Research and Reports

NICJR provides research and reports highlighting ineffective and unfair policies in the criminal justice system and outlining recommendations for reform.

Positive Youth Justice System

• A report and campaign that provides a roadmap to comprehensive reform of the U.S. juvenile justice system.
• Outlines steps to Reduce, Improve, and Reinvest to maximize resources and more deeply engage communities to support better outcomes for our youth.
• Presents opportunities for trainings, webinars, and technical assistance for jurisdictions to implement the Ten Steps to a Positive Youth Justice System.

Advocacy

NICJR provides education, consultation, and resources to advocacy organizations and campaigns to support juvenile and criminal justice reform efforts.

Guide to Youth Justice Advocacy in California:

• A guide for youth justice reform advocates explaining the different decision-making bodies involved in California’s juvenile justice system.
• NICJR also led a webinar to present the details of the guide, attended by more than 50 advocates from 30 organizations across the state.
• NICJR's Advocacy Guide is the foundation for the training curriculum Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise (HWW). HWW is a fourteen-week course, with a companion CBT journal, that addresses issues of decision making, identity, overcoming pain and trauma, and life skills/financial literacy introduced in the Advocacy Guide.

California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice (CAYCJ):

• NICJR helped lead the CAYCJ, resulting in numerous new policies and practices statewide that have reduced youth incarceration and improved outcomes for system-involved youth.
• NICJR Executive Director David Muhammad chronicles some of the many reforms achieved with the support of the Alliance.

Technical Assistance

In addition to advocating for policy and practice reforms, NICJR also provides technical assistance and training to jurisdictions across the U.S. to implement and sustain change.

Some of the training and technical assistance NICJR is providing across the country in states like Massachusetts, Tennessee, Illinois and California is:

• Probation Department in Rutherford County, TN, which had created a new government agency to provide probation services following the termination of a privately run Probation Dept.
• Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the county’s Probation Department. A yearlong study culminated in the publishing of a detailed Governance Study, followed by on-going support for the development and implementation of recommendations through the Probation Reform Implementation Team (PRIT)
• Working with the City and County of San Francisco (SF) to transform its juvenile justice system as a consultant to Mayor London Breed’s Juvenile Justice Reform Blue Ribbon Panel.
• NICJR also conducts evaluation and monitoring of corrections agencies in California and nationally to address violations and improve conditions in the system.