CJII: Strengthening Communities Through Investment

Challenge:

Over the past year, New York City and the nation have confronted the crises of COVID-19, racial inequality, and rising gun violence. It’s never been more clear that transforming our justice system requires significant investment in the communities most harmed by historical divestment and disparate law enforcement practices. Yet these forces are nothing new; the issues of fairness and efficiency in the criminal justice system—and how partnerships between the community and law enforcement could enhance them—has long been recognized as an area of opportunity. In 2014, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. envisioned innovation in the form of reinvestment of law enforcement dollars into strategic community projects that would improve public safety, develop broad crime prevention efforts, and promote a fair, efficient justice system in New York City. To that end, he established the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative (CJII) to invest approximately $250 million of criminal asset forfeiture funds over six years, and through a competitive request for proposals chose ISLG to provide technical assistance through the investment process and oversight support for the Initiative’s funds and grantees.

Approach:

With the goals of CJII central to our values, ISLG endeavored to create a blueprint for the initiative’s investment in community-based programming, guided by three principles: commitment to data-driven decision making, commitment to sustainable investments, and collaboration across sectors. ISLG began with a community audit and consultation process across New York City to identify areas of need and opportunity in the city’s criminal justice and community infrastructure, in order to target investment toward gaps that could be filled with strategic partnerships. That process resulted in the creation of a Strategic Plan that provides a comprehensive, forward-looking approach to improving public safety for all New Yorkers, with investments across a continuum: crime prevention, supporting access to justice for survivors of crime, and increasing diversion and reentry options. 

Those targeted outcomes are supported by three coordinated portfolios of investment:

• Supporting Youth and Families. Investments in this category include the Youth Opportunity Hubs initiative, a partnership with city youth-serving programs—CJII’s single largest investment; a foster youth-to-adulthood program; and the pilot Community Navigators program that matches individuals with community and social service resources. 

• Supporting Survivors of Crime. Investments here include initiatives to increase survivor access to services; a Trauma-Informed Abusive Partner Intervention Program; a Center for Trauma Innovation; and a Child and Youth Sex Trafficking Intervention Program.

• Diversion and Reentry Support. These investments span a range of reentry supports, services, and innovations such as the College-in-Prison Reentry Program, which funds college programming and academic reentry services at 17 New York State prisons over five years.

Across the initiative, ISLG manages the solicitation and contracting process, provides guidance to award recipients, and offers capacity-building, oversight, and performance measurement. ISLG also manages independent evaluations for 33 of the CJII grantees.

Progress:

To date, more than 25,000 New Yorkers have received crucial services as a result of CJII investments in transformative projects that strengthen and support the city’s youth, families, and communities. The CJII community has expanded to 52 grantees and 90+ subcontractor organizations including nonprofits, social enterprises, hospitals and colleges/universities. We support that community and build organizational capacity through training and technical assistance—including peer-driven group sessions and individualized consulting to grantees—to promote long-term sustainability. CJII now offers a roadmap for civic leaders and investors seeking to enhance public safety by cultivating partnerships and leveraging existing strengths within communities. Early outcomes from our programs have helped to raise the profile of justice reinvestment strategies and demonstrate that investing in community-based and grassroots organizations can build lasting change.

Learn more from the CJII 2020 Annual Report or contact Siobhán Carney, Policy Director, at Siobhan.Carney@islg.cuny.edu for more information.