UNDERSTANDING VIOLENCE
Resources
How to Help!
Follow the links below to learn more about organizations dedicated to the understanding of violence, the eradication of mass incarceration, and the development of restorative justice programs.
The Vera Institute of Justice
A non-profit organization dedicated to ending the overcriminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, immigrants, and people experiencing poverty.
Vera is powered by hundreds of advocates, researchers, and activists working to transform the criminal legal and immigration systems until they are fair for all.
Founded in 1961 to advocate for alternatives to cash bail in New York City, Vera is now a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change. They develop just, antiracist solutions so that money does not determine freedom; fewer people are in jails, prisons, and immigration detention; and everyone in the system is treated with dignity.
The Marshall Project
The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. They have an impact on the system through journalism, to render it more fair, effective, transparent and humane.
The Freedom Library
By seeding 1,000 Freedom Libraries inside prisons across the country, Freedom Reads offers a rhetorical and functional response to the indignity accompanying each moment spent in a cell. The book is a powerful symbol of freedom and a bookshelf, within reach before you sleep at night or when you awake, lets you determine where your imagination goes.
Partners for Justice
Partners for Justice was created to help break the cycle of poverty and criminalization by providing holistic support services to people facing criminal charges, while helping public defenders protect people from incarceration and other criminal penalties. Every day, people facing criminal charges encounter challenges which can rapidly escalate to
become life-altering problems. These challenges are more safely, easily, and efficiently resolved through early intervention. Partners for Justice trains non-attorney Advocates to provide clients with case navigation and wraparound support, while helping public defenders protect people
from incarceration and other legal penalties.