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2024 Annual Report: Our Impact
Despite the deep polarization afflicting our nation, the Council surged forward in 2024 with its mission to use data and evidence to bridge partisan and ideological divides and advance safety and justice for all.
Check out highlights of CCJ’s initiatives and wide-ranging impacts.
Read the Report
Year-End 2024 Crime Trends Report
CCJ’s analysis of 2024 crime trends finds that homicide and most other violent crimes have fallen below pre-pandemic levels in a sample of 40 U.S. cities. The report also finds year-over-year decreases in 12 of 13 offenses, with only reported shoplifting continuing its recent rise.
Read the Report
From Confinement to Community: Supporting Successful Veteran Reentry and Employment
In its third set of recommendations, the Veterans Justice Commission asks Congress to reverse a ban on VA-provided healthcare for incarcerated veterans and urges government agencies and the business community to prioritize the hiring of “second chance veterans.”
Read the Report
Meet the Women's Justice Commission
CCJ’s newest initiative is the national, nonpartisan Women’s Justice Commission, led by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The diverse panel is examining the unique challenges facing women in the justice system and developing recommendations for evidence-based reforms to advance safety, health, and justice.
Learn More
Better Crime Data, Better Crime Policy
CCJ’s Crime Trends Working Group reached consensus on recommendations to strengthen the nation’s crime data infrastructure and better equip policymakers with timely, accurate, and usable data essential to address community violence and other crime.
Read the Report
Pushing Toward Parity
Advancing our work on racial disparities, this comprehensive package assesses the impact of sentencing reforms on disparity trends in 12 states, examines imprisonment trends among female populations, and explores challenges in the measurement of Hispanic disparities.
Explore the Research
First Step Act: An Early Analysis of Recidivism
This analysis estimates recidivism rates among individuals released from federal prison prior to the FSA who had similar risk profiles and were tracked for similar periods of time as those released under the Act.
Read the Report
DOJ Adopts CCJ Violence Reduction Framework
The new U.S. Justice Department Violent Crime Reduction Roadmap urges state and local governments to follow the 10 Essential Actions strategy developed by CCJ’s Violent Crime Working Group.
Explore the 10 Essential Actions
How big is the footprint of the criminal justice system, and how has it changed over time?
This new resource is a one-stop shop tracing decades-long changes in crime and victimization, arrests, incarceration, and community supervision.
Check out the footprint
Building Common Ground
Centering Justice is a collaborative project engaging a diverse range of the nation’s top thinkers and doers in an ongoing, ideologically vibrant conversation about criminal justice policy.
Learn More
Year-End 2024 Crime Trends Report
CCJ’s analysis of 2024 crime trends finds that homicide and most other violent crimes have fallen below pre-pandemic levels in a sample of 40 U.S. cities. The report also finds year-over-year decreases in 12 of 13 offenses, with only reported shoplifting continuing its recent rise.
Read the report
2024 Annual Report: Our Impact
Despite the deep polarization afflicting our nation, the Council surged forward in 2024 with its mission to use data and evidence to bridge partisan and ideological divides and advance safety and justice for all. Check out highlights of CCJ’s initiatives and wide-ranging impacts.
Read the report
From Confinement to Community: Supporting Successful Veteran Reentry and Employment
In its third set of recommendations, the Veterans Justice Commission asks Congress to reverse a ban on VA-provided healthcare for incarcerated veterans and urges government agencies and the business community to prioritize the hiring of “second chance veterans.”
Read the report
Meet the Women's Justice Commission
CCJ’s newest initiative is the national, nonpartisan Women’s Justice Commission, led by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The diverse panel is examining the unique challenges facing women in the justice system and developing recommendations for evidence-based reforms to advance safety, health, and justice.
Learn More
Better Crime Data, Better Crime Policy
CCJ’s Crime Trends Working Group reached consensus on recommendations to strengthen the nation’s crime data infrastructure and better equip policymakers with timely, accurate, and usable data essential to address community violence and other crime.
Read the Report
Pushing Toward Parity
Advancing our work on racial disparities, this comprehensive package assesses the impact of sentencing reforms on disparity trends in 12 states, examines imprisonment trends among female populations, and explores challenges in the measurement of Hispanic disparities.
Explore the Research
First Step Act: An Early Analysis of Recidivism
This analysis estimates recidivism rates among individuals released from federal prison prior to the FSA who had similar risk profiles and were tracked for similar periods of time as those released under the Act.
Read the Report
DOJ Adopts CCJ Violence Reduction Framework
The new U.S. Justice Department Violent Crime Reduction Roadmap urges state and local governments to follow the 10 Essential Actions strategy developed by CCJ’s Violent Crime Working Group.
Explore the 10 Essential Actions
How big is the footprint of the criminal justice system, and how has it changed over time?
This new resource is a one-stop shop tracing decades-long changes in crime and victimization, arrests, incarceration, and community supervision.
Check out the footprint
Building Common Ground
Centering Justice is a collaborative project engaging a diverse range of the nation’s top thinkers and doers in an ongoing, ideologically vibrant conversation about criminal justice policy.
Learn More

Grounding Criminal Justice Policy in Facts and Evidence

Upclose Spotlight

“Our staff is our most valuable asset, and they have very difficult jobs ... We want our staff to feel valued, have the tools to be successful through training and professional development, and have pathways for their careers.”
Beth Skinner - Director, Iowa Department of Corrections
Beth SkinnerDirector, Iowa Department of Corrections
“The criminal justice system is the one system that has escaped accountability. [There is] very little transparency, and we’ve extended power to those who work in the criminal justice system without that accountability”
Brett Tolman - Founder/Attorney & Chair of the White Collar, Corporate Compliance, and Government Investigations Section, Tolman Group
Brett TolmanExecutive Director, Right On Crime
“When the very people [who] we are called to serve don’t see equity and fairness in our service, our work is literally being done in vain. We have to … create a safe space for collectively reimagining our approach to justice issues.”
Leslie Cooper - Director, Pretrial Services Agency, District of Columbia
Leslie CooperDirector, Pretrial Services Agency, District of Columbia
Learn More

Latest Posts
DOJ Funding Update: A Deeper Look at the Cuts

This report from CCJ Senior Fellow Amy Solomon examines April 2025 funding cuts from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and their implications on public safety, trust in government, and inefficiency and waste.

Executive Actions and Criminal Justice
Event Summary: Executive Actions and Criminal Justice

On March 25, 2025, leaders of the Council on Criminal Justice Centering Justice initiative – Khalil Cumberbatch and Marc Levin – led a panel of experts in a discussion of the second Trump Administration’s executive orders and other actions related to criminal justice.
DOJ Report on AI in Criminal Justice: Key Takeaways

To help stakeholders wrestle with critical questions about the use of AI in criminal justice, CCJ prepared a summary highlighting key findings and recommendations from a 2024 report on the topic produced by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Meeting Bulletin #4: March 2025

The commission’s fourth meeting focused on the impact of fines, fees, and sentencing on justice-involved women, marking the end of deliberations on front-end criminal justice system issues.

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