A snapshot of the work we’ve done this past month, including a recap of our Community-Based Restorative Justice initiative year-end celebration and a blueprint for creating service navigation programs.

The cohort of CUNY ISLG interns will work hands-on with the research, policy, data science, legal, and operations teams, as well as participate in discussions with subject matter experts across a number of pressing issue areas.

“We try to come at people like equals, in this together. And I think that helps build trust. I also think the fact that we, our team, is largely made up of people who have a lot of lived experience—there's just a different energy that people are getting and so that trust is a lot faster to form.”

A year after launch, ISLG convened the 16 Community-Based Restorative Justice initiative grantees to celebrate the work being done on the ground, as well as the training and technical assistance experts who’ve provided support along the way and the funders who can keep the work going.

The Request-for-Proposal (RFP) and other parts of grantmaking often leave out smaller, grassroots community organizations who are closest to those they serve. Using our Community-Based Restorative Justice Program and Grassroots Policy Incubator as examples, we dig into ways that funders and grant managers can create a more inclusive process that uplifts new ideas without sacrificing program quality and accountability.

The 2024-2025 cohort of the Kriegel Fellowship celebrated their graduation at ISLG’s midtown office.

The study assessed how frequently officers who conduct stops violate the Fourth Amendment, examined the conditions in which unconstitutional stops occur, and identified the reasons a stop was unconstitutional.

There’s a shortage of funding and capacity-building opportunities available to small grassroots organizations in NYC, which is why the Grassroots Policy Incubator has been designed specifically to support their needs.

The study found the sector has doubled since 2000, but that real wages have stagnated compared to private sector employment—with women of color most impacted.  

The New York City Health Justice Network (NYC HJN) is supporting people returning home from incarceration by providing holistic healthcare and social services. A recent evaluation of the program found evidence that it made a positive impact on reducing future criminal legal system involvement.

The Fellowship aims to tap into the wealth of exemplary CUNY students to build a corps of civically engaged leaders who will embark on a two-year program, training them on voter engagement and education as well as community involvement.

For the fourth year in a row, an analysis of individual-level jail data and county-level crime trends assessing the relationship between pretrial release and crime affirms past findings: violent crime and the rate that people returned to jail after release have remained the same before and after reforms were implemented.