Overview Cameo House & Women's Services Community Options for Youth (COY) Detention Diversion Advocacy Program (DDAP) Expert Sentencing Support Services Juvenile Collaborative Reentry Unit (JCRU) No Violence Alliance (NoVA) Technical Assistance Overview California Sentencing Institute Next Generation Fellowship Legislation Transparency & Accountability

CJCJ’s research focuses on sentencing and correctional reforms that strengthen community safety. Our team investigates conditions in state prisons and county jails. We highlight institutional failures and the need for broader reform. We also track criminal justice sentencing practices that disproportionately impact people of color. 

Since 1986, CJCJ has conducted research on innovative community-based alternatives to incarceration. We investigate programs that best support formerly incarcerated people reentering their communities. These models build a foundation for successful reentry by addressing people’s diverse needs.

Below you will find our research and reports on adult prisons, sentencing, and transformative community programs for justice-involved individuals.

For more information, contact CJCJ Communications at cjcjmedia@​cjcj.​org or (415) 6215661 x. 103.

As get tough” stances have monopolized the debate on crime, political one-upsmanship has produced the most punitive, expensive and racially disparate criminal justice policies in the state’s history.

At the cost of approximately $21,000 per year, California is spent $105 million per year to imprison shoplifters. This study examines whether it impacted crime rates.

This study shows that homicide rates are at best uneffected by capital punishent in California. 

A 1995 discussion of race and the criminal justice system in America.

Given the high costs to house elderly inmates in prison, and their low likelihood of reoffending, the public safety benefits of long sentences are called into question.