Background
The Council of State Governments Justice Center is a national nonprofit organization that serves policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels from all branches of government. Staff provides practical, nonpartisan advice and consensus-driven strategies—informed by available evidence—to increase public safety and strengthen communities.
The Justice Center evolved from the Council of State Governments’ Eastern Regional Conference justice program to a national center in 2006. The center serves all states to promote effective data-driven practices—particularly in areas in which the criminal justice system intersects with other disciplines, such as public health—to provide practical solutions to public safety and cross-systems problems. The Justice Center builds on the solid foundation of work that staff have conducted on the responses to justice-involved people with mental illnesses, crime victims, as well as such issues as prisoner reentry and justice reinvestment—a data-driven approach to reduce corrections spending and reinvest savings in strategies that can decrease crime and strengthen neighborhoods.
The Justice Center’s board of directors includes state legislative leaders, judges, corrections administrators, juvenile justice agency directors, and law enforcement professionals; together, they represent a cross-section of the senior-level state officials who shape criminal justice policy.