Justice Reinvestment Offers a Bipartisan Approach to Public Safety Reform

Since 2007, more than 30 states have enacted bipartisan, evidence-based criminal justice reforms as part of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), a public-private partnership that includes the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Council of State Governments Justice Center, the Crime and Justice Institute, and several other organizations. The policies, which vary across states, have yielded significant benefits, reducing adult and juvenile prison populations, saving taxpayers money, and shifting resources into strategies that offer better returns on public safety investments.

As states work to build on these gains and tackle other criminal justice challenges, including the size of jail populations and a community supervision system that too often serves as a revolving door back to incarceration, federal policymakers can support their efforts by targeting funding and incorporating the best practices of JRI into national policy. The data analysis, research, stakeholder engagement, policy options, and lessons learned documented here offer a model for what the federal government can do to help deliver better results for communities and taxpayers across the country.