Justice Innovation Lab

Nearly 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States on any given day, with hundreds of thousands being held in jail without a conviction while awaiting trial. This has a particularly devastating impact on minority and low-income communities, which are disproportionately represented in the criminal legal system. Our goal at Justice Innovation Lab is to reduce harmful outcomes, including over-incarceration and unjust racial and economic disparities. Our team of data scientists, human-centered design experts, prosecutors, policymakers, and community advocates support local leaders in identifying unfair practices and developing effective alternatives. JIL partners with decision-makers who have the power to make impactful changes to the criminal legal system. We collaborate extensively with local prosecutors who have widespread authority and discretion to drive reforms. We also work with judges, law enforcement officers, and community organizations, as they each have unique capabilities to help change take root. Working with our local partners and their data, we integrate systems mapping, data analysis, human-centered design, and interactive training sessions to drive innovative change through our collaborative, data-informed approach. Insights gained through our partnerships allow us to both generate solutions tailored to individual jurisdictions and develop broadly-applicable interventions. JIL utilizes data to develop innovative solutions to criminal justice issues and measure the impact of our interventions. This work relies on a deep understanding of data gained through an iterative and collaborative process with local jurisdictions. Our data team cleans, standardizes, analyzes, and visualizes data to effectively communicate findings and facilitate change. JIL also strives to promote the value of data in the criminal legal system to help actors understand why data literacy and accuracy are important, and how data can be used to improve outcomes.