Adam Gelb
| Adam Gelb | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965[citation needed] Hartford, Connecticut |
| 🏫 Education | University of Virginia (BA) Harvard University (MPP) |
| 💼 Occupation | Founder, President, and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice |
Adam Barnet Gelb (born 1965)[citation needed] is the founder, president, and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank and invitational membership organization that produces research and policy proposals to improve state, federal, and local public safety and justice systems. A former journalist, congressional aide, and senior state government official, Gelb is also known for directing the Public Safety Performance Project at The Pew Charitable Trusts.[1][not in citation given] He regularly advises federal, state, and local policymakers and provides analysis and commentary on crime and justice issues for national and local media.[2]
Early Life and Education
Born to Judith Cohen Gelb and Leslie H. “Les” Gelb in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1965, Gelb grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, with two sisters. Gelb’s father was a federal government official, a correspondent, editor, and columnist for The New York Times, and a president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Inspired by his father's work, Gelb pursued a career in journalism and public policy. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and history from the University of Virginia in 1987, serving in 1986 as news editor of the student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily. In 1994, Gelb received a Master of Public Policy with a concentration in crime control and justice from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.[2][3][4][5]
Career
Gelb began his professional career in journalism in 1987 as a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, covering the police beat and the height of the nation’s drug war. Gelb has said his work experiences in those years persuaded him that America’s criminal justice system was not producing sufficient safety or justice.[3] After graduating from the Harvard Kennedy School, Gelb served on the staff of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee during negotiations and final passage of the omnibus bipartisan Violent Crime Control and Enforcement Act of 1994, commonly referred to as the 1994 Crime Bill.[6]
Gelb then shifted to state government work, serving from 1995 to 2000 as policy director for Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.[7][not in citation given] In that role, he helped initiate and oversee several projects that focused comprehensive crime control and prevention efforts toward at-risk people and neighborhoods, including the Maryland HotSpot Communities Initiative.[3][8][irrelevant citation]
From 2001 to 2003, Gelb served as executive director of the Georgia governor’s Commission on Certainty in Sentencing,[9] where he designed a new system of sentencing options for probationers. In 2004, he became vice president for programs at the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse (now the Georgia Council on Recovery),[10][not in citation given] where he developed and administered a program to assist juveniles with substance abuse disorders returning to the community from state custody.[2][3]
In 2006, The Pew Charitable Trusts hired Gelb to run a new initiative on state sentencing and corrections policy. The Public Safety Performance Project[11][not in citation given] produced research documenting the high cost and low public safety return of traditional sentencing and corrections policies and helped 35 states develop, adopt, and implement a wide range of criminal justice reforms.[1][3][12][irrelevant citation] The effort became known as the Justice Reinvestment Initiative[13] and involved partnerships with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Council of State Governments Justice Center, the Crime and Justice Institute, and other organizations. The project also published landmark research including “One in 100: Behind Bars in America,” which revealed that the U.S. incarceration rate had grown to encompass 1 percent of the adult resident population.[14]
Council on Criminal Justice
In 2019, Gelb founded the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ), an invitational membership organization and nonpartisan think tank.[15] The Council’s stated mission is to “advance understanding of the criminal justice policy choices facing the nation and build consensus for solutions that enhance safety and justice for all.”[16] A key part of its work is bridging ideological divides to foster progress through its independent task forces, commissions, and working groups.[3] Such panels have produced research and policy recommendations on policing, violent crime, managing COVID’s impacts, long prison sentences, veterans, and women in the justice system, and other topics.[17] The Council’s crime trends reports track offending patterns in a sample of U.S. cities and are routinely cited by government leaders and the media.[18]
The Council’s boards and 350 elected members comprise people from across the ideological spectrum and various sectors and disciplines, representing law enforcement, corrections, courts, community organizations, research, and advocacy, as well as crime victims and survivors and formerly incarcerated people.[19]
Other Roles and Affiliations
Gelb serves on the advisory boards of Recidiviz,[20] the Health and Reentry Project,[21] Act Now,[22] and the Cavalier Daily Alumni Association,[23] and has previously served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (now All Rise) and the Stephanie Roper Committee and Foundation.[2]
Selected Bibliography
- Are the Most Dangerous Words in Criminal Justice About to Disappear? Newsweek, August 28, 2025
- Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration in Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration, Columbia University Press, April 2024.
