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Open Society-U.S.’s Soros Justice Fellowships fund outstanding individuals to undertake projects that advance reform, spur debate, and catalyze change on a range of issues facing the U.S. criminal legal system.
We are taking a moment to pause and analyze the future of our three U.S. based fellowship programs. This means we will not be issuing a call for proposals for 2025 fellows, as we would have done this fall.
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Brenda Kenneally
2001Brenda Kenneally will illustrate through writing and photography the problematic nature of incarceration for victimless drug and drug-related crimes. -
Emily Bolton
2001Emily Bolton will expose errors and identify practical, system-wide adjustments to minimize wrongful convictions. The project works to reframe the debate over the importance of constitutional protections and advocate reform of a system that places... -
Jan Goodwin
2001Jan Goodwin will write a series of articles exploring restorative justice as a viable framework for the criminal justice system. -
Jessy Fernandez
2001Jessy Fernandez will launch the Community Education Project which seeks to educate poor communities of color about the nation's over-reliance on punishment and incarceration, and to support their participation and leadership in creating and... -
Linda Evans
2001Linda Evans will increase civic participation of former prisoners, launch a public education campaign highlighting the social, political, and economic obstacles faced by former prisoners and engage in policy advocacy on behalf of them. -
Marlee Ford
2001Marlee Ford will create a replicable, community-based, prevention-focused, holistic defender model that is effective at both reducing juvenile incarceration and increasing public safety. -
Michelle Dillard
2001Michelle Dillard will raise public awareness, develop an advocacy module and framework for the implementation of therapeutic interventions for children with incarcerated parents. -
Peter Markowitz
2001Peter Markowitz will establish an immigration defense project at a local community defender which ensures that criminal representation is sensitive to collateral immigration consequences and can serve as a model for defender organizations nation-wide. -
Presita May
2001Presita May will recruit community-based lawyers to represent people of color in custody; strengthen residents' links to state and local government decision-makers, and to increase and enhance communication between community residents and the police. -
Sara Catania
2001Sara Catania will examine, through a series of articles, why the public and politicians in California continue to support prosecution of severely mentally ill people for capital crimes in spite of the 1986 Supreme Court ruling which holds that... -
Xochitl Bervera
2001Xochitl Bervera will create and implement a comprehensive and creative legal strategy to support and further grassroots organizing efforts to end all incarceration for profit. -
Adrian LeBlanc
2000Adrian LeBlanc will write a series of articles on the intergenerational impact of prison, characterizing the troubling ways in which the children of incarcerated parents absorb the culture of prison. -
Alden Loury
2000Alden Loury will write a series of stories exploring how and why African Americans have suffered the greatest casualties in Chicago's "war on drugs" at every stage of the criminal justice system. -
Betsy Ginsberg
2000Betsy Ginsberg will challenge discrimination against mentally and physically disabled prisoners in New York, focusing on the biases which disabled prisoners face. -
Heba Nimr
2000Heba Nimr will assist INS-detained immigrants, their families, and communities in their efforts to change public opinion and the local law enforcement policies which have led to skyrocketing detention rates for non-citizens. -
John Biewen
2000John Biewen will produce "Beyond the Lock Up Society," a series of public radio documentaries exploring the stories of political and law enforcement leaders in the US (and Canada) who are rejecting America's unprecedented resort to incarceration... -
Lenore Anderson
2000Lenore Anderson will provide legal education and advocacy training to parents whose sons and daughters face incarceration, and to support them in their efforts to reform harsh incarceration policies. The project is expected to reduce the... -
Robin Busch
2000Robin Busch will expand a new college program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and raise public awareness of the importance of higher education for prisoners. The project will help prepare inmates for life outside of prison and will highlight... -
Sasha Abramsky
2000To write a series of articles that will explore how today's incarceration boom will affect tomorrow's society, looking at acculturation, and the economic and political problems faced by ex-inmates and the broader community. Specific issue areas... -
Steven Rubin
2000Steven Rubin will photograph asylum seekers, permanent residents, "lifers" and children incarcerated as a result of the 1996 Immigration Law, following the course of their detention through hearings and appeals to deportation and release, and... -
Vanita Gupta
2000Vanita Gupta will reform the existing, race-biased drug sentencing laws affecting non-violent offenders who are people of color. The project will provide trial and post-conviction representation of those clients particularly victimized by...
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Brandon Brown
2024Brandon Brown and Catherine Besteman will educate, coordinate, and interrupt the flow of people into prisons through building a robust, reparative, healing alternative to incarceration in the wake of harm. -
Catherine Besteman
2024Catherine Besteman and Brandon Brown will educate, coordinate, and interrupt the flow of people into prisons through building a robust, reparative, healing alternative to incarceration in the wake of harm. -
Claudia Muñoz-Castellano
2024Claudia Muñoz-Castellano will educate and create a Texas statewide legal empowerment program to combat the alarming rise in criminalizing policies and practices that target immigrants. -
Deborah Small
2024Deborah Small will study the impact of local efforts to “reimagine public safety,” focusing on the effectiveness of the initiatives, enhancing trust between law enforcement and the community, and addressing systemic issues. -
Elizabeth Kennedy
2024Elizabeth Kennedy will research deportees to El Salvador and Honduras, focusing on youth, Indigenous and Garifuna communities, the LGBTQI+ population, and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. -
George Morton
2024George Morton will establish an initiative that elevates the vast expanse of Black narratives and fosters the transformation of Black people as artists and art subjects. -
Gina Jackson
2024Gina Jackson and Lea Wetzel will build a national model of peer support and best practices for missing and murdered Indigenous Womxn (MMIW/G). -
Kelly Davis
2024Kelly Davis will research the needs and experiences of pregnant people who have been incarcerated, to inform and advance a broader policy agenda based on gender-based violence, reproductive justice, and criminal justice reform. -
Lauren Faraino
2024Lauren Faraino will engage in legal and storytelling advocacy to investigate, and expose, and halt the unlawful practice of harvesting organs of people who die while incarcerated without family permission. -
Laverne Thompson
2024Laverne Thompson will craft a dynamic community archive of the groundbreaking efforts of Louisiana’s advocates and visionaries who paved the way for criminal justice reform in Louisiana. -
Lea Wetzel
2024Lea Wetzel and Gina Jacksin will build a national model of peer support and best practices for missing and murdered Indigenous Womxn (MMIW/G). -
Nia Lee
2024Lee will spearhead a national series for justice-impacted Black and Brown queer women, femmes, trans, and gender-expansive individuals to create a platform for dialogue, community building, and transformative justice spaces. -
Temi Mwale
2024Temi Mwale will examine how technology produces state violence and harm through the criminalization of Black communities, with a unique focus on the parallels between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. -
Tijanna Eaton
2024Tijanna Eaton will support authors who have served time in United States prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers, with wraparound coaching and services to develop books sharing their vital stories.
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