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Criminal Justice

We strive to advance community safety and the values of fairness, effectiveness, and racial justice.

Criminal Justice Grants

$397,235,944

We Work In

America’s criminal justice system strips too many people of their jobs, families, health, and dignity. It puts people of color at risk, disproportionately harms low-income people, limits the potential of juveniles caught in the system, and doesn’t give everyone the opportunities they need to get back on track. And it does all this at an enormous cost to taxpayers.

Our work in criminal justice is about changing the system to improve people’s lives. Are people being treated fairly without regard to race or income? Is there an underlying issue like substance use disorder or mental illness that the system is unable to address? To get a clear picture, we look at interactions with the justice system from start to finish — policing and pretrial, probation and parole, prison reform, and reintegration — and engage with experts and those directly affected to explore new policies and practices.

465K
Number of unconvicted people in jail
1 in 14
Number of U.S. children who have had an incarcerated parent
2.2m
Number of incarcerated adults in the U.S.
$80.7B
Amount the U.S. spends annually on prisons, jails, probation, and parole

Requests for Proposals

Meet the Team

All People
Headshot of Stephanie Akhter
Headshot of Crystal Banks
Headshot of Kristin Bechtel
Headshot of Virginia Bersch
Headshot of Destiny Carter
Headshot of Alyson Clements
Headshot of Julia Durnan
Headshot of Ezekiel Edwards
Headshot of Jocelyn Fontaine
Headshot of Dina Grove
Headshot of Thomas Hanna
Headshot of Lauren Hardy
Headshot of Dylan Hayre
Headshot of Alexa Herzog
Headshot of Rasulan Inayat-Khan
Headshot of Joshua Jackson
Headshot of Juliene James
Headshot of Nadege Joseph
Headshot of Walter Katz
Headshot of Cybele Kotonias
Headshot of Marc Krupanski
Headshot of Lindsey Lovel
Headshot of Alexius Marcano
Headshot of Randall McNeil
Headshot of Carlton Miller
Headshot of Matthew Mizel
Headshot of Linda Phiri
Headshot of Anita Ravishankar
Headshot of Rebecca Silber
Headshot of Jordan Simpson
Headshot of Golnar Teimouri
Headshot of Jasmine Tran
Headshot of Asheley Van Ness
Headshot of Carson Whitelemons
Headshot of James Williams
Headshot of Dina Xie

Grants

Arnold Ventures funds projects to understand problems and identify policy solutions.