Young Adult Justice Learning Community

The Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Criminal Justice will establish the Young Adult Justice Learning Community to increase learning and policy innovation toward creating a fairer and more developmentally appropriate justice system response to young adults. The Young Adult Justice Learning Community aims to spur innovation in the justice system’s response to adolescent and young adult offenders by bringing practitioners, policymakers, advocates, researchers, and philanthropists together. The learning community has three goals: 1) provide policymakers with access to one another and to leading researchers to improve policymaking and practice; 2) provide researchers with access to leading policymakers and practitioners so they can study innovative programs, policies, and practices and join in translating research into action; and 3) use this interaction and the research, writing, and policymaking that emerges as a vehicle to create an approach to justice-involved young adults that is less disparate, relies less on incarceration, and improves outcomes for youth and public safety. John Laub, former director of the National Institute of Justice, will serve as moderator for the learning community.