Public Welfare Foundation is implementing a grantmaking strategy to focus on getting resources closer to the ground where promising solutions are happening. We began this approach in our hometown of Washington, D.C., and kicked off the work with the 2019 release of D.C.’s Justice Systems: An Overview.
This May, our partners at Council for Court Excellence have authored an update to track key developments, issues, opportunities, and progress in D.C. over the past year.
D.C.’s Justice Systems Overview 2020, a new report that offers a data-forward snapshot of the significant challenges and innovations faced by the District’s adult and youth criminal legal systems over the last 18 months.
2020 showed that even in the midst of intersecting crises, the people of Washington, D.C.stand up for change in the criminal legal system and for racial justice. As the District of Columbia grapples with enduring disparities and begins to emerge from the added crisis of COVID-19, “people power” will remain the driving force to seed progress and build momentum.
This report, supported by Public Welfare Foundation, presents the most recent available data in five areas of concern: Policing and Violence; Adult Prosecution and the Courts; Incarceration; Reentry; and Youth Justice. CCE offers this report to support policymakers’, journalists’, and interested members of the public’s understanding of where the District is now and where it is heading.
Over the last two years, our team has spent time building relationships and working with local organizations to develop our D.C. grantmaking strategy. We are investing heavily in promising work happening around the District and will continue to support transformative justice in D.C. moving forward.
Transforming D.C.’s youth and adult justice systems will take a broad coalition of likeminded partners to bring this new vision to fruition. As the Foundation continues to work deeply in our targeted jurisdictions, we are committed to sharing our learnings and making data accessible to our partners and District residents.
We hope that this 2020 Overview provides some of the needed grounding to advance a new transformative vision of justice in D.C.—a justice system that is actually just.
