The Path to Change: 100-Day Challenges in Zacatecas’ Criminal Justice System - 2020

This brief case study documents RE!NSTITUTE's implementation of 100-Day Challenges in the justice sector in the State of Zacatecas, Mexico from 2017-2020 in collaboration with two USAID projects (Projust and JAVA). The 100-Day Challenges aimed to increase case resolution rates in robbery and domestic violence cases and details some of the technical innovations that the frontline teams developed to overcome barriers and solve specific problems to reach their goals. The innovations and process changes implemented by teams across Zacatecas during these four years have had a lasting impact. The 100-Day Challenge is well known across the state, and participating justice operators have experienced a significant transformation to their daily work. Processes are more efficient, there is less bureaucracy, waiting times for victims have decreased, police and prosecutors work together to protect the lives of women, and system leaders have shifted to a results-based approach - while continuing to drum up new ways in which the 100-Day Challenge can be used to garner tangible and lasting results.