Impact Justice 2023 Year in Review
2023 has been a year of many achievements and organizational changes that will support the continued growth of our existing programs and the launch of new ones in the year ahead. As this year comes to a close, it feels important to celebrate together, because in an organization as dynamic and diverse as Impact Justice it’s easy for any of us to lose sight of our collective achievements.
This Year in Review provides a glimpse of what we’ve accomplished as individuals, within teams, and through collaboration across teams – all under the umbrella of an organization dedicated to shifting the punitive status quo in this country toward investments in healing, human potential, and genuine accountability as foundational elements of a more just society.
While we will share the 2023 Year in Review with select partners and supporters, its most important audience are the staff of Impact Justice. Everything we do begins and ends with them; they are the organization’s greatest strength this year and always.
Alex Busansky
President
California Justice Leaders & LeadOn
California Justice Leaders is a groundbreaking AmeriCorps program that leverages the valuable life experience of formerly incarcerated and system-impacted individuals to open doors for the justice-involved young adults they serve and for themselves.
Serving more communities than ever before
With an expansion from six to 10 counties across California, partnerships with more than 30 community-based organizations, and 63 members serving 140 beneficiaries across the state, CJL had a greater reach and impact in 2023 than ever before. The program is also a growth opportunity and launch pad for the Justice Leaders themselves, as Ashaki Scott and Koron Richardson describe.
Digging deeper in Los Angeles with LeadOn
LeadOn funds LA-based members working up to an additional 10 hours per week at their nonprofit placement site. In 2023, 38 LeadOn members served 15 organizations, up from 20 people across 10 organizations in previous years. Because these individuals give more of themselves every week, they can take on a greater leadership role – for example, stepping up to lead programming on a day when other staff were unavailable.
Staying connected
The California Justice Leaders who graduate in December 2023 will join an active alumni network of 165 people and counting. To nurture that network, in 2023 the California Justice Leaders team launched a new website for alums where they can connect with one another and access a variety of resources to promote professional development and personal growth. The program has also developed its own suite of trainings on topics such as fair chance hiring, pursuing higher education, and writing an impactful op-ed and has provided professional development stipends to 22 alums.
My contribution is to be there for each and every one of our CJL Alumni when they need it or even when they don't. I’m here to listen and to cater to their needs. To be consistent and find the necessary tools that will support their personal and professional growth.
Looking ahead
In 2024, the California Justice Leaders team will be focused on solidifying the structures that enabled this year's program expansion. We'll be ensuring that California Justice Leaders and LeadOn function efficiently and effectively at this expanded level and enhancing our alumni network resources to ensure that Members completing the program experience long-term connections and growth opportunities.
Cross-team collaboration
Nutrition Education for California Justice Leaders Members: This year, staff from IJ’s Food In Prison Project led trauma-informed nutrition education workshops specifically for Justice Leaders.
Heile is an incredible facilitator, and her informative presentations had a huge impact on the cohort. A few CJL Members shared that the knowledge they now possess as a direct result of the Food in Prison workshops inspired them to be more mindful of their shopping and eating habits.
Food in Prison
The Food In Prison Project works on multiple fronts to expand access to fresh, nourishing, appealing food in prisons and jails as a fundamental human right and as part of preparing incarcerated people to return home healthy.
Chefs in Prisons takes off
Our partnership with Chef Dan Giusti and his company Brigaid is gaining momentum. This past winter, Colin Freeman became the first Program Chef at our pilot site, the Maine Department of Corrections. Drawing on his experience working in restaurants, Colin has already sparked small changes that result in more tasty meals and less food waste. And together, we’re developing a model approach to assessing and transforming all aspects of correctional food service.
Watermelons, pluots, pears, and more
Food in Prison's Harvest of the Month program launched in summer 2023 and now serves six California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation facilities. By working with food hubs and CDCR, Harvest of the Month channels California-grown fruits and vegetables at the peak of freshness to people in prison. The model features a supportive framework for food service staff at participating prisons to incorporate the harvest of the month into existing menus and raises awareness among staff and incarcerated individuals about the health, economic, and environmental benefits of eating local and regional produce. In addition to improving meals and reducing food waste, the program also provides a market for smaller producers.
