Let's break the cycle of incarceration and poverty.

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.

–1,679,000

Days of incarceration

Our team has saved clients an estimated 1,679,000 days of incarceration, yielding tens of millions of dollars in potential taxpayer savings

7,500+

CLIENTS

Over 7,000 clients connected with social services, supported in telling their stories, and aided in coming home every year.

We envision a world where the legal system reflects the humanity, complexity, and potential of those who experience it and its outcomes ensure the opportunity to move forward with one's future intact.

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How it works

Partners for Justice provides collaborative support services to people facing criminal charges, while helping public defenders protect people from incarceration and other criminal penalties.

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We embed specialty-trained teams within public defender offices to meet housing, employment, educational, health and mental health needs for clients.

We build capacity for public defender offices through resources and collaboration.

We create and distribute resources to public defender offices in our network.

Alice is the sole caregiver to her elderly parents, who are in poor health. It's been hard for her to meet all of their needs. Due to a criminal charge, she lost her job in the midst of the pandemic. She resorted to selling personal belongings to pay her bills.

Alice's Advocate made a successful case for her to get emergency relief for rent payments and other essentials. The Advocate connected her with benefits to ensure she had food and necessities. Alice also secured a job interview after her Advocate helped her with the application. All these positive developments will work in her favor as her case proceeds through the court, maximizing the chance that Alice will be able to move forward without a criminal record.

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The back of a person walking into a courthouse in black and white

Where we are

Partners for Justice works closely with leaders in the field of public defense and access to justice, both nationally and in our local programs with public defender offices across the country. Our goal is to augment existing systems to better support people facing criminal charges.

Interested in becoming a partner office?

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Phenomenal data on mitigation

In the last year, when we filed mitigation of this kind—on both misdemeanor and felony cases—87% of those cases were resolved without incarceration, and 71% were either dismissed outright or given a path to dismissal through diversion.

Keep reading ›

Advocate and client sitting together in jail at a table discussing their case

Courtrooms are Dehumanizing

As a public defender, I spent a lot of time in one of the most dreaded places on Earth: the courthouse. With a few happy exceptions, people don’t choose to go to court. Most are there mounting desperate fights for their housing, their kids, their freedom. And as a result, courthouses are filled with individuals who are frightened, angry, and unhappy.

How Good Policies Fail

Alternatives to Incarceration (ATIs) are praised seemingly everywhere you turn in the current criminal legal reform climate. The concept of moving people from cages to care seems like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, bureaucracies can neuter even the most promising policies and programs, especially in the world of criminal courts.