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 and innovation in criminal justice reform. 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.
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 was published in The Journal for Court Innovation and can be found here. In addition, staff from the Center have spoken at national conferences on the subject of failure, including appearances at the Urban Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Hunter College, Baruch College, National Association of Drug Court Professionals, the National Association for Court Management, the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Connecticut Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Division.