Social Worker, Alternatives to Incarceration

THE ORGANIZATION

The Center for Justice Innovation is a community justice organization that centers safety and racial justice. Since our founding in 1996, the Center has partnered with community members, courts, and the people most impacted to create stronger, healthier, more just communities. Our decades of experience in courts and communities, coupled with our field-leading research and practitioner expertise, help us drive justice nationwide in innovative, powerful, and durable ways. For more information on how and where we work, please visit www.innovatingjustice.org.  

The Center is a 900-employee, $100 million nonprofit that accomplishes its vision through three pillars of work: creating and scaling operating programs to test new ideas and solve problems, performing original research to determine what works (and what doesn’t), and providing expert assistance and policy guidance to justice reformers around the world.

Operating Programs

The Center’s operating programs, including the award-winning Red Hook Community Justice Center and Midtown Community Justice Center, test new ideas, solve difficult problems, and attempt to achieve systemic change within the justice system. Our projects include community-based violence prevention programs, alternatives to incarceration, reentry initiatives, and court-based initiatives that reduce the use of unnecessary incarceration and promote positive individual and family change. Through this programming, we have produced tangible results like safer streets, reduced incarceration, and improved neighborhood perceptions of justice.

Research

The Center's research teams are staffed with social scientists, data analysts, and lawyers who are academically-trained or have lived experience and who conduct research in the U.S. and globally on diverse criminal-legal system and justice issues. Their work includes evaluating programs and policies; conducting exploratory, community-based studies; and providing research translation and strategic planning for system actors. The Center has published studies on topics including court and jail reform, intimate partner violence, restorative justice, gun violence, reentry, sixth amendment rights, and progressive prosecution. The research teams strive to make their work meaningful and actionable to the communities they work with, policymakers, and practitioners.

Policy & Expert Assistance

The Center provides hands-on, planning and implementation assistance to a wide range of jurisdictions in areas of reform such as problem-solving courts (e.g., community courts, treatment courts, domestic violence courts), tribal justice, reducing incarceration and the use of fines/fees and reducing crime and violence. Our current expert assistance takes many forms, including help with analyzing data, strategic planning and consultation, policy guidance, and hosting site visits to its operating programs in the New York City area. 

Center Support

A dedicated support team within the Center ensures the smooth functioning of operations across various domains, including finance, legal, technology, human resources, fundraising, real estate, and communications. Comprising 15% of the organization's staff, these teams provide essential infrastructure support and innovative solutions aligned with the Center's mission and values. 

THE OPPORTUNITY

Brooklyn Justice Initiatives (BJI) seeks to reengineer the experience of criminal court in Brooklyn, New York by providing judges and attorneys meaningful alternatives to bail, fines, and jail sentences. Operating out of Kings County Criminal Court and nearby satellite offices, Brooklyn Justice Initiatives is a team of social service providers, court-based resource coordinators, and others who seek to improve the quality of justice. By providing meaningful pre-trial supervised release and post-conviction sentencing options, Brooklyn Justice Initiatives seeks to use an arrest as a window of opportunity to change the direction of a participant’s life and avoid the harmful effects of incarceration.  

• Provide comprehensive, clinically informed case management services to young adult and adult participants (and, where appropriate, their families) that address issues such as substance use, mental health, trauma, domestic violence, housing, and educational/vocational needs;
• Conduct clinical assessments and provide individualized service and programming recommendations to court parties for review;
• Provide case management and individual counseling services to a caseload of short- and long-term mandated participants;
• Complete intakes of early diversion and Alternative to Incarceration participants;
• Assist colleagues with crisis intervention and management when needed, providing trauma-informed de-escalation and clinical support to participants in crisis;
• Conduct outreach to collateral sources to promote compliance and court monitoring, as needed;
• Maintain appropriate participant information in electronic databases and paper files;
• Make appropriate referrals to community-based organizations for additional services;
• Facilitate coordinated service delivery for on-site agencies and community-based agencies;
• Manage and monitor participant compliance with service mandates;
• Establish and maintain linkages with community partners who can provide age-appropriate interventions and services to court-involved individuals;
• Provide accurate written and verbal participant reports to the court and other court stakeholders;
• Participate in interdisciplinary treatment meetings;
• Facilitate and develop a range of on-site groups that are both cognitive behavioral and psychoeducational in nature;
• Assist the ATI management with the development and implementation of new programs, initiatives, and/or interventions;
• Assist the ATI management with administrative responsibilities, as needed;
• Assist the ATI management with data collection and management;
• Assist with grant reporting requirements, as needed;
• Provide clinical services as described above to program participants on a voluntary basis post-mandate;
• Attend all required staff meetings and trainings;
• Attending Brooklyn Justice Initiatives’ and community-based events after hours, as needed; and
• Additional relevant tasks, as needed.

The Center for Justice Innovation is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace, and as such, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, national origin, age, military service eligibility, veteran status, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or any other category protected by law. We strongly encourage and welcome applications from women, people of color, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, as well as individuals with prior contact with the criminal justice system. Our aim is to create a supportive and respectful environment where every individual, irrespective of their background or identity, feels valued and included.

As of February 10, 2023, New York City Executive Order 25 rescinded the requirement of the COVID-19 vaccination for City workers, new hires, and contracted employees. Accordingly, the Center does not require all new hires be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus; however, the Center recommends all staff, interns, and volunteers stay up-to-date on the vaccination.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete an employment eligibility verification document form upon hire. Kindly refer to the job posting for the relevant contact information. If the contact details are not provided, we kindly ask that you refrain from making inquiries via phone or email, as only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.