ABOUT
“Intervention, guidance and assistance is critical for both the justice-involved individual and victim to move past a criminal event and not be defined by a singular moment in time.”
— Jonathan Houston, Founder & Executive Chairman, Justice Assistance.
Mission
Justice Assistance's mission is to strengthen the community by providing a unique mix of innovative and critical services to assist our state's justice system in a way that builds the capacity of the people we care for to live safe, productive lives.
We pursue three primary goals
Help victims navigate all phases of the justice system, facilitating satisfactory outcomes.
Help defendants successfully exit the justice system by facilitating an expedient and satisfactory completion of the court order.
Provide research and development for community-related program improvements.
Essential to justice in Rhode Island since 1978
After identifying long-standing employment problems for Rhode Island's adult ex-offender population, Jonathan J. Houston organized a small group of professionals to focus and help address this issue in 1978. Today, Justice Assistance is an IRS-certified 501(c)(3) multi-services charitable organization, and an active participant in all facets of the justice system.
Reducing the social and monetary costs of justice
According to a recent studies by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), misdemeanor crimes – the ones addressed by Justice Assistance -- made up 76% of the criminal caseload composition in Rhode Island. Our fiscal benefit to the state is that we curb costs associated with the custody and control of misdemeanor offenders. At the same time, we also advocate for victims, something a larger entity may not be capable of doing in such a personal way.