Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ)

Overview

The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) is a nonpartisan, independent think tank and invitational membership organization based in Washington, D.C. focused on public safety and criminal justice policy. Founded in 2019, CCJ conducts research to establish key facts about crime and justice and convenes government and community leaders to build consensus on policy solutions.

Key functions and role

CCJ convenes ideologically diverse member task forces and commissions -- on subjects including policing, long prison sentences, veterans in the justice system, and women's incarceration -- that produce consensus policy recommendations for lawmakers and practitioners. It publishes periodic reports on crime trends in a cross-section of U.S. cities, maintains an interactive data resource called The Footprint tracing decades of trends in crime, arrests and incarceration, and its research and experts are cited in thousands of news stories annually.

History

Adam Gelb, a former journalist and public-safety policy director at the Pew Charitable Trusts, founded CCJ in 2019 to bring together stakeholders from across the criminal justice field -- including law enforcement, courts, corrections, advocacy groups, and formerly incarcerated people -- who previously lacked a shared forum for consensus-building. Its first task force, on federal criminal justice priorities, launched in 2019, and it established a Task Force on Policing in November 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd.

Political positions

CCJ describes itself as nonpartisan and structures its work around ideologically diverse task forces intended to bridge conservative public-safety and cost-focused concerns with progressive civil-rights and racial-justice concerns. Its Board of Trustees includes figures spanning the political spectrum, from former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and a former Trump deputy assistant to former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and Campaign Zero co-founder DeRay Mckesson.

Leadership

Adam Gelb serves as founding President and CEO. Laurie Robinson, a former U.S. Assistant Attorney General who twice led the Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs, chairs CCJ's governing Board of Directors.

Location and contact info

Address
700 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 2108
Washington, DC 20003, USA
Phone
(202) 793-3373
Email
info@counciloncj.org
Website
https://counciloncj.org