The Center for Advancing Justice

Around two-thirds of arrestees nationally have a substance use, mental health, or co-occurring disorder. By identifying these issues and intervening more quickly, justice systems can interrupt the destructive cycle of crime, arrest, and incarceration and improve outcomes for individuals and communities alike.

We help build capacity to quickly screen individuals for their criminogenic risks and needs, conduct in-depth clinical assessments when substance use or mental health concerns are indicated, and match each person to the appropriate services and supports. When resource gaps exist, we help communities develop new programs and services to meet local needs.

In recent years, states and local communities have begun investing in efforts to improve their responses to mental health crises. Mobile crisis teams, co-responder models, law enforcement deflection programs, crisis centers, and other innovations have expanded access to care, while the launch of 988 as the easy-to-remember national crisis hotline has made it easier for people to report mental health crises. In many places, however, these efforts are in their infancy, and coordinated services are lacking.

We work with law enforcement, community-based service providers, peer support specialists, mental health advocates, and others to build better responses to mental health crises and connect people with care before they become drawn deeply into the justice system.

Research on treatment courts and other approaches to individuals with substance use and mental health disorders in the justice system have deepened our understanding of what works to promote recovery and reduce reoffending. However, these practices are not widely used in regular criminal courts.

Our judicial training curriculum is designed to help all judges use proven strategies and practices to respond to defendants with substance use and mental health disorders. The curriculum is customizable and available for in-person delivery at local, state, and national training events or through online training videos.

For decades, research has demonstrated that adverse childhood experiences—such as having a parent in jail—have numerous negative impacts on children’s long-term health outcomes and increase their own risk of future justice system involvement.

We help justice system actors support the needs of children impacted by parental justice involvement, assist parents in building parenting skills, and strengthen family relationships.

In partnership with Sesame Street in Communities, we provide justice and treatment professionals with free educational tools, family-centered resources, and child-friendly play spaces to better serve justice-involved families.