Common Justice Participatory Justice Demonstration Project

The Encouraging Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs is designed to strengthen the criminal justice system by challenging those in the field to identify and define emerging or chronic systemic issues faced by one or more components of the criminal justice continuum (includes but not limited to law enforcement, corrections, courts, and community collaborations) and to propose innovative solutions to address these issues.

The Vera Institute of Justice, Inc. will test and support the replication of the Common Justice model, an innovative demonstration project to be launched in partnership with the Kings County (Brooklyn, NY) District Attorney's office. Based in participatory justice practices, Common Justice is an alternative to incarceration and victim service program that aims to apply participatory processes to serious cases in the adult criminal system, offering victims an unprecedented voice in some of the cases where they need it most and advancing the accountability and rehabilitation of perpetrators. CA/NCF