About

Putting practitioners and evidence at the heart of justice reform

Our vision

At the Centre for Justice Innovation, we seek to build a justice system which everyone believes is fair and effective.

We believe that the justice system should be focused on solving the issues that drive crime and social harm; that it should be fair in how it treats people; that it should be proportionate in the things it does; and that those on the front line should be given the freedom and support to come up with innovative solutions to the problems their communities face.

To deliver our vision of a fairer and more effective justice system, we:

provide hands on support to practitioners in the justice system to help them develop and share innovative and effective practice;
conduct research into how things work right now and how they could work better;
promote evidence-based, innovative justice policy reforms;
share lessons between the jurisdictions of the UK, and also with our sister organisation in New York City, the Center for Justice Innovation.

Our work

Some of our main projects include:

Supporting evidence-led pre-court disposals to keep communities safer. We provide training, support and practice sharing to youth services, police forces and others, while working to build the evidence base;
Encouraging the spread of problem-solving court initiatives, especially Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDACs), to address the problems that bring people to court in the first place. We provide training, practice support and practice sharing to new and existing problem-solving projects as well as promoting shared practice between them;
Providing advice, information and support to people who visit Highbury Corner magistrates’ court, as well as offering free support to other magistrates courts looking to replicate the model;
Mapping innovative projects in justice across the UK, to promote and share best practice;
Doing research to improve the use and effectiveness of sentencing.

The Centre for Justice innovation is proud to be incubating the Common Ground Justice Project, which aims to engage and listen to members of the public, finding common ground on which people can agree for a more thoughtful and effective justice system. The aim is to break through a polarised debate dominated by noisy extremes, illuminating a more thoughtful way forward that can bridge divides and deliver for victims and wider society.

Our support

Many of our projects are funded by charitable trusts. This enables us to provide free support, training and advice to practitioners in Youth Justice Services, Children’s Services, the judiciary, police forces, probation services and others.

If you want to explore whether we can help you, please contact us.

We are always looking to develop new programs of work, so if you are a funder please do drop us a line too.

The formal bit

The Centre for Justice Innovation is a registered charity (charity number 1151939) and a company limited by guarantee (company number is 08274430). The Centre was incorporated on 30th October 2012 and is governed in accordance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association (which can be accessed here). The structure, management and governance of the Centre is set out here.

Our most recent set of audited accounts can be accessed here.

While we were founded with support from our American sister organisation in 2011, the Centre for Justice Innovation has been a separate legal entity since October 2012 and there is no financial/funding relationship between the two organisations.

Keep updated

Contact our office by emailing info@justiceinnovation.org