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, $130 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

Manhattan Justice Opportunities seeks to rethink justice in Manhattan and build a justice system that is more responsive to individuals’ and communities’ needs. Manhattan Justice is a centralized, court-based screening, resource, and referral hub that provides judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys at New York County Criminal Court and Supreme Court with a wide array of social service-based sentencing options in misdemeanor and felony cases. Manhattan Justice offers onsite case management, psycho-educational groups, and restorative justice programming, and provides referrals to community-based service providers for mental health, substance use, employment, primary health care services and more. These services, which are open to anyone who needs them—including mandated participants’ families and friends, and others affected by the criminal justice system—help people address underlying issues in their lives, build stability, and decrease their likelihood of further justice involvement.

Manhattan Justice Opportunities is seeking a Peer Specialist Fellow. Reporting to the Clinical Director of Felony Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI), the Peer Specialist Fellow will join a team of staff—including social workers, mental health counselors, peer specialists, and case managers—who work with defendants participating in the Manhattan Felony ATI Court. The ATI Court, which is led by Administrative Judge Ellen Biben, seeks to forge a new response to individuals charged with felonies by linking them to community-based social services. The Court is the first of its kind, providing an innovative model for other jurisdictions seeking to develop and implement meaningful post-conviction sentencing options for individuals facing felony charges.

The Peer Specialist Fellow will be part of a team that provides independent, holistic clinical assessments, treatment planning, and case management services to mandated participants in the ATI Court. The Peer Specialist Fellow will engage new participants in court to ensure successful connection to community-based services and support existing participants in their programming. An essential feature of the Peer Specialist Fellow's role is close collaboration with the participants’ assigned social worker/case manager, service providers, and community contacts. The Peer Specialist Fellow will communicate regularly with members of the participants’ team to support the participant’s engagement in services and successful program completion. The Peer Specialist Fellow will also be able to work toward a formal peer certification as part of the fellowship.

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Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Use lived experience, share personal recovery stories, and model healthy coping strategies to connect with participants and support them in their goals;
• Offer encouragement, education, and practical assistance, including one-on-one coaching, and connect participants to resources;
• Assist participants in identifying their goals;
• Attend court appearances to help engage newly mandated participants in services, as well as to help participants navigate the court process more generally;
• Engage participants who have been released from custody and motivate them to engage in services;
• Accompany participants from court to intakes/appointments;
• Perform community outreach to participants, including meeting participants in the community to accompany them to intakes/appointments and assist with connections to needed resources;
• Communicate with the participant’s assigned social worker/case manager, service providers, and community contacts to support engagement in services and follow up on participant’s progress;
• Inform the participant’s assigned social worker/case manager of any non-compliance issues and assist participants in getting back into compliance, including re-engaging participants;
• Provide crisis intervention and de-escalation, as needed;
• Track participant engagement work and coordinate with peer specialists, social workers, and case managers to support data entry about peer activities;
• Participate in individual and group supervision, staff meetings, and trainings;
• Attend community-based meetings and events in the evening, as needed; and
• Assist with other programmatic and administrative tasks to support Manhattan Justice’s and the Felony ATI Court’s activities, as needed.

Qualifications:

• Knowledge and/or lived experience related to the criminal justice system and its impacts on communities;
• Commitment to using holistic and strengths-based approaches and meeting participants where they are;
• Ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds in a culturally responsive manner;
• Strong communication skills, particularly the ability to communicate and listen accurately, empathically, and under time constraints;
• Ability to maintain professional demeanor when handling difficult conversations;
• Strong organization and time management skills;
• Experience using Microsoft Office programs, particularly Microsoft Outlook for regular email correspondence, preferred;
• Comfort working within the court setting and with participants who are mandated to services;
• Comfort working in a team setting;
• Passion for making the justice system more humane and/or for working with criminal justice involved individuals;
• Bilingual (English-Spanish) is preferred.

Position Type: Part-time, working 20 hours a week. This position is temporary for four months.

Position Location: Manhattan, NY.

Compensation: The compensation range for this position is $21.50 -$25.00 per hour based on a 35-hour work week and is commensurate with experience.

The Center for Justice Innovation is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We do not discriminate based on 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 LGBTQ+ community, and individuals with prior contact with the criminal justice system. Our goal is to create a supportive and respectful environment where everyone, regardless of background or identity, feels valued and included.

At this time, the Center is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa. All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States at the time of application and throughout the duration of employment.

Candidates are expected to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the hiring process. Any misrepresentation, falsification, or omission of material facts may result in disqualification from consideration, withdrawal of an offer, or termination of employment, regardless of when discovered.

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