About CJPF

CJPF closed and went of business in June 2020.

Founded in 1988, CJPF was one of the oldest drug policy reform organizations in the United States. CJPF's primary mission was to educate the public about the impact of drug policy on the criminal justice system. We provided information and strategic advice to policymakers, criminal justice organizations, interest groups and the public through direct consultation, conferences, publications, the news media and blogs. We also assisted drug policy reform organizations with advice on coalitions, legal organization, management, outreach, research, and media relations.

Eric E. Sterling was the Executive Director of CJPF from 1989 to June 2020. Previously, Mr. Sterling was Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary from 1979 until 1989. On the staff of the Subcommittee on Crime from 1981 to 1989, (Rep. William J. Hughes (D-NJ), Chair), he was responsible for drug enforcement, gun control, money laundering, organized crime, pornography, terrorism, corrections, and military assistance to law enforcement. In 1979, Mr. Sterling was hired by Rep. Robert Drinan, S.J., Chair of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, to assist the subcommittee on rewriting the federal criminal code. Mr. Sterling frequently lectures at colleges, universities, and professional societies throughout the nation and is regularly interviewed by the national news media.

While working for CJPF, Mr. Sterling served on numerous boards of non-profits engaged in drug policy and criminal justice policy reform, and on public bodies such as the Montgomery County Alcohol and Other Drug Addiction Advisory Council and the State of Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission (2013-2017) where he was the principal author of the regulations laying the foundation for Maryland’s cannabis industry.

BACKGROUND

In the 1980s, Mr. Robert C. Linnell, a Boston businessman and philanthropist, was alarmed by the grave threat of corruption to the American criminal justice system. Mr. Linnell saw this corruption as endemic to drug enforcement and, in 1988, was inspired to co-found the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation with Mr. Sterling in an effort to address these threats. Mr. Linnell believed that a criminal justice system that is honest, fair and effective is one of America's most important institutions. He believed that America's national life depends upon our safety and liberty, which in turn depends upon the integrity and effectiveness of our justice system.

CJPF was a private, non-profit organization. It was a tax-exempt charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.