The Justice Lab at Columbia University

Our Mission

The Justice Lab combines original research, policy development, and community engagement to propel the project of justice reform. In our vision, justice depends on peaceful and healthy communities that help all their members to flourish in a climate of fairness and respect. We work for a community-centered justice, in which incarceration is no longer used as a solution to problems that are often rooted in poverty and racial inequality.

Our Story

The Justice Lab was founded in the fall of 2017 on the belief that justice policy should strengthen the bonds of family and community that are often threatened by poverty, crime, and punitive crime policy. Bringing together research expertise with a track record of policy innovation and collaboration with justice-involved people, we aim to advance a community-centered future for justice.

Our Strategies

Building on the experience of researchers, policy makers, advocates and justice-involved people, the Justice Lab follows four key strategies for reform:

• Designing and implementing research that studies the effects of police, courts, and penal institutions, particularly in disadvantaged communities of color.
• Providing a forum for researchers, policy makers, advocates, and community representatives to explore, debate, and disseminate new approaches to justice policy.
• Developing and guiding fair and effective policies to reduce violence and crime, rather than redistribute it to the penal system.
• Working with students to help build the next generation of researchers, advocates, and policymakers.