RESOURCES
Knowledge Center
Outcomes, discoveries, and analysis from our breadth of good governance initiatives.
“I Want To Be The Help That I Never Received”: Barriers to BIPOC Representation in the Helping Professions & Recommendations to Address Them
CUNY ISLG embarked on a process to understand the barriers to becoming a helping professional generally and in particular for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) persons, as well as challenges faced while working and advancing as one.
[From Our Partners] Build-Out of Student Services Report: Findings from the Process Evaluation
In 2019, College and Community Fellowship (CCF) received CJII funding to launch the Build-Out of Student Services (BOSS) project, which provides reentry programming based in New York City that develops education and career skills specifically among formerly incarcerated women.
[From Our Partners] A Community-Focused Approach to Addressing Trauma: Lessons Learned from the Center for Trauma Innovation
This brief showcases how learning communities can be used to support innovation, growth, and collaboration among organizations working toward shared outcomes. The Center for Trauma Innovation, a CJII-funded project, is used as a case study.
Expanding Opportunities for Education & Employment for College Students in Prison
CIP funded seven colleges and universities to deliver college instruction across 17 prisons in New York from Fall 2017 through Spring 2022. CUNY ISLG conducted a multiyear process evaluation of the Initiative to assess its implementation
Turning Local Data into Meaningful Reforms
In its eighth year, the SJC now supports a diverse network of more than 57 cities, counties, and states across the country in developing and implementing decarceration strategies. This report breaks down its the data-driven model of criminal justice reform, including what kinds of data were captured, how data were mobilized for change, and lessons learned when using administrative data for policy design and evaluation.
[From Our Partners] Programs for Foster Youth Transitioning to Adulthood Evaluation
Graham Windham’s “Graham SLAM (Support, Lead, Achieve, Model)” and The Door’s “Academy” offer New York City foster youth transitioning to adulthood personalized support through mentorship, coaching, and youth-driven services.
[From Our Partners] Redefining Community Safety in Three US Counties
Research has uncovered that community safety cannot be treated in a one-size-fits-all manner, and conversations about safety should be locally oriented, bearing in mind the unique local contexts and nuances.
[From Our Partners] The NYC Health Justice Network Recidivism Evaluation Study
The study found a strong, significant, and consistent effect of college participation on reducing new convictions following release. Participation in this form of postsecondary education reduced reconviction by at least 66 percent.
[From Our Partners] The Impacts of College-in-Prison Participation on Safety and Employment in New York State
The study found a strong, significant, and consistent effect of college participation on reducing new convictions following release. Participation in this form of postsecondary education reduced reconviction by at least 66 percent.
[From Our Partners] Evaluation of the West Harlem Community Reentry and Restoration Project
The West Harlem Community Reentry and Restoration Project (WHCRRP) is an initiative funded under CJII in response to the June 2014 law enforcement intervention that led to the arrest and indictment of 103 individuals living in the Manhattanville and Grant public housing developments and surrounding areas.
Reform in Action: Findings and Recommendations from a 3-Year Process Evaluation of New York's 2020 Criminal Legal Reforms
The evaluation, which covered all four of the key areas of reform, aimed not just to document what the rollout looked like, but also to understand the factors and circumstances that facilitated or hindered success. Importantly, it centered the perspectives of those closest to the process—namely, administrators, practitioners, direct service providers, and people involved with the criminal legal system.
Reform in the Media: Analyzing How Local Media Covered New York’s Criminal Legal Reform Narrative
Our findings suggest that media coverage of the reforms lacked details about the legislation’s purpose and specific changes to the pretrial process, disproportionately focused on perspectives that were critical of the legislation, and emphasized the perceived negative impacts to community safety.
Reform in Action: Fact Sheets on Initial Findings by Area
To examine how criminal legal system agencies put these reforms into practice, ISLG , through support from Arnold Ventures, is conducting a process evaluation of these implementation efforts through combination of interviews, focus groups, document reviews, and data analyses. This series of fact sheets digs into each of these reforms.
[From Our Partners] FamilySafe Project Evaluation: Implementation and Outcomes of Family-Focused Counseling for Survivors of Gender-Based Violence
Sanctuary and STEPS successfully designed and continue to implement a trauma-focused model of programming that treats diverse families as a unit and facilitates communication and collaboration between the adult and child treatment staff
[From Our Partners] Addressing Trauma Among School-Aged Children
Margaret's Place aims to raise awareness about experiences of trauma and violence among youth and provide direct interventions for those impacted, with particular attention to the many types of violence (e.g., home, community, and dating) experienced by young people. This report presents findings from the process evaluation of Margaret’s Place that was conducted between 2019 and 2021.
[From Our Partners] Youth Opportunity Hubs: Fostering Collaboration. Building Resilience.
The Youth Opportunity Hub (YOH) Initiative was designed to prevent or reduce criminal legal system interactions, improve life outcomes, and provide support for youth by fostering access, collaboration, and partnership among social service providers. The final evaluation report, and its associated policy brief, offers a look at the development, implementation, and outcomes of the Initiative, as well as offers lessons learned and recommendations for other organizations seeking to implement similar programs.
[From Our Partners] Understanding the Population of People with Frequent Jail Contact
Funded by ISLG, this study sought to track the flow of people with frequent jail contact, assess the various strategies used by sites to reduce jail contact, and investigate outcomes, especially for people of color and people with behavioral health conditions.
[From Our Partners] At the Intersection of Probation and Jail Reduction Efforts
This study aimed to decipher the system-level trends in jail incarceration for probation violations and the key pathways to jail incarceration for those individuals currently on probation.
[From Our Partners] Safety and Justice Challenge Case Studies from the Urban Institute
To compliment and expand upon the data trends published by ISLG, the Urban Institute, an SJC partner, worked with a handful of SJC cities and counties to produce a series of case studies digging deeper into several SJC strategies.
[From Our Partners] The Transgender Healing and Resilience Initiative for Survivors of Violence: Final Evaluation Report
While historically facing disproportionately high rates of exposure to violence, transgender and gender non-binary (TGNB) folks also face barriers to accessing mental health care. To help fill this gap in service, the the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery (CTMS), with funding from CJII, created the Trauma Healing and Resilience Initiative for Transgender Survivors of Violence (THRIV).