The American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization dedicated to promoting principles of nonviolence and justice through their service work and peace programs around the world. The AFSC responds to issues related to war, poverty and injustice and seeks to transform oppressive institutions in society through peaceful means.
Break the Chains
Break the Chains works to build a national movement within communities of color against punitive drug policies, with the ultimate aim of enacting alternative policies that promote racial justice, public health, and human rights. They hope to increase awareness that drug addiction is a disease, not a crime, and to reduce the stigma attached to it by working to promote drug treatment as a positive human right. In addition, Break the Chains seeks to increase access to treatment outside the criminal justice system for low-income people of color and to promote a range of harm-reducing approaches to deal with drug abuse and addiction.
Changing Minds
Since 1994, over 350 college in prison programs have been shut down, leaving fewer than a dozen still functioning. Changing Minds issues reports on the effects of a college curriculum on prisoners and on the general prison environment. In particular, they analyze the ways in which college affects a female inmate’s experience, how it impacts her children, as well as the long term effects of college on her economic, social, and civil engagement. Those at Changing Minds believe that it is important to document the consequences of the current public policy and to evaluate the benefits of a college in prison program.
Criminal Justice Program, Brennan Center for Justice
The Brennan Center for Justice is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on the fundamental issues of democracy and justice. Their work ranges from voting rights to redistricting reform, from access to the courts to presidential power in the fight against terrorism. A singular institution—part think tank, part public interest law firm, part advocacy group—the Brennan Center combines scholarship, legislative and legal advocacy in its effort to promote change in the public sector.
Critical Resistance
Critical Resistance aims to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging people makes for safer communities. Their long term goal is to completely abolish the Prison Industrial Complex, while they also emphasize the current need for alternative punishments for criminals. They identify themselves as part of the global struggle against injustice and powerlessness and believe that the government funds used for prisons should be spent on education, housing and health care.
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence is a national activist organization comprising of radical feminists of color who work toward ending violence against women of color and their communities through direct action, critical dialogue and grassroots organizing. INCITE! focuses on “violence directed at communities” such as police violence, war, and colonialism and “violence within communities” such as rape and domestic abuse.
Justice Now
Justice Now works to end violence against women and to abolish the prison system. They believe that the current prison system is damaging to the people it imprisons and to the communities affected by it. In addition, this organization functions as the first teaching law clinic in the country solely focused on the needs of women prisoners and provides legal services for them, such as compassionate release, heath care access, defense of parental rights, sentencing mitigation, and placement in community-based programs.
Moratorium 2000
Founded by Dead Man Walking author Sister Helen Prejean, Moratorium 2000 is an organization that works toward the complete abolition of the death penalty. Through a series of petitions and public lectures, Sister Helen Prejean and the other members of Moratorium 2000 attempt to educate people about the killing currently taking place in America’s prisons. They use evidence such as the growing number of innocent people exonerated from death row and the fact that various states are considering moratoriums to support their claims. Moratorium 2000 contests that the current prison system is seriously flawed and that the only way to correct this wrongdoing is through the abolition of the death penalty.
Penal Reform International
Penal Reform International is a non-governmental organization working on penal and criminal justice reform worldwide. PRI seeks to achieve penal reform by abolishing the death penalty, reducing the use of imprisonment worldwide, ensuring that human rights are upheld, and using non-custodial sanctions to support the social reintegration of prisoners. They work in conjunction with penal reform activists, NGO’s, and inter-governmental organizations such as the United Nations.
Prison Activist Resource Center
The Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC) is a prison abolitionist group committed to exposing and challenging the institutionalized racism of the Prison Industrial Complex. They work with current and previously incarcerated prisoners, as well as their families and friends, to provide practical support and solidarity. In addition, PARC educates teachers and activists on prison issues in order to build action networks that expose the human rights violations occurring in prisons.
Prison Moratorium Project
Founded in 1995, the Prison Moratorium Project is an organization dedicated to abolishing the prison system and exploring alternate forms of punishment. As part of the larger anti-prison movement, this organization promotes a revolution in thinking about crime and punishment, rather than seeking reforms within the already-broken system. Comprised of activists, community members and formerly incarcerated people, the Prison Moratorium Project is focused on reacting to the current injustices of the prison system and educating the public about governmental responses to crime.
Queers for Economic Justice
Queers for Economic Justice is a progressive non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation. Their goal is to challenge and change the systems that create poverty and economic injustice in their communities, and to promote an economic system that embraces sexual and gender diversity. Queers for Economic Justice believe in the interconnections between multiple oppressions that perpetuate economic injustice and they work to eradicate them through grassroots organizing, public education, advocacy, research, legal action, leadership development and coalition building with gay rights and economic justice organizations.
Sista II Sista
Based in Brooklyn, Sista II Sista is a community organization comprised of working class Black and Latina women who are dedicated to fighting for justice and creating alternatives to the current system by making social, cultural and political change. Completely non-hierarchical, this organization seeks to teach young women about leadership using a holistic approach and encourages their members to imagine a different world for their community.
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence. They seek to increase the political voice and visibility of low-income people of color who are transgender, intersex, or gender non-conforming. SRLP works to improve access to respectful and affirming social, health, and legal services for our communities. The members of SRLP believe that in order to create meaningful political participation and leadership, all people must have access to basic means of survival and safety from violence.
Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Justice Project
The Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project’s (TGIJP) mission is to challenge and end the human rights abuses committed against transgender, gender variant/genderqueer and intersex (TGI) people in California prisons and beyond. Recognizing that poverty born from pervasive discrimination and marginalization of TGI people is a major underlying cause of why TGI people end up in prison, TGIJP uses innovative combinations of direct services and community organizing to support the leadership development of the TGI communities.
Women in Prison
Women in Prison (WIP) is a British organization working with women at risk of going to prison, in prison and after release to promote their resettlement, personal development, education and training. They work to educate the public and policy makers about women in the criminal justice system and promote alternatives to custody. WIP highlights the unique experiences of women prisoners and seeks to make those experiences known to the greater population. In addition, WIP functions as an advocacy group that often works in conjunction with other prison reform and women’s organizations.
Women’s Prison Association
Women’s Prison Association (WPA) is a service and advocacy organization committed to helping women with criminal justice histories realize new possibilities for themselves and their families. The services provided by the WPA make it possible for women to obtain work, housing, and health care; to rebuild their families; and to participate fully in civic life. Through the Institute on Women & Criminal Justice, WPA pursues a rigorous policy, advocacy, and research agenda to bring new perspectives to public debates on women and criminal justice.