- Reconsidering Long Sentences: The Search for Common Ground Federal Sentencing Reporter (2023) 36 (1-2): 4–5.
- On criminal justice, don't just focus on bad news. We ignore progress at our peril. USA Today, September 23, 2023.
- America's surge in violence: Why we must reduce violent crime for prison reform to work USA Today, March 9, 2021.
- You Get What You Measure: New Performance Indicators Needed to Gauge Progress of Criminal Justice Reform Papers from the Executive Session on Community Corrections, Harvard Kennedy School, May 2018
- Denney, Jacob, and Adam Gelb. National Prison Rate Continues to Decline Amid Sentencing, Re-Entry Reforms The Pew Charitable Trusts, 16 Jan. 2018,
- You Get What You Measure: Compstat for Community Corrections with William Burrell, The Pew Charitable Trusts Public Safety Performance Project, July 2007.
- Compstat for Community Corrections Perspectives: The Journal of the American Probation and Parole Association, Winter 2006, pp. 30-33.
- Tools of the Trade: A Guide to Incorporating Science into Practice with Faye S. Taxman PhD et al, Washington DC: National Institute of Corrections, December 2004.
- Forget the Extremes. Try a Dose of Both The Washington Post, Outlook Section, Sunday, May 6, 2001.
- Graduated Sanctions: Stepping into Accountable Systems and Offenders with Faye S. Taxman PhD and David Soule, The Prison Journal, June 1999, Vol. 79, No. 2, Sage Publications, pp. 182-204.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Public Safety Performance Project". pew.org. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Adam Gelb - Council on Criminal Justice". counciloncj.org. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "Adam Gelb". Leadership Matters. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "WEDDINGS; Katie Long, Adam Gelb". Archived from the original on 2018-01-16. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "Alumni of Harvard University: class of 1994". alumnius.net. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "Biden was pilloried for his criminal justice record. During his presidency, advocates expect change". NBC News. 2020-11-27. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "Townsend's Anti-Crime Efforts Struggle". The Washington Post. 2002-10-20. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ Bubeck, Chris (1998-03-27). "Maryland Crime Dropped in All Categories in 1997". CNS Maryland. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "Have Tough Crime Initiatives Gone Past Diminishing Returns?". Georgia Public Policy Foundation. 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ Carnes, William (2022-11-04). "The Georgia Council on Substance Abuse Is Now The Georgia Council for Recovery: Freedom From Addiction". Georgia Council for Recovery. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "A History of Service". pew.org. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "35 States Reform Criminal Justice Policies Through Justice Reinvestment". pew.org. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "About JRI". Justice Reinvestment Initiative. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "One in 100". pew.org. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "Koch exec, Black Lives Matter in group pushing prison reform". AP News. 2019-07-23. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "About Us - Council on Criminal Justice". counciloncj.org. 2024-02-24. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "Our Work - Council on Criminal Justice". counciloncj.org. 2024-02-25. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "Media Coverage - Council on Criminal Justice". counciloncj.org. 2024-04-07. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "About Membership - Council on Criminal Justice". counciloncj.org. 2024-02-26. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "Recidiviz | About". www.recidiviz.org. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "Advisors | Health and Reentry Project". healthandreentryproject.org. 2025-03-13. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "National Advisory Council – Act Now". Retrieved 2025-12-23.
- ↑ "Board of Directors - The Cavalier Daily Alumni Association". aig.uvaalumni.org. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
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