I hope that the new year has so far brought you peace, health, and excitement for what lays ahead. I speak for all of us at EJUSA when I tell you how eager I am for the opportunities to build community safety in cities and neighborhoods across the country. There’s so much happening: The Restorative… Continue reading What Lies Ahead
Category: Uncategorized
The Death Penalty in Decline
I have been working at EJUSA for almost 19 years, all of them spent beating back our legacy of killing people as punishment for harm they committed. State by state, we have repealed death penalty laws or convinced governors to halt executions to end this terrible, misguided practice that does not make us safer. Now,… Continue reading The Death Penalty in Decline
Expanding Our Vision to Include Restorative Justice
I’ve been waiting to tell you this news for some time. Today, Equal Justice USA officially welcomed the Restorative Justice Project onto our team. Impact Justice, an ally organization in the justice movement, has been operating the Project, launched by the visionary sujatha baliga, since 2015. Impact Justice felt like now was the right time… Continue reading Expanding Our Vision to Include Restorative Justice
Equal Justice USA Welcomes the Restorative Justice Project
Spinoff from Impact Justice Completes EJUSA’s Practice Model with a Response to Harm that Aligns with Mission and Values Equal Justice USA (EJUSA) announced today that it was growing to absorb the Restorative Justice Project, which is being spun off by Impact Justice. The Project will join EJUSA’s existing slate of programs that are transforming… Continue reading Equal Justice USA Welcomes the Restorative Justice Project
Changed Minds
There’s something exciting about having an experience that you know you’ll never forget. That’s exactly what I felt on October 8, when I escorted several of our youth from our partners in Newark, The HUBB Arts and Trauma Center, to The Metropolitan Opera, in New York City, to see “Dead Man Walking.” This came about… Continue reading Changed Minds
How We See Each Other
Earlier this year, international opera singer Ryan McKinny emailed EJUSA out of the blue. He told us that he was performing the role of Joseph De Rocher in a new production of “Dead Man Walking” at The Metropolitan Opera. He wanted to use his platform, the biggest of his career to date, to elevate our… Continue reading How We See Each Other
Evangelicals Reject a Fear-Based Criminal Legal System
I was at the train station in Charlottesville talking to two women about our mutual appreciation for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, which they would see in DC. They shared about their work as librarians. I shared about Equal Justice USA and our desire for every community to be safe and healthy, where violence is… Continue reading Evangelicals Reject a Fear-Based Criminal Legal System
Revenge Does Not Heal
I don’t doubt that you learned of the recent conclusion to the trial for the mass murder at the Tree of Life synagogue, in Pittsburgh. A jury delivered a death penalty sentence for the killing of 11 worshippers in 2018. At Equal Justice USA, we focus on survivors of violence and trauma in every aspect… Continue reading Revenge Does Not Heal
What it Means to Be Racially Profiled
I recently attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Mothers in Charge, the essential organization that Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight founded after her son’s senseless murder. She supports and heals mothers and family members who have lost loved ones to violence and incarceration. MIC and Dr. Dorothy have been incredible partners with EJUSA over the years while… Continue reading What it Means to Be Racially Profiled
Healing for Network Members
Have you ever thought about your relationship with your breath? To your body? For Black, brown, indigenous, queer, and trans people working on the frontlines of violence intervention, the relationship to the body and breath can be simultaneously sacred, tenuous, and uncertain. BlPOC communities have experienced generations of surveillance from police, forced labor, and bodily… Continue reading Healing for Network Members