The Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI) provides criminal records and employment law training to job seekers who have been involved in the criminal legal system, assists employers in rethinking their approach to hiring, engages in research to study reentry practices, and influences policy makers and legislators on criminal justice reform.
CJEI Stories
Register Today: Qualified But Denied: How Policy Change Can Expand Access to Employment for Justice-Impacted New Yorkers
Join us on Wednesday, April 24, for the Center for Applied Research on Work's webinar "Qualified But Denied: How Policy Change Can Expand Access to Employment for Justice-Impacted New Yorkers."
Center for Technology Licensing program continues to fund early-stage Cornell lab innovations
Cornell Chronicle
Each of the selected projects has received a grant of up to $50,000. CTL’s Ignite Innovation Acceleration program is designed to de-risk lab projects during a 12-month period with the goal of helping project teams generate interest in licensing and form startups or industry partnerships.
Made in USA: Prison Labor Keeps Slavery Legal in 2024
Anderson Jr. stood before the New York State Senate on Feb. 12 to recount his experience working for Corcraft, an entity operating within the New York State Department of Corrections.
Silicon Falls: Buffalo Startup Week 2023 Unveils New Collaboration Involving Cornell University and Stanford University
“Buffalo Startup Week provided the perfect platform to introduce the new ‘Silicon Falls’ collaboration with Stanford University,” said Jodi Anderson Jr., director of technological development at Cornell ILR’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI).
Unlocking the Potential of Formerly Incarcerated Job Seekers
Timothy McNutt, director of the Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative at the Cornell ILR School, joins host Chris Wofford in studio to help us understand how we can address and correct barriers in employment for formerly incarcerated people.
Opportunity Meets Preparation: APPA and CJEI Team Up
The American Probation and Parole Association’s (APPA) 48th Annual Training Institute took place in New York City from August 27-30. The hybrid event included workshops, speaker series, networking opportunities and a successful second-chance job fair supported by Cornell ILR’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI).
Master’s degree student persevered from prison to Ivy League
Cornell Chronicle
After serving two prison terms totaling more than four years, Thomas Jones, master's student in the ILR School, committed to turning his life around – through education and giving back.
ILR Hosts Albany Policymakers to Show Impact of State Funding
Representatives from both the NY State legislative and executive branches gathered on the ILR campus on Thursday morning to officially launch the New York at Work annual report.
Podcast: Objection! You're Fiction - The Shawshank Redemption
Employment redemption in Shawshank – Timothy McNutt, director of ILR’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI), joins the podcast Objection! You’re Fiction, to discuss the post-prison job prospects in the film The Shawshank Redemption.
July Community Safety and Healing Panel Proves Prescient Amid Current Campus Tensions
Although the discussion focused on criminal justice, the panel underscored the universal need to fight injustice with resources and opportunities for employment, economic participation, and meaningful community contributions.
Education is a potent catalyst for personal transformation and societal progress, yet incarcerated individuals have long faced barriers to accessing quality education. Recognizing the transformative potential of higher learning, specifically for justice-impacted populations, Cornell University organized the Cornell Prison Education Symposium in June at the Statler Hotel’s Amphitheatre.
CJEI: ‘Technology is the Answer’ for Incarcerated Learners at 2023 ASU+GSV Summit
"How do we build the skills and equip justice-impacted individuals with a talent set to prepare them for jobs that are going to lead to social and economic mobility? It's technology," said Jodi Anderson Jr., director of technological innovation at Cornell University’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI).
Combining the might of P2P and CJEI, the job fair brought together hiring and resource partners, leaders with lived experience, as well as service providers to support candidates with justice involvement in their pursuit of meaningful employment.
'Can You Hear My Voice?' conference offers new ways to think about hiring practices
McNutt shares a new tool, the Yang-Tan Restorative Record, which helps justice-impacted individuals create a more well-rounded picture of their qualifications for employment.
Unlocking Talent Pools: The Impact of Traditional Hiring Practices on Justice-Impacted Job Candidates
Traditional hiring practices are insufficient, but there is an alternative; this was the mission which brought together thought leaders from ILR and Jobs for the Future (JFF) at the 75th Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) conference earlier this month in Detroit, Michigan.
Funding from K. Lisa Yang '74 will support innovative applied research projects and foster collaborations across Cornell to address important societal issues linked to work.
The inaugural Brooklyn Job Fair at the Barclays Center was not only a significant milestone in cementing CJEI’s commitment to serving NYS justice-impacted residents, but also a momentous event for the communities of NYC.
The director of ILR’s Criminal Justice Employment Initiative teaches job applicants and hiring managers how to get beyond the criminal records that often keep them apart.
Timothy McNutt, Esq participated at the The Queensboro Correctional Facility winter resource fair on Friday, December 9th. The resource fair included employment and educational opportunities, family reunification, parental and child support, housing, health, discharge planning, and substance abuse assistance.
The Restorative Record project, led by Timothy McNutt, Matthew Saleh, and Jodi Anderson explored connections that can be drawn from experiences of justice-impacted workers to other marginalized workers and how these experiences relate to broader themes of access to work, equity, and economic development.
Roundtable Discussion on Emerging Trends in Work, Labor, and Employment
On November 29, 2022, Cornell ILR, hosted a roundtable discussion on emerging trends in work, labor, and employment at the New York City Conference Center.
CJEI Presentation for Cornell’s Prison Reform and Education Project
Timothy McNutt, Director of the Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative at Cornell ILR, partnered with Cornell’sPrison Reform and Education Project (PREP) in November 2022 to deliver a presentation on the topic of justice-impacted access to work.
Cornell ILR’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative offered an employment rights class in partnership with the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office on October 26, 2022.
Timothy McNutt, Director of ILR's Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative, participated in the NYS AFL-CIO’s Union Strong Podcast about “Adult-Use Cannabis – Building a new industry from the ground up in a way that will raise revenue, create good union jobs, and address social, racial, and economic equity."