Justice System
Partners
About Us
JSP is a non-profit, multidisciplinary team committed to assisting criminal and juvenile legal systems and community partners with transforming their systems. We help our partners reimagine their work by combining rigorous research, technical assistance, and knowledge of evidence-informed strategies. We infuse creativity, innovation, and passion into our work, taking an integrated approach to system transformation to help our partners operationalize meaningful change.
Purpose
Our purpose is to transform criminal legal systems and the lives and communities those systems impact, changing justice systems to be more equitable, effective, and humane.
Values
Guided by our core values, we support system stakeholders in being courageous as they challenge the status quo. Among these values are the belief in the power of change; the importance of honest partnerships; and the need to advance equity across all the work we do. Explore all of JSP’s core values.
Voices
Our work is grounded in the communities we serve, as we believe the solutions to improving the safety and wellbeing of communities lie within the communities themselves. To that end, we center the voices of those who are impacted by the system in the work we do.
Pillars Guiding Our Work
We organize our work into four key pillars. The goal of these pillars is to eliminate the reach of the carceral state on people and communities, and to take care of people and staff impacted by involvement. At JSP, we acknowledge that structural racism exists both in society and within the criminal legal system. We also acknowledge an individual’s race, skin tone, gender, disability, sexuality, age, and income, and the intersection of these and other factors exacerbate the structural inequities they experience navigating the criminal legal system.
Keeping People Out of the System
Keeping People Out of the System
Getting People Who are in the System Out Quickly
Getting People Who are in the System Out Quickly
Centering People Who Remain in the System and Individualizing Services
Centering People Who Remain in the System and Individualizing Services
Caring For People Who Care For People Impacted by the System
Caring For People Who Care For People Impacted by the System
Where We Partner
While four pillars ground the topical areas of our work, each pillar’s goal is to strengthen communities through collaboration with local, multi-stakeholder work groups which include diverse perspectives and systematically include people impacted by the legal system. Our collaborations boldly identify inequities and co-create systemic change. Importantly, we believe the key to sustainable system change to reduce inequities and increase community wellbeing lies within each community and comes from community members themselves.
Resources
Equity in Action: A Tool to Action Plan through an Equity Lens
Understanding Court Absence and Reframing "Failure to Appear"
Examining the Impacts of Arrest Deflection Strategies on Jail Reduction Efforts
Meet Our Team
JSP’s talented board and staff bring practical experience, key competencies, and subject matter expertise to the work of transforming systems to better serve the public. We foster relationships across a broad network of scholars and practitioners in the field, and collaborate with these experts as needed to increase capacity based on the particular needs of each jurisdiction. Our collaborative approach nurtures engagement, belonging, respect, empathy, and trust.
Meet Our Board
Meet Our Staff
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