I am not only proud of the strong partnership that we've established between the correctional department and small local growers, but also the impact that this program has made on residents. Residents have shared that the added variety and heightened quality of produce make them feel like people care about their health and well-being.
Putting our knowledge to work in DC
Leslie Soble, who leads our Food in Prison Project work, and Bianca Pak have been instrumental in informing the push in Washington, DC for a “fresh start” to correctional food services that would provide people in the DC jail with more nourishing food. As a founding member of the Food in the DC Jail Working Group, we’ve put our knowledge of national trends and promising practices in Maine and elsewhere to good use.
By the numbers
17,895+ pounds of fresh California-grown fruits and vegetables available to 16,370 people in California prisons through Harvest of the Month.
135 people reached by nutrition education workshops for formerly incarcerated and system-impacted people across California.
31 mentions of our Food in Prison team's work and expertise in media outlets nationwide.
Looking ahead
In 2024, we’ll be creating a roadmap for establishing a worker-owned cooperative, owned and run by people directly impacted by incarceration, that will connect New England food producers and food hubs with the region’s departments of correction to channel more locally-produced foods to incarcerated people.
Homecoming Project
The Homecoming Project provides stipends to homeowners in exchange for hosting someone returning home from prison. By matching formerly incarcerated people with initial safe and stable housing in the community, the project not only bridges a gap in services, it also bridges a social divide.
100 Participants!
When Philippe moved into Surmiche and Scott’s home in early August, it was an extra-special occasion Philippe is the 100th person to be placed by the Homecoming Project since the program started in 2018. Also special: Surmiche learned about the Homecoming Project from her father, who has hosted several people in his home over the years.
Being incarcerated for so much time, this is what I laid in bed wishing for, that I would change my life so that I can be healthy and whole and in society again. It feels dope…to be on this side
I’m excited for our plans for growth, especially our placement of the first five participants in Los Angeles County and how the toolkit and a technical assistance model will widen the geographic scope of The Homecoming Project. We constantly get inquiries from folks throughout the country asking if we work in other states, counties, cities or if we know of similar programs, so there is need and demand for our innovative model elsewhere.
Establishing Homecoming-LA
The formula that worked in the Bay Area – reaching out to local residents who believe in second chances and value the monthly stipend and employing reentry navigators to support formerly incarcerated people during their first six months after release – is now taking root in Los Angeles, the largest county in California.
Launching a new reentry resource
The Homecoming Project developed and launched a new hub for reentry training and support under the leadership of Randy Reyes: The Center. It serves as a resource for formerly incarcerated people, the family members and friends who support and rely on them, and anyone whose life has been affected by the carceral system.
The Center takes a holistic approach to reentry, supporting individual wellness, personal growth, and community integration. Programming kicked off in September with "Freeing Wellness," a six-class course exploring the importance of wellness and sharing simple strategies and techniques for making healthy choices across all aspects of life.
By the numbers
100% of Homecoming Project graduates leave the program with long-term housing in place.
Zero. None of the participants in the Homecoming Project have returned to prison.
$150,000+ channeled to mostly low- and moderate-income families in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties through the daily stipends hosts receive.
Looking ahead
In 2024, we’ll begin to provide technical assistance to communities across the United States that want to launch or scale their own reentry housing projects.
PREA Resource Center
The PREA Resource Center works with correctional and juvenile justice agencies and facilities, advocates, incarcerated people, their families, and other stakeholders, to support implementation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards. This includes providing training, technical assistance, and support for audits in order to ensure the standards are meaningfully incorporated into practice and make a real difference in the lives of incarcerated people.
Marking 20 years of PREA
September 4th of this year marked the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a milestone and a reminder of work that’s still far from done. The Justice Department, PREA Resource Center, and partners took the occasion to reinvigorate a widely shared commitment to ensuring sexual safety in confinement, principally by organizing the Department of Justice’s 20th Anniversary convening in November. IJ used its own social media channels to elevate PREA and produced a video and other materials capturing the accomplishments of PREA and recognizing the work left to be done.
