Who We Are
Initiate Justice is created by and for people directly impacted by incarceration.
We build the power of currently and formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones, engaging them in grassroots campaigns focused on ending punitive justice while investing in people, communities, and restorative means of reducing harm. We envision a California with safe communities free from mass incarceration.
Our Strategy
We use an inside-outside strategy where we prioritize organizing people directly impacted by incarceration, inside and outside prison walls. Most of our organizing takes place in prison visiting rooms, in front of county jails, and inside prisons themselves. We also pursue social media organizing strategies that target online groups of people with incarcerated loved ones, so that they can disseminate Initiate Justice information to their loved ones inside directly.
Featured Campaigns
Latest Update on Proposition 57:
On Nov. 29, CDCR released the long-awaited, final draft of the Prop 57 Regulations. Initiate Justice met with CDCR Secretary Scott Kernan personally, where he told us that they received 41,000 comments from more than 12,000 individuals, and that most of the comments asked for credit earning to be made retroactive, for Third Strikers to be included in non-violent early parole consideration, and credits to come off of people’s Youth Offender Parole Dates.
Despite this incredible outpouring of support from the community, CDCR is NOT planning on making any of those recommended changes. Rather, they are making small, technical, and clarifying changes such as allowing people in prison to re-take certain Milestone eligible programs and clarifying that people in Administrative Segregation and the SHU are eligible for credit earning (unless they have other restrictions). The full text of the updated regulations can be read here.
We will continue to fight!
Initiate Justice is going to continue to work to build the power of people in prison and their loved ones. Breaking down this oppressive system will not happen overnight, and it will only happen when the people most impacted by incarceration stand up and stand together!
Our 2018 Ballot Initiative:
In 2018, we introduced the Voting Restoration and Democracy Act. We believe that the right to democracy should not be taken away from our incarcerated friends and family, and this ballot initiative would have restored voting rights to all California citizens regardless of criminal justice history. We built momentum for this initiative in 2018 but fell short of the required number of petition signatures. We will launch this initiative again in 2020 to win voting rights for all!
Unlocking the power of families, inside and out.
