Diversion

We seek to provide meaningful off-ramps at various stages of the criminal justice process in order to achieve better outcomes for arrestees.

These off-ramps include diverting people from traditional sentencing—and, in some cases, formal case processing—into community-based interventions. The goal is to reduce crime, incarceration, and the collateral consequences of justice-involvement. We offer responses to law-breaking behavior that are proportionate, that emphasize accountability, and that connect participants with social services to reduce the probability of future offending.

Examples of this work include Midtown Community Court, Red Hook Community Justice Center, Newark Community Solutions, Bronx Community Solutions, Brooklyn Justice Initiatives, and Project Reset. Many of these programs have been documented to reduce the use of jail by increasing the availability of meaningful alternatives, including community restitution and social services. Together, our programs divert close to 20,000 people every year from conventional processing and sentencing.

In addition to operating our programs, we have also provided research and strategic support to the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform which laid out a series of reforms to cut the city’s jail population in half in coming years. And we’re engaged in two ambitious national justice-reform initiatives: The MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, and The Price of Justice, a program of the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Our research department conducts evaluations of programs taking place across the country, including a recent series of reports on national police- and prosecutor-led initiatives.

Initiatives

Brooklyn Mental Health Court

The Brooklyn Mental Health Court offers community-based treatment in lieu of incarceration to defendants with serious mental health diagnoses.
Brooklyn Treatment Court

The Brooklyn Treatment Court links nonviolent, substance-abusing defendants to drug treatment as an alternative to incarceration.
Brooklyn Young Adult Court

The Brooklyn Young Adult Court seeks to provide meaningful alternatives to conventional prosecution for young people, ages 16 to 24, charged with misdemeanors.
MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge

The MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge seeks to reduce over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails.
Project Reset

Project Reset is a diversion program that seeks to forge a new response to low-level offending that is proportionate, effective, and humane.
Rethinking Rikers Island

By providing support to the Independent Commission on Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, we're aiding in the effort to reduce New York City’s jail population and close Rikers Island.
Supervised Release

The Supervised Release Program seeks to reduce the number of people held in jail simply because they cannot afford bail.

Publications & Digital Media

Audio
Prosecutor Power #4: Kim Foxx, Rooted in Humanity

by Matthew Watkins

Kim Foxx's unexpected 2016 victory in the race for State's Attorney for Cook County (Chicago) helped to ignite the movement to elect prosecutors promising something other than being "tough on crime." As part of our series on prosecutor power, Foxx explains the reforms she’s put in place, her struggles with being the face of a system that continues to fail so many of her constituents, and offers her take on the “incredible” gains made by the movement to elect a new kind of prosecutor.

Addressing Racial Disparities, Bail Reform, Diversion, Reducing Trauma
Audio
Rikers: An American Jail

by Matthew Watkins

Highlights from a public screening and panel discussion of Bill Moyers's 'Rikers: An American Jail,' moderated by New Thinking host, Matt Watkins. Commenting on the film and the future of criminal justice reform are Tina Luongo of the Legal Aid Society, Jill Harris of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, and two of the people formerly held on Rikers featured in the film: Barry Campbell of the Fortune Society, and Johnny Perez of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

Community Justice, Diversion, Reentry
Book
Start Here: A Road Map to Reducing Mass Incarceration

by Greg Berman and Julian Adler

Written by Greg Berman, director of the Center for Court Innovation, and Julian Adler, director of policy and research, Start Here from the New Press offers a road map of concrete actions to reduce the number of people sent to jail and prison, highlighting key lessons from successful programs across the country.

Bail Reform, Community Justice, Diversion, Reducing Violence, Risk Assessment

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News

Benevolence at the Bench

October 31, 2018
US News & World Report

From our partner court in Olympia, Washington, to our Midtown Community Court in Manhattan, US News & World Report profiles the many advances in community justice across the country, calling the Center for Court Innovation the "nonprofit engine of the community court movement."
A Common-Sensical Vision of Criminal-Justice Reform

October 18, 2018
The New York Times

Sam Roberts includes our book, Start Here: A Road Map to Reducing Mass Incarceration, in his fall reading roundup.
Scottish Justice Reformers Draw Lessons From Red Hook, Brooklyn

October 12, 2018
The Scotsman

As Scotland looks to reduce its use of incarceration and improve outcomes for the justice-involved, a report on the recent visit and testimony before Parliament of our director, Greg Berman, and the inspiration reformers there are taking from our Red Hook Community Justice Center.

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