"We all have wisdom to share, and my role as facilitator is to create a safe enough space for those stories, reflections, and teachings to be shared." Alex Genty-Waksberg walks us through holding a restorative accountability group, focused on how to make relationships healthier and safer. ⤵️

What Do Restorative Responses to Domestic Violence Look Like? - Center for Justice Innovation

A practitioner shares his experience with Healing Connections, a restorative accountability group for people who have caused harm in their relationships.

innovatingjustice.org

Center leader Sherene Crawford recently moderated two post-screening conversations with those in custody on Rikers and the public, discussing history and hope with director Lynn Novick, Commissioner Stanley Richards, @earhustlesq.com journalist Rashaan Thomas, and Close Rikers Czar Dana Kaplan. ⤵️

At Rikers, Inmates See Themselves in a Film About America’s Jails

nytimes.com

We prevent violence by directly listening to those who experience it. For years, the Crisis Management System (CMS) has successfully reduced crime across our city by empowering trusted community leaders to mediate conflict and lower tensions before violence can occur.

Leading the Center’s national work to address intimate partner violence (IPV), Rebecca Thomforde has spent much of her career creating multiple pathways to safety and justice. We spoke with Rebecca for Domestic Violence Awareness Month about this approach and how it's evolved. ⤵️

Voices of Justice: Multiple Pathways to Healing from Intimate Partner Violence - Center for Justice Innovation

A conversation with Rebecca Thomforde on why addressing intimate partner violence is needed for community justice, how responses have shifted over the past three decades, and what the future of this w...

innovatingjustice.org

WEBINAR: Watch the recording of last week's housing and justice webinar to learn about successful examples of housing/justice system partnerships across the U.S. and what makes these cross-sector partnerships effective. ⤵️

Building Community Justice: Housing Strategies for Diversion and Re-Entry - Center for Justice Innovation

innovatingjustice.org

Why do some people succeed after prison while others struggle? 🗓️ Join us 10/29 at 12pm ET as the CCJ Women’s Justice Commission explores how parole & reentry systems can better respond to women’s needs and responsibilities: events.zoom.us/ev/AodbzKUs7... ⬇️

Beyond Recidivism: What We Know About Women on Parole

events.zoom.us

"Community safety and justice go hand in hand," @mayor.nyc.gov says, and that's why we're so pleased to see Chris Watler appointed as the new Chair of the Board of Correction. Chris' unwavering commitment to communities, justice, and NYC puts him in a unique position to finally close Rikers.

Mamdani names re-entry specialist as chair of Rikers oversight board

Christopher Watler will help the department that a federal monitor says remains in crisis.

gothamist.com

1 week to go! 📆 Register today: www.innovatingjustice.org/events/build...

Webinar Series: Building Community Justice - Center for Justice Innovation

Building Community Justice is a webinar series from the Center for Justice Innovation that brings together expert voices to explore the issues at the core of delivering sustainable safety and justice....

innovatingjustice.org

Center for Justice Innovation@innovatingjustice.bsky.social · last mo.

📆 New webinar 📆 Join us on Wednesday, October 14 to hear successful examples of housing/justice system partnerships and what makes these cross-sector partnerships effective. Register here. ⤵️

Building safety and justice together outside the courtroom is a critical step toward true public safety. We look forward to working with the courts, government leaders, and the local community to move this vision for the Staten Island Community Justice Center forward. ⤵️

Staten Island to get its ‘first-ever’ community justice center from $15 million state investment

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Staten Island is set to receive a permanent community justice center from a $15 million investment.

amny.com

Building safer communities and addressing intimate partner violence means creating “meaningful opportunities for those who cause harm to examine their behavior, understand its impact, and make safer choices,” writes Gene A. Johnson, associate director of our Supervised Release Program. ⤵️

This Relationship Education Program Begins with Awareness

What seven years of Tactics & Choices taught us, and why the program has a new name.

innovatingjustice.org

Our recent report showed that current enforcement of the pedicab industry “metes out too much punishment for drivers trying to follow the rules, and zero deterrence for those operating illegally,” Danielle Mindess, Director of our Manhattan Programs, tells @nytimes.com.

