessments, and collecting data. 5

CJI often promotes left-of-center criminal justice goals, including reducing the prison population, 6 increasing female representation among police officers, 7 and auditing the perceived racial bias within correctional systems. 8 CJI also operates based on left-wing values like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and racial equity instead of racial equality. 9

Focus Areas

Crime and Justice Institute has eight focus areas. 10

The first focus area is corrections, where CJI has a cooperative agreement with the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance to work with state correctional agencies to reform housing practices, coordinates with the National Institute of Corrections to provide training for corrections departments and jail systems, and more. 11

The second focus area is called the Justice Reinvestment Initiative with the goal to reduce recidivism, promote the more efficient use of criminal justice resources, and promote better outcomes for rehabilitated criminals. Under this initiative, CJI claims credit for reducing prison populations in Nevada, Utah, and South Carolina. 12

The third focus area is measuring performance, where CJI attempts to accurately measure the effectiveness of criminal justice programs. 13

The fourth focus area is policing, where CJI coordinates with a variety of federal, state, and local police and sheriff organizations, as well as outside nonprofits like the Charles Koch Foundation, to promote what it calls “constitutional policing standards.” 14

The fifth focus area is pretrial justice, where CJI provides risk assessments on pre-trial release and supervision and alternatives to detention for those facing trial. 15

The sixth focus area is probation and parole, where CJI works with local correctional programs to reform probation and parole programs for released criminals, including instituting “graduated response programs” using a mixture of sanctions and incentives in response to those released from correctional facilities. 16

The seventh focus area is reentry, where CJI provides support for those released from prison and to their families to reduce recidivism. 17

The eighth focus area is youth justice, where CJI attempts to improve the youth justice system and offers training and technical assistance for local, regional, and tribal jurisdictions attempting to implement the Second Chance Act, a bill signed into law in 2008 to reduce recidivism. 18

People

The Crime and Justice Institute is led by Spurgeon Kennedy, 19 the vice president of the organization. 20 Kennedy previously worked as the program director of the Justice Management Institute, 21 a left-of-center criminal justice focused organization devoted to “systemic” and “equitable” change. 22

References

  1. “CJI: Crime and Justice Institute.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/.
  2. “Who We Are.” Community Resources for Justice. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.crj.org/who-we-are/.
  3.  “Who We Are.” Community Resources for Justice. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.crj.org/who-we-are/.
  4.  “What We Do.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-work/.
  5. “How We Do Our Work.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/how-we-do-our-work/.
  6. “Crime and Justice Institute Tweet 1:54 pm, May 30, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://twitter.com/CJIatCRJ/status/1663619875527335936.
  7. “Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Perspectives of Women in Policing.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/publication/las-vegas-metropolitan-police-department-perspectives-of-women-in-policing/.
  8. Duluth MN Police Tweet 8:47 am, August 8, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://twitter.com/DuluthMNPolice/status/1689272100475867136.
  9. “About.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/about/.
  10. “What We Do.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-work/.
  11. “Corrections.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-work/corrections/.
  12. “Justice Reinvestment initiative.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-work/justice-reinvestment-initiative/.
  13. “Measure Performance. Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-work/measuring-performance/.
  14. “Policing.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-work/policing/.
  15. “Pretrial Justice.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-work/pretrial-justice/.
  16. “Probation and Parole.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-work/probation-and-parole/
  17. “Reentry.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-work/reentry/
  18. “Youth Justice,” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-work/juvenile-justice/.
  19. Crime and Justice Institute Tweet 3:04 pm, October 18, 2022. Twitter. Accessed September 12,2023. https://twitter.com/CJIatCRJ/status/158246265541920358409.
  20. “Our Team.” Crime and Justice Institute. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.cjinstitute.org/our-team/.
  21. “Spurgeon Kennedy.” LinkedIn. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/spurgeon-kennedy-50532b76/.
  22. “Our Work.” JMI. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://jmijustice.org/our-work/.
  See an error? Let us know!

Crime and Justice Institute (CJI)


Boston, MA