The Center for Court Innovation, with the support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, has embarked on a multi-faceted inquiry designed to analyze failure in criminal justice reform. The Center is examining efforts to improve the criminal justice system that did not achieve the results that were intended in an attempt to promote innovation going forward.  At its heart, this is an effort to shift the way criminal justice agencies perceive failure, from a stigmatizing and wholly negative force to a necessary companion and contributor to success.

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Jeremy Travis, President, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
John Jay College of Criminal Justice President Jeremy Travis, who helped launch a national discussion about the challenges of prisoner reentry, discusses the role that openness about failure can play in advancing criminal justice reform.

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Four Causes of Failure
Not all failures are alike. The Center for Court Innovation has identified four different kinds of failure: failure of concept/premise (i.e., "a bad idea"); failure of implementation (i.e., "poor execution"); failure to manage "power dynamics" (such as "big-p" and "little-p" politics, funding realities, and inter-agency cultural conflict); and failure to engage in self-reflection (such as failing to make mid-course adjustments or recognize the early warning signs of trouble). Click here to read more about the four kinds of failure.

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A roundtable on failure was held at the Center's headquarters in Midtown Manhattan

Practitioners Find Lessons in Failure
In January 2007, the Center for Court Innovation and the Bureau of Justice Assistance convened an all-day roundtable on failure, facilitated by Harvard's Frank Hartmann, at the Center for Court Innovation's headquarters in midtown Manhattan. The goal was to discuss concrete examples of criminal justice failures and identify potential lessons. An edited transcript from the roundtable appears in the Journal for Court Innovation.