Millions of people in the United States are touched by the criminal legal system each year through arrest, incarceration, community supervision, and entanglement with interconnected systems — child welfare, immigration enforcement, emergency response, and behavioral health — that shape health in many of the same ways. These encounters are not random: they fall disproportionately on Black and brown communities, people with low incomes, and those with unmet health needs. And their consequences extend far beyond the individual, shaping the health and wellbeing of families and communities.

The Bellwether Collaborative for Health Justice is housed in the Duke University Department of Population Health Sciences in Durham, North Carolina.  We are an interdisciplinary team united by a shared commitment to improving the health and well-being of all members of our community. We generate rigorous, community-rooted evidence on how the criminal legal system shapes health and on what alternatives can be put into place to mitigate harm.

Our research spans the full continuum: from upstream investments in community safety and alternative first response, to health services and policy within carceral settings, to reentry and the structural conditions that determine whether people can survive after system involvement. We partner with people with lived experience, community organizations, health providers, and policymakers to design research that is useful, actionable, and oriented toward health justice. We are committed to building the evidence base for a future where communities are safer, healthier, and have less criminal legal system involvement.