We work with public agencies, nonprofit organizations, elected leaders, and community members to shift policies, practices, and philosophies to create better communities. We operate at multiple intercepts of the criminal justice and juvenile justice systems: prevention, intervention, diversion, custody and detention, and reentry and recidivism-prevention.
Our Work
Multi-Partner Project Design
We design highly-regarded, progressive, and effective public/private initiatives to improve juvenile and adult criminal systems.
CoCo LEAD Plus: An Innovative Point-of-Arrest Diversion Program
A public/private multi-partner initiative led by County Health Services, a city police department, and County Probation, CoCo LEAD Plus is an innovative point-of-arrest diversion program intended to break the cycle of criminalization and repeated incarceration for people with mental illness or substance use disorder in Antioch, CA.
Stand Together Contra Costa
Multi-Partner Project Design Client Office of the Public Defender with community-based implementation partners Amounts and Funding Sources $1.5 million Contra Costa County General Funds; $1.0 million in private foundation grants Project A public/private...
Misdemeanor Early Representation/Smart Defense Initiative
Multi-Partner Project Design Client Office of the Public Defender Amounts and Funding Sources (first two years) $377,000 Federal Bureau of Justice Assistance grant; $200,000 private foundations, leveraged county resources Purpose Reduce judicial “Failures...
“Clean Sweep” Post-Conviction Records Remedy Project
Multi-Partner Project Design Client Office of the Public Defender Amounts and Funding Sources Private foundation grants leveraging established county resources Purpose In the aftermath of justice-reform bills passed by California voters in 2014 and 2016...
Facilitation and Multi-Stakeholder Process Management
We design, manage, and facilitate multi-stakeholder processes to forge shared solutions among diverse and often divergent stakeholders.
Reentry Success Center
Facilitation and Multi-Stakeholder Process Management Client County Administrator’s Office in partnership with a 16-member team of community residents, blended public/private funding Project A public/private community-based collective impact initiative,...
Youth Justice Initiative
Facilitation and Multi-Stakeholder Process Management Client Employment and Human Services Division Amounts and Funding Sources United States Bureau of Justice Assistance, Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Purpose A public/private...
High-Impact Grant Proposals
We write compelling, deeply researched, and highly successful grant proposals to generate funding from federal, state, local, and private sources.
Adult Facilities Program Design: California Board of State and Community Corrections, $70,000,000
High-Impact Grant Proposal For this project, we developed a “whole system” design for rehabilitative programming in an urban, high-security jail. As a component of this project, we also led the development of a comprehensive jail needs assessment and wrote...
CoCo LEAD Plus: Board of State and Community Corrections, $5,984,000
High-Impact Grant Proposals While many jurisdictions want to reduce unnecessary incarceration, it can be tough to know where to start. For this project, we were hired to design (and write the inaugural grant proposal for) a project to reduce the...
Stand Together Contra Costa: Public and Private Funding, $4,500,000
High-Impact Grant Proposal On behalf of a coalition of community activists and advocates, we designed Stand Together Contra Costa, a rapid-response deportation defense initiative for residents at risk of wrongful deportation. A partnership of public and...
Youth Justice Initiative: State/Federal Justice Assistance Grant (JAG), $3.135 million
High-Impact Grant Proposal A partnership of juvenile probation, a public school system, nonprofit organizations, and juvenile defenders, we designed the Youth Justice Initiative to reduce the school-to-juvenile justice pipeline while supporting successful...
Juvenile Defender Resource Project: Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention, $399,000
High-Impact Grant Proposal Young people caught in the juvenile justice system face an uphill battle, and in many rural or remote regions, including tribal lands, defense attorneys and public defenders struggle to stay abreast of best practices in juvenile...
Misdemeanor Early Representation Project: Bureau of Justice Assistance, Smart Defense Initiative, $378,000
High-Impact Grant Proposal On behalf of a county Public Defender office and in partnership with a local police department, we designed this project (and wrote the inaugural grant proposal) to provide point-of-arrest referral information for people arrested...
Research and Analysis
We help clients and stakeholders develop insights and understanding through research and analysis.
Criminal Justice System Assessment
Research and Analysis ClientJackson County, MOAmounts and Funding SourcesNAProjectUnder contract with HDR, Inc. and working in close partnership with Urban Institute, FTW conducted a high-level review and analysis of the Jackson County criminal justice system to...
Jail Needs Assessment, Conducted for the Office of the Sheriff
Research and Planning Client Office of the Sheriff, Contra Costa County Budget $65,000 Purpose In partnership with the Office of the Sheriff and the design firm HDR, Inc., this comprehensive Jail Needs Assessment of the Contra Costa County Adult Detention System was...
A Closer Look: Issues of Violence, Incarceration & Reentry in Richmond, CA – A Criminal Justice/Reentry Brief
Research and Analysis We’ve been working on criminal justice reform for quite awhile, now, and we believe that all good systems change starts with data-driven analysis. But criminal justice systems are complex, technical, and messy, in which many agencies...
