National Council on Crime and Delinquency President Alex Busansky has left the organization after five years to start a new entity called Impact Justice.
Busansky announced the move late last week on his personal Twitter account: “I am thrilled to announce the launch of Impact Justice, a national innovation and research center.”
Impact Justice is “committed to reducing the number of people involved in our juvenile and adult criminal justice system, improving conditions for those who remain incarcerated and providing meaningful opportunities for success for those rejoining our communities,” according to a statement on its website.
Busansky said establishing Impact Justice as part of NCCD “didn’t make sense,” which led to an “agreed-upon” decision for him to leave the organization. Impact Justice was started with funding from an anonymous angel investor, he said.
Busansky is the only listed staff member at the moment, and said a more formal launch of the organization will take place in a few weeks.
Impact Justice’s advisory board includes several national figures involved in justice reform, including:
- Todd Clear, provost of Rutgers University and the past board chair of NCCD
- Vincent Schiraldi, senior advisor on criminal justice to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio
- Frankie Guzman, counsel for the National Center for Youth Law
- Pat Nolan, director of the American Conservative Union Foundation’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform
- Chet Hewitt, president of the Sierra Health Foundation
NCCD named Vice President Kathy Park acting president of the organization, which has offices in Oakland, Calif., Madison, Wisc., and Washington, D.C. Park has been with the organization for nearly 15 years.
“I have been proud to work at NCCD for the past 15 years, and I feel honored, to be entrusted with the leadership of this great organization,” Park said in a statement released late last week.
Busansky succeeded longtime NCCD President Barry Krisberg in 2010. During his tenure, NCCD emerged as a key national player in the emergence of youth-related pay for success (PFS) projects. PFS ventures involve the provision of privately-backed services that government agencies pay for with interest, but only if certain outcomes are achieved.
“Now more than ever, NCCD’s work and people are strong across the country and around the world, as evidenced by our strong child welfare and justice portfolios, as well as our recent inroads in Pay for Success,” Park said in a statement on NCCD’s website.
Busansky began his legal career as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and later worked in the Criminal Section of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and for the Senate Judiciary Committee under former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.).
NCCD hired him away from the Vera Institute of Justice, where he helped create and oversaw the New York-based organization’s Washington office.
John Kelly is an editor for The Imprint