Photo Credit: Just Detention International
For well over a year, I served as the PREA Resource Center's project lead for the Marking 20 Years Since the Passage of PREA Convening. This meant much of my time was spent liaising between our partners at the Bureau of Justice Assistance and convening partners at the National Training and Technical Assistance Center. So many folks on our team contributed to shaping the event, offering their time and insights so generously. Though I coordinated our team’s responsibilities and duties, their work planning and executing made the event successful. We brought together a diverse group of people: survivors and others with lived justice system experience, policy makers, correctional practitioners, legal scholars, auditors, and advocates, to collectively learn, reflect, and strategize. I am also proud of and grateful to our team's commitment to centering survivors during the event. Hearing from Ky Peterson, Johanna Mills, and Dee Farmer about their experiences and recommendations on the work left to do was one of the most humbling experiences of my career.
Reaching out
Throughout 2023, the PREA Resource Center worked to expand the network of organizations with a stake in ending sexual abuse in confinement. That work included presenting at the National Sexual Assault Conference for the first time, beginning plans for a tribal advisory council, and more intentionally engaging formerly incarcerated people and their families, especially those who are survivors of sexual abuse and harassment.
Refining the audit
For much of this year, PREA Resource Center staff were gathering data to build a case for strengthening how facilities are audited for compliance with the PREA standards. The goal: learn from the past and improve the audit to increase its value as a tool for accountability and improved practice.
By the numbers
3,687 responses to requests for assistance from the public, auditors, users of our online audit system, and requests for technical assistance.
850 audits processed through our system.
36 webinars, 3 multi-week trainings, 502 learners enrolled in a PRC course throughout the year, and 21 field-initiated technical assistance projects delivered, with 6 more scheduled still to happen this year.
Looking ahead
In 2024, we will bring 34 auditor trainees on field training audits to six facilities, and will provide field audit learning opportunities to eight already-certified auditors to build their skills. We will expand our work with juvenile justice and tribal facilities, and build new professional learning communities focused on PREA for a variety of stakeholder groups.
Additional Programmatic Accomplishments
Building Justice flies to Finland
In September, we brought a group of formerly incarcerated and allied activists, funders, academics, and others to Finland for a week-long trip. While there, we visited men’s and women’s open and closed prisons and spoke with people at social service organizations as well as legislators and academics. Throughout the week, we dove into understanding how and why Finland cut their prison population by more than half from 1960 to the present day, the same time period when the US prison population skyrocketed. We also widened the lens on our and the trip participants’ understanding of what the “Nordic model” really entails – beyond prison walls and to the broad network of social support that Finland has chosen to invest in. All the while, we were making a documentary about the trip that will be released in the new year.
Restorative Justice Project moves to Equal Justice USA
For eight years, beginning in 2015, IJ’s Restorative Justice Project led the country in the use of restorative justice as a more effective alternative to punitive legal systems that fail to meet the needs of survivors and break cycles of harm. In November, this paradigm-shifting work moved to its new home at Equal Justice USA. The Restorative Justice Project first took shape 12 years ago, under the leadership of sujatha baliga who would later earn a MacArthur “Genius Grant” for her work. At the time, restorative justice as an alternative to prosecution in serious cases was a new idea. Today, growing interest in restorative justice nationwide has led to increased demand for the training, technical assistance, and peer-to-peer support the Restorative Justice Project provides, making this an opportune moment to spin off the project in a way that enables it to expand in new directions.
Growing Justice puts down roots
Growing Justice will expand access to fresh, healthy food in prison through the use of vertical farms while also training incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people for employment in the rapidly expanding business of indoor farming. In collaboration with vertical farm consultants Agritecture, AmplifiedAg, and Skout Strategies, we are building vertical hydroponic farms inside shipping containers at two women’s prisons, one in California and one in South Carolina. Each farm will serve as a job training site while producing fresh greens for consumption at the facility. We're also planning a nonprofit vertical farm that will occupy the first floor of our home office in Oakland.
New Projects in 2024
In the coming year, we're planning to:
Launch the Prison Opportunity Fund
The Prison Opportunity Fund will make