- Deadline
- Passed
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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Year
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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.
Some fellows are not listed due to confidentiality concerns.
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Year
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Alice Kim
2016Alice Kim and Joey Mogul are writing a book about the four-decade long struggle for justice for survivors of racially motivated police torture in Chicago. -
Danny Murillo
2016Danny Murillo will work to empower formerly incarcerated students by creating a network of people throughout California who have successfully made the transition from incarceration to higher education. -
Ebony Underwood
2016Ebony Underwood will form a national coalition and create an online digital hub to advocate for and raise awareness of policies that support children of incarcerated parents. -
Eliza Hersh
2016Eliza Hersh will work to reform California’s broken sex offense registration system, and train legal advocates to bring relief to the people, families, and communities harmed by current laws. -
Issac J. Bailey
2016Issac J. Bailey will explore the issues of crime, race, punishment, and the effect of incarceration on families across generations. -
Joey Mogul
2016Alice Kim and Joey Mogul are writing a book about the four-decade long struggle for justice for survivors of racially motivated police torture in Chicago. -
Kristina Shull
2016Kristina Shull will work to dismantle the immigration detention system from the “inside” by challenging censorship practices, exposing abuses, and lifting up migrant voices in popular media and public discourse. -
Lisa Sangoi
2016Lisa Sangoi will research and write an advocacy report on the child welfare system, with a focus on how the system responds to allegations of drug use by parents. -
Mariame Kaba
2016Mariame Kaba will partner with organizations to support and advocate for women (trans and nontrans) who are survivors of sexual and physical violence but who also live under threat of arrest and incarceration. -
Nick August-Perna
2016Thomas Lennon and Nick August-Perna will complete a documentary film examining the human dimension of life after prison and the healing power of good food. -
Reyna Montoya
2016Reyna Montoya will organize people directly affected by the immigration detention system. -
Ryan Lo
2016Ryan Lo will use digital media storytelling as a way to change the narrative about people returning from prison and to help support efforts to reform the criminal justice system. -
Steven Czifra
2016Steven Czifra will help formerly incarcerated community college students reach their full academic and professional potential by creating a pathway for admission to the University of California, Berkeley. -
Teresa Hodge
2016Teresa Hodge will launch a campaign to promote tech education and opportunities for people returning from prison and to close the digital divide compounded by incarceration. -
Thomas Lennon
2016Thomas Lennon and Nick August-Perna will complete a documentary film examining the human dimension of life after prison and the healing power of good food. -
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...