Over the past several years, AV’s criminal justice initiative has grown substantially. With nearly 50 employees focused on grantmaking, research, advocacy, and communications, along with around $400 million in grants made to hundreds of partner organizations, it is now one of the largest criminal justice reform efforts in the United States.
AV’s work in criminal justice aims at changing the system to improve people’s lives and strengthen community safety. Our goal is to root out racial and economic inequities that produce unjust outcomes and to identify and address the information, evidence, capacity gaps, and underlying structures that impede reform.
The initiative now consists of 11 portfolio areas along with a cross-cutting/exploratory team:
- Reducing Violent Crime
- Gun Policy Research
- Police Response
- Police Accountability
- Bail Reform
- Public Defense
- Prosecution
- Prisons
- Community Supervision
- Fines and Fees
- Reintegration
To help drive evidence-informed policy change in these areas, AV engages in grantmaking and other activities focused on research, policy development, strategic litigation, communications, and advocacy.
“This overview is a useful primer on the scope and breadth of our criminal justice work,” said Stephanie Akhter, criminal justice chief of staff at AV. “It shows how Arnold Ventures is committed to investigating what works and ways to improve aspects of the justice system in order to better people’s lives and strengthen community safety.”
See the overview of AV’s criminal justice initiative here.
And for more information on partnerships and grants, please visit our website at ArnoldVentures.org/grantees.
