BACKGROUND: Implementation science (IS) is an emerging discipline that offers frameworks, theories, measures, and interventions to understand both the effective organizational change processes and the contextual factors that affect how well an innovation operates in real-world settings. RESULTS: In this article, we present an overview of the basic concepts and methods of IS. We then present six studies where IS was used as a means to understand implementation of a new innovations designed to improve the health and well-being of individuals under criminal legal system supervision. CONCLUSION: We discuss how IS has developed new knowledge on how to implement efficacious innovations and suggesting future research needed to further our understanding of implementation and sustainability of innovations in the legal context.