Dr. Mike Jones

Michael R. Jones is the President of Pinnacle Justice Consulting, which he began in 2017. He and his associates: provide training and technical assistance for states, localities, and various stakeholder organizations to understand and implement more legal and evidence-based criminal justice policies and practices; assist states and local jurisdictions to design and implement strategic, system-improvement initiatives; and perform empirical research, data analysis, and program evaluation. Mike has a strong subspecialty in pretrial justice. Previously, Mike worked at the non-profit Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI) for nearly seven years where he served as the Director of Implementation. At PJI, he directed the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s multi-year Smart Pretrial Demonstration Initiative, provided pretrial training and technical assistance to hundreds of jurisdictions, conducted numerous workshops at national and state conferences, performed empirical research, and developed a variety of resource materials for stakeholders and practitioners. Prior to PJI, Mike served as the Criminal Justice Planning Manager for Jefferson County, Colorado for nine years, where he helped the local criminal justice coordinating committee and its planning staff team gain national and statewide recognition for working on innovative initiatives, adhering to a collaborative, data-guided process, and achieving cost-effective outcomes. He and his staff facilitated the committee’s systemic planning and coordination initiatives. During that time, Mike also worked as a consultant for the National Institute of Corrections, for which he performed local justice system assessments, assisted localities in developing or improving their criminal justice coordinating committees, helped them improve their ability to analyze data to inform local policymaking, and presented workshops at national conferences and trainings. Mike received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has written numerous criminal justice, pretrial, and psychological publications, some in peer-reviewed journals, and has authored the National Institute of Corrections’ guidebook describing how jurisdictions can effectively staff their criminal justice coordinating committees.