A Move to Quiet Down the Noisy Pedicabs of Midtown

Bills before the City Council would regulate the pedicabs, which often play loud songs outside theaters during performances.

nytimes.com

"What if we reimagined every stage of the justice system as an opportunity to stabilize someone’s housing rather than further undermine it?" Jessica Yager, who leads our Housing Justice Initiatives, asks in Governing's feature on how government's can implement bold ideas to solve big issues. ⤵️

GT_Governing Mag AWS Special Issue October 2026

Change Agents - The people, ideas and IT defining the future of government.

online.flippingbook.com

"No one should be evicted because they are waiting for paperwork to be processed," Viviana Gordon, deputy senior director of our Housing Justice Initiatives co-writes in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social with Oksana Mironova, director of housing policy at @cssnyorg.bsky.social.

Opinion: Now that CityFHEPS Fight is Over, Let's Make Sure Vouchers Work - City Limits

"A rental assistance program cannot prevent homelessness if administrative problems lead to the very evictions it was designed to avoid."

citylimits.org

“A rental assistance program cannot prevent homelessness if administrative problems lead to the very evictions it was designed to avoid.” Read the full op-ed featured in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social, by Oksana Mironova from @cssnyorg.bsky.social and Viviana Gordon from @innovatingjustice.bsky.social.

Opinion: Now that CityFHEPS Fight is Over, Let's Make Sure Vouchers Work - City Limits

"A rental assistance program cannot prevent homelessness if administrative problems lead to the very evictions it was designed to avoid."

citylimits.org

The justice and housing systems are confronted by people facing the same underlying problem: a lack of access to resources. Here's how we can forge more effective and lasting solutions for individuals, their families, and communities in this policy brief. ⤵️

Before Everything Falls Apart: A Call to Action at the Housing-Justice Nexus - Center for Justice Innovation

This policy brief focuses on frameworks for addressing people’s housing needs at the moments those needs interact with the criminal justice system. By bridging justice-system reform and housing policy...

innovatingjustice.org

📆 New webinar 📆 Join us on Wednesday, October 14 to hear successful examples of housing/justice system partnerships and what makes these cross-sector partnerships effective. Register here. ⤵️

Building Community Justice: Housing Strategies for Diversion and Re-Entry - Center for Justice Innovation

Join this webinar to learn about criminal courts, reentry programs, and jails partnering with housing organizations to address the needs of people coming through their doors. Leaders of programs acros...

innovatingjustice.org

The upcoming transformation of holding cells at the Midtown Community Justice Center is the latest stage of a longer evolution of community justice, our CEO Courtney Bryan reflects in a new article. ⤵️

The Evolution of Justice Through Holding Cells

The story of the holding cells at the Midtown Community Justice Center is the story of Community Justice.

innovatingjustice.org

Mental health courts and other diversion programs improve community safety and outcomes for people with serious mental illness. Despite efforts to expand the system, these programs don't exist in more than half of NYS counties. From @NYSFocus.com: buff.ly/g1eoeHu

In New York, Mental Health Diversion Depends on Your County

Half of New York counties lack mental health courts, limiting treatment-based alternatives to jail.

nysfocus.com

How can we prevent the harms of substance use, including the risk of overdose? Daliah Heller of @vitalstrategies.org explores how harm reduction provides us with tools and resources to help those struggling and prevent overdose. 🔗 Listen to the full episode. ⤵️ #EndOverdose #IOAD2026

Harm Reduction Is Doing Better Than You Think - Center for Justice Innovation

Harm reduction’s goals are straightforward: save lives and reduce the risks of drug use. Daliah Heller, now the Vice President of Overdose Prevention Initiatives at Vital Strategies, talks with host M...

innovatingjustice.org

Congratulations to the winner of the 2026 Inside Literary Prize, The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa, translated from the Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain. 🎉 Thank you to all of the judges and organizers for making this groundbreaking award possible.

