The Justice Center provides practical, nonpartisan advice and consensus-driven strategies, informed by available evidence, to increase public safety and strengthen communities. The Justice Center is a nonprofit organization that works closely with legislative leaders, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, victim advocates, and others to develop consensus on various, often highly politicized, criminal justice issues and to translate this consensus into comprehensive reports, policy briefs, state and federal legislation, model policies, and innovative programs. The Justice Center not only develops written and web-based materials, but also provides on-the-ground technical assistance to policymakers and practitioners from multiple systems (corrections, mental health, housing, etc.), in state and local jurisdictions.

Project Director/Mental Health Consensus Project

The Council of State Governments Justice Center (www.justicecenter.csg.org) is hiring a Project Director for the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project. The Consensus Project (www.consensusproject.org) is a national effort to help criminal justice and mental health professionals improve the response to people with mental illnesses involved in the criminal justice system. The Council of State Governments (CSG) is a national, state-funded organization with a Governing Board representing all branches of state government from all 50 states, U.S. Territories and Commonwealths. Established in 1933, CSG provides a forum for new ideas, promotes innovations transfer, advocates multi-state problem solving, provides leadership training and technical assistance, and forecasts future state trends affecting policymaking.

The Criminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Project is a national effort to help local, state, and federal policymakers and criminal justice and mental health professionals improve the response to people with mental illnesses who come into contact with the criminal justice system.

Since 2002, Justice Center staff working on the Consensus Project have supported the implementation of practical, flexible criminal justice/mental health strategies through on-site technical assistance; the dissemination of information about programs, research, and policy developments in the field; continued development of policy recommendations; and educational presentations.

BASIC FUNCTION

Reporting to the Deputy Director of the CSG Justice Center, the Director of the Consensus Project will establish the policy framework and lead all active initiatives around issues of mental illness and the criminal justice system. To achieve this goal, Project Director will cultivate a network of legislators, consultants, researchers, analysts, scholars, practitioners and policy makers, to further the Project’s goals and raise the level of public awareness about critical criminal justice/mental health issues.

The Project Director will help chart the Project’s future strategic growth and manage its day to day operations.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Project Director will have ongoing responsibility to:

• Help shape and articulate the Consensus Project’s long-range policy agenda, including specific initiatives and useful products that can become signature pieces for the Project;
• Stay abreast of emerging trends within the criminal justice/mental health arena; continue to convene forums, encourage dialogue and commission research which frame and explore new critical issues relevant to the Consensus Project; build consensus and support relating to those issues both within and outside of CSG;
• Further effective communication about the Project, most often facilitating the involvement of the Project’s varied constituency with the media, but as appropriate, personally serving as a spokesperson;
• Assure that the work of the Project is truly national in scope, working across race, class, ethnic and geographic boundaries;
• Motivate and maintain a high performance team; recruit new staff as appropriate, assure effective training/development of present and new staff, and manage staff workload and evaluate performance;
• Review and assess overall Project capacity and efficiency including; structure, operations, financial and technological systems;
• Planning and participating in policy-focused meetings of high-ranking government officials, advocates, and national experts;
• Help assure effective internal communications systems; encourage cooperation and cross-fertilization between CSG/ERC departments.

IDEAL EXPERIENCE:

The ideal candidate will have the following experience and qualifications:

• Demonstrated success working in the policy arena in policy formulation, analysis, advocacy, research or the like;
• Excellent analytical skills and knowledge of current trends, principal theories, leading thinkers and major concerns in the criminal justice field;
• Solid management skills; an ability to plan, organize and follow through with staff; experience administering budgets and assessing organizational capacity;
• Demonstrated success in project and grants management, including maintaining and cultivating relationships with funders, designing technical assistance / educational programming and the evaluation of technical assistance activities;
• Strong written and oral communications skills, including the means to address issues in nonpartisan and non-polarizing ways;
• A record of success in working collaboratively with a team of diverse, strong, influential people to achieve common goals;
• A demonstrated ability to work effectively with policy makers, scholars, community leaders, and the media.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS:

The successful candidate should be or have the following:

• Personally committed to advancing the Criminal Justice Programs’ values, mission, goals and programs, with an understanding of a range of criminal justice issues and their implications;
• A strategic thinker who can translate vision into action;
• Able to function effectively without an ideological stance;
• A negotiator who is open and responsive to the ideas of others; able to build consensus from disparate viewpoints;
• Creative, resourceful and politically astute; someone who understands the value of creating partnerships as a way of accomplishing goals;
• Outgoing and straightforward; one who shares information easily; listens as well as gives advice; respects the abilities of others;
• Well-organized, clear-thinking, energetic and decisive; able to handle and prioritize multiple activities and responsibilities;
• Emotionally mature and self-confident, with a sense of humor and ability to maintain balance and perspective.

More information about the Criminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Project can be found at (www.consensusproject.org).

SALARY RANGE:
Salary is commensurate with experience, and includes a generous benefits package.

DEADLINE:
Open until filled

HOW TO APPLY:
Interested individuals must submit the following materials to https://secured.csg.org/csg/jobs:

1. Cover letter addressed to Suzanne Brown-McBride
   
2. Résumé
   
3. Writing sample (preferably no more than three pages)
4. Names and contact information for references (at least three)

Applicants who do not submit all of these materials will not be considered.

The Justice Center provides practical, nonpartisan advice and consensus-driven strategies, informed by available evidence, to increase public safety and strengthen communities. The Justice Center is a nonprofit organization that works closely with legislative leaders, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, victim advocates, and others to develop consensus on various, often highly politicized, criminal justice issues and to translate this consensus into comprehensive reports, policy briefs, state and federal legislation, model policies, and innovative programs. The Justice Center not only develops written and web-based materials, but also provides on-the-ground technical assistance to policymakers and practitioners from multiple systems (corrections, mental health, housing, etc.), in state and local jurisdictions.

The Justice Center values diversity and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.