The Columbia Justice Lab is a university research center whose work focuses on crime and criminal justice policy. Led by Bruce Western, we conduct research on incarceration, community supervision, reentry, youth development, community safety, narrative change, and racial justice.
The Justice Lab seeks to foundationally reconceive justice policy through actionable research, community-centered policy development, and the sustained engagement of diverse constituencies. We envision a community-centered future for justice in which healing and resilience, rather than punishment and surveillance, are used to solve social problems often rooted in racial and economic inequality.