Inside Literary Prize, Judged by Incarcerated Readers, Announces 2026 Winner

The winner of the ‘Inside Literary Prize,’ the nation’s only literary prize judged by incarcerated readers, has just been announced.

people.com

Building safer neighborhoods requires centering the people who know them best. ⤵️ Find all the recordings for our three-part webinar series exploring how communities can create safer environments and build long-term public safety.

Three-Part Webinar Series: Co-Designing Community Justice - Center for Justice Innovation

This three-part webinar series, which combines expertise from our new Community Justice Solutions and our established Neighborhood Safety Initiatives, explores how cities and communities can create sa...

innovatingjustice.org

Older adults who have ever been behind bars are expected to live nearly 6 fewer years than similar peers who have never been incarcerated. Mass incarceration is shaving years off people's lives:

Let's make pedicabs the safe, green, fun transportation alternative they should be, without overreliance on the justice system. 🚲 We're grateful to Council Member @galeabrewer.bsky.social for her commitment to addressing the issues we presented with our partners in a report this May.

NYC pedicab bill looks to pump the brakes on rides that can cost tourists $1K

The City Council legislation would move regulation to the Taxi and Limousine Commission and require meters after 172 complaints last year.

gothamist.com

Mental health courts—like the one we run in Brooklyn with New York courts—are a vital alternative to incarceration for people with serious mental illness. But even as New York expands access to these courts, success requires more than diversion alone. Find out more in @nysfocus.com.

In New York, Mental Health Diversion Depends on Your County

Half of New York counties lack mental health courts, limiting treatment-based alternatives to jail.

nysfocus.com

"We should not be defining people by their worst decisions." Twyla Carter shares how her experience as a public defender, advocate, and now CEO of @legalaidnyc.bsky.social has helped her reimagine justice in NYC. Read the full interview today. ⤵️

Voices of Justice: Twyla Carter on Driving Systemic Change

A conversation with Twyla Carter, Attorney-in-Chief and CEO of The Legal Aid Society, on what it takes to transform the justice system.

innovatingjustice.org

🌿 Public spaces thrive because of groups like yours. Help count, map, and connect public space stewardship across the NY-NJ region. 🌱 Take the Public Space Partners Survey: https://nyu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9KtNTDNwt1xKRZY

“Diversion is just the off-ramp from the criminal justice system. But recovery is a lifelong process,” Ruth O’Sullivan, our senior director of clinical practice, tells @elizafawcett.bsky.social for @nysfocus.com. ⤵️

In New York, Mental Health Diversion Depends on Your County

Half of New York counties lack mental health courts, limiting treatment-based alternatives to jail.

nysfocus.com

Across NYC, Community-Based Restorative Justice Initiative orgs are using restorative justice to create connections, healing & long-term safety. How we're working with Getting Out and Staying Out, @innovatingjustice.bsky.social, and NYC Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice to do it: buff.ly/zrDy4RJ

What comes before safety? Accountability, connection, stability. For many, that begins with restorative justice. — CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance (ISLG)

Last year, around 2,000 people entered and were released from NYC’s jails every month. Tens of thousands more were redirected to community programs. The breadth of these systems ask: How do public…

islg.cuny.edu

Reducing jail populations *doesn't* threaten public safety. ⤵️ Jurisdictions implementing Safety and Justice Challenge strategies reduced jail populations without increasing crime, recorded a decline in recidivism, and saw shorter jail stays were linked to better outcomes. 📄 Revisit the report. ⤵️

The Impact of Jail Reduction Strategies on Community Safety: Findings from Two Safety & Justice Challenge Sites - Safety and Justice Challenge

Browse or search our library of research, data, and resources for the latest information on all aspects of local criminal justice reform—from racial disparities to women in jails to mental health.

safetyandjusticechallenge.org

Harm reduction is an approach to substance use that saves lives and is backed by data that it works. The reality of harm reduction on the ground is often complex—but the philosophy itself isn't the problem. Instead, where issues arise are with the mechanics of making policy work in practice. 🧵

The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 3mo ago

Giving addicts clean needles and safe places to inject was supposed to save lives, Michael Powell writes. Instead, it created a “zombie apocalypse”: