Center for Effective Public Policy

For nearly 40 years, the Center for Effective Public Policy has helped justice system professionals and their partners collaboratively identify and implement effective, evidence-based strategies that reduce harm and improve justice system outcomes. The Center’s staff and network of expert consultants have diverse qualifications and backgrounds in criminal justice planning, policy, and practice, particularly in pretrial justice, sentencing, probation, parole, and corrections. The Center’s main office is in Kensington, Maryland; the majority of Center staff and consultants work from their home-based locations around the country.

The Center’s projects are diverse and nationwide. The Center’s existing projects address, among other topics, evidence-based decision making, parole release decisions, campus sexual assault, dosage probation, and work supporting justice-involved women. In 2019, the Center will launch a multi-year national criminal justice project focused on pretrial reform. Pretrial reform is receiving broad, national attention. State legislatures are passing bail reform laws at an unprecedented pace; state and federal court rulings are requiring justice systems to reconsider and change practices that result in the pretrial detention of low-risk persons with limited economic means; and, at the same time, important research and reform efforts are influencing state and local pretrial practices.