Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils (CJCCs) are how elected and appointed executive-level policymakers in local jurisdictions, and sometimes states, meet collaboratively to address issues facing the justice system and its constituent agencies. The content on this site describes CJCCs, provides specific guidance for their development and operation, and offers tips on how to sustain them.
What Is a Criminal Justice Coordinating Council?
A Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, or similarly named criminal justice planning body, is how elected and appointed executive-level policymakers in local jurisdictions, and sometimes states, meet collaboratively to address issues facing the justice system and its member agencies. CJCCs often use a data and a structured planning process proactively to address system issues, manage limited resources, make improvements to the local criminal justice system, meaningfully address crime, and enhance public safety.
The CJCC typically involves justice leaders as well as stakeholders who are indirectly involved in or provide support services to the local criminal justice system. Its purpose is to provide leadership in policy and decision making for the criminal justice system through collaboration and partnership. CJCCs differ from other criminal justice decision making bodies in that they are designed to be permanent, ongoing, advisory boards that not only solve specific problems as they arise, but also more comprehensively monitor and improve the system’s functioning and manage its collective workload.
The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) created this web page to provide up-to-date resources to CJCC members, the criminal justice planners who work for CJCCs, and for other system stakeholders who are interested in establishing or improving their CJCC and system-level problem-solving and management capabilities.
Please check out the multitude of information and various links on this page and our micro-site devoted to this topic!
Guidelines for Developing a Criminal Justice Coordinating Council
- Guidelines for Developing a Criminal Justice Coordinating Council
- The Value of Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils in Wisconsin
- Justice Reinvestment
- County Elected Officials Guide to Criminal Justice System Decision Making(link is external)
- Evidence-Based Sentencing to Improve Public Safety and Reduce Recidivism: A Model Curriculum for Judges
