In March, we reported that National Council on Crime and Delinquency President Alex Busansky had left in fairly abrupt fashion to start a new shop: Impact Justice (IJ), an Oakland-based organization that begins with a mission to reduce “the number of people involved in our juvenile and adult criminal justice system,” improve “conditions for those who remain incarcerated,” and provide “meaningful opportunities for success for those rejoining our communities.”
At the time, Busansky’s name was the only one on the staff list. Not any more!
Impact Justice has added 13 new employees, several of them plucked from the NCCD ranks. Among the new leaders of IJ:
David Muhammad, vice president. Muhammad was part of the team that reformed the D.C. juvenile justice system before heading to Oakland to lead the probation department. He then served as director of national justice programs for NCCD.
Nicole Pittman will serve as director of what IJ is calling the Center on Youth Registration Reform. Pittman, a current Stoneleigh Fellow, has developed in the past ten years into the foremost expert on juvenile inclusion on sex offender registries. Her 2013 Human Rights Watch report — Raised on the Registry: The Irreparable Harm of Placing Children on Sex Offender Registries in the US — is one of the most indicting policy papers on federal youth policy in recent history.
Jamie Lin, chief information officer. Lin, the founder and current CEO of Gizmo Global, has an interim role.
Ed Scheuer, chief financial officer. Scheuer, the founder of Capius Consulting, is also with IJ on an interim basis.
Angela Irvine, vice president, who spent the last four years as a research director for NCCD.
sujatha baliga, vice president. baliga will lead restorative justice work. No word on whether the Bay Area community conferencing project she oversaw at NCCD will move with her, or even continue at all.
YSI waits with interest to see what Impact Justice takes on first. We know from his time at NCCD that Busansky has a keen interest in pay-for-success projects (PFS), so we would not be surprised to see IJ pop up as an intermediary or working in some other capacity in that sector.
Youth Services Insider is mostly written by Chronicle Senior Editor John Kelly.