Criminal Justice Reform

The Center for American Progress works to advance criminal justice reform through evidence-based policies that emphasize accountability, prevention, and second chances while addressing systemic inequities and promoting community safety.

Latest

Compact View

Fact Sheet: Expanding the Public Safety Workforce Fact Sheet
Social workers provide a man experiencing homelessness with resources in a local park in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Fact Sheet: Expanding the Public Safety Workforce

Cities across the country are investing in safety by incorporating specially trained professionals such as community responders and community violence intervention professionals into their local public safety workforces.

Allie Preston, Rachael Eisenberg, Kirby Gaherty

Expanding the Public Safety Workforce Report
Three people speaking, with two standing outside van and one sitting inside.

Expanding the Public Safety Workforce

Cities across the country are exploring innovative ways to incorporate new professionals, such as community responders and community violence intervention professionals, into their existing public safety workforces to improve outcomes for communities.

Allie Preston, Rachael Eisenberg, Kirby Gaherty

Bipartisan Momentum Is Growing for Automatic Record Sealing Through the Clean Slate and Fresh Start Acts Article
The Capitol Building at sunset

Bipartisan Momentum Is Growing for Automatic Record Sealing Through the Clean Slate and Fresh Start Acts

Even after serving their time, millions of Americans carry an arrest or conviction record that makes it hard for them to access a second chance to rebuild their lives. Congress should pass automatic record-sealing legislation to unlock second chances, boost economic mobility, and improve public safety.

Akua Amaning

Effective Public Safety Messaging Strategies for Local Leaders Past Event

Effective Public Safety Messaging Strategies for Local Leaders

Join the Center for American Progress for an event with public safety and communications leaders about effective messaging on public safety and challenges in communicating crime data to the public.

Center for American Progress | Online

Effective Public Safety Messaging Strategies for Local Leaders Convening Past Event

Effective Public Safety Messaging Strategies for Local Leaders Convening

Join the Center for American Progress for an event with public safety and communications leaders about effective messaging on public safety and challenges in communicating crime data to the public.

Center for American Progress | Online

International Program Demonstrates How Centering Human Dignity in Reentry Improves Public Safety Article

International Program Demonstrates How Centering Human Dignity in Reentry Improves Public Safety

In Brazil, a prison-based reentry program known as APAC centers human dignity in its efforts to reintegrate individuals fully back into society, serving as a model that U.S. leaders and policymakers alike should consider expanding to improve reentry and public safety outcomes.

Akua Amaning

Progressive Prosecutors Were Not Responsible for Increases in Violent or Property Crime Before, During, or After the COVID-19 Pandemic Article

Progressive Prosecutors Were Not Responsible for Increases in Violent or Property Crime Before, During, or After the COVID-19 Pandemic

A newly released report finds no evidence that prosecutors of any type are responsible for increases in crimes in their jurisdictions, concluding instead that hyperlocal social, environmental, and economic conditions are much more likely to drive crime trends.

Lindsey McLendon

Sonya Massey’s Memory Should Spur Federal Action To Meaningfully Change Policing Article
Protesters gather in New York’s Washington Square Park on July 25, 2024.

Sonya Massey’s Memory Should Spur Federal Action To Meaningfully Change Policing

The killing of Sonya Massey at the hands of police should motivate federal policymakers to finally take action that will create real accountability and deliver lasting safety for people of color.

Rachael Eisenberg

CAP and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Author Letter to National Institute of Justice Addressing Use of AI in the Criminal Justice System Article

CAP and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Author Letter to National Institute of Justice Addressing Use of AI in the Criminal Justice System

The Center for American Progress and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law co-authored a sign-on letter to the National Institute of Justice that addresses law enforcement’s use of artificial intelligence and outlines recommendations.

Hauwa Ahmed, Quinn Anex-Ries

Improving Public Safety Through Better Accountability and Prevention Report

Improving Public Safety Through Better Accountability and Prevention

Improving public safety requires a comprehensive set of accountability and prevention strategies that seek to change behavior while addressing the conditions giving rise to crime.

Lindsey McLendon, Rachael Eisenberg, Nick Wilson

Film Screening: ‘The 50’ Past Event

Film Screening: ‘The 50’

A documentary film about a groundbreaking mental health program in a California prison, told by the program’s first 50 participants. The film will be followed by a discussion with the film's director and subjects.

CAP Online | After registering, stream "The 50" during this timeframe:

Film Screening: ‘The 50’ (Online) Past Event

Film Screening: ‘The 50’ (Online)

A documentary film about a groundbreaking mental health program in a California prison, told by the program’s first 50 participants. The film will be followed by a discussion with the film's director and subjects.

CAP Online | Stream "The 50" on this webpage during this timeframe:

CAP Joined by Gun Violence Victim Advocates To Comment on OVC’s Proposed Rules on Victim Compensation Grant Program Article

CAP Joined by Gun Violence Victim Advocates To Comment on OVC’s Proposed Rules on Victim Compensation Grant Program

The Center for American Progress, along with 47 organizations, submitted a comment letter advocating on behalf of victims to the U.S. Office for Victims of Crime on the agency’s proposal to replace the existing Victim Compensation Grant Program guidelines and clarify program requirements.

Nick Wilson, Chandler Hall

Fact Sheet: Building an Economy That Delivers for Women Fact Sheet
A woman pushing a stroller walks through an atrium with light pouring in and a small pool reflecting plant life

Fact Sheet: Building an Economy That Delivers for Women

This fact sheet offers a brief summary of CAP’s “Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy,” which provides federal and state policymakers with the tools they need to center women in their economic plans and grow the economy.

Rose Khattar

Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy Report

Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy

This collection of policy recommendations reveals how policymakers can grow the economy by centering the changes that women need in their economic platforms.

Rose Khattar, Sara Estep

Dispatching Community Responders to 911 Calls Report

Dispatching Community Responders to 911 Calls

This report compares three principal models that cities are using to dispatch community responder teams, answers frequently asked questions, and shares lessons learned.

Amos Irwin, Rachael Eisenberg

2023 CAP IDEAS Conference Past Event
CAP IDEAS Conference logo

2023 CAP IDEAS Conference

Join the Center for American Progress as we celebrate 20 years of innovative policy solutions and look boldly forward to a progressive future.

What Does Community Violence Intervention Mean? Hear From People on the Front Lines of Preventing Gun Violence Video

What Does Community Violence Intervention Mean? Hear From People on the Front Lines of Preventing Gun Violence

Community violence intervention workers from across the United States explain and reflect on their work in preventing violence in their communities.

Nick Wilson, Chandler Hall, Tymoni Correa-Buntley, 6 More Audrey Smith, Matthew Gossage, Ashley Joo, Hai-Lam Phan, Ronnie Rivera, Ala Al Sadi

Tackling the Opioid Crisis Requires a Whole-of-Government, Society-Wide Approach Report
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents sift through packages in search of fentanyl.

Tackling the Opioid Crisis Requires a Whole-of-Government, Society-Wide Approach

The opioid epidemic is a complex public health crisis that can be ameliorated by addressing root causes of drug use; expanding access to treatment and harm reduction strategies; and reducing the supply of illicit opioids entering the United States.

Trinh Q. Truong, Debu Gandhi, Jill Rosenthal, 5 More Marquisha Johns, Mariam Rashid, Dan Restrepo, Akua Amaning, Cleo Bluthenthal

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, 1 Year Later Report
President Joe Biden

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, 1 Year Later

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major federal gun safety bill passed in nearly 30 years, has closed gun law loopholes and implemented new gun violence prevention policies, as well as made significant investments in school and community safety that are saving lives.

Nick Wilson, Chandler Hall, Allison Jordan

Safe Streets for All: An Opportunity To Rethink Traffic Enforcement Article
A police officer directs traffic in Highland Park, Illinois.

Safe Streets for All: An Opportunity To Rethink Traffic Enforcement

The Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets for All program can be leveraged to support community-level innovation in roadway safety efforts, including by rethinking traffic enforcement strategies to improve the physical and psychological safety of Black drivers and others on the road.

Allie Preston

Community-Based Strategies To Reduce Gun Violence in Schools Article
Photo shows an empty basketball court facing a one-story white school, with a chainlink fence between the camera lens and the basketball court

Community-Based Strategies To Reduce Gun Violence in Schools

In addition to efforts from state and federal lawmakers, schools and communities have a critical role to play in addressing school gun violence through prevention and intervention approaches.

Allie Pearce, Akilah Alleyne

Opinion: Three Black leaders offer one practical solution to reduce police assaults on Black motorists In the News

Opinion: Three Black leaders offer one practical solution to reduce police assaults on Black motorists

Patrick Gaspard partners with Color of Change's Rashad Robinson and the Vera Institute of Justice's Nicholas Turner to discuss the dangers of traffic stops for Black motorists and to urge leaders at the federal, state, and local levels to seek solutions.

CNN

Patrick Gaspard, Rashad Robinson , Nicholas Turner

The Killing of Tyre Nichols Must Serve as a Catalyst to Root Out Racial Injustice in Policing Article
A makeshift memorial near the location where Tyre Nichols was beaten by Memphis police officers on January 28, 2023 in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Killing of Tyre Nichols Must Serve as a Catalyst to Root Out Racial Injustice in Policing

The killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of police in Memphis has focused the national attention on the dangers of driving while Black in America and the urgent need for police reform that fulfills the promise of public safety.

Rachael Eisenberg, Brandon Tucker, Hadi Sedigh

What To Read Before the State of the Union Article
U.S. President Joe Biden talks to reporters after returning to the White House.

What To Read Before the State of the Union

The economy; democracy and the courts; and community safety and gun violence are expected to be at center stage as President Biden prepares to address the nation during his second State of the Union address.

Kiera Manser, Rose Khattar, Ben Olinsky, 1 More Rachael Eisenberg

A Minnesota Tribal College Teaches Law Enforcement in Effort To Put More Native Americans ‘Behind the Badge’ Article
Jamie Allen of the White Earth Police Department conducts a demonstration for LLTC students.

A Minnesota Tribal College Teaches Law Enforcement in Effort To Put More Native Americans ‘Behind the Badge’

In the second installment in a three-part series on Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), the Center for American Progress and American Indian College Fund look at Leech Lake Tribal College’s law enforcement degree program and the college’s work on cultural revitalization and basic needs insecurity.

Marcella Bombardieri, Dina M. Horwedel

This field is hidden when viewing the form

Default Opt Ins

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form

Variable Opt Ins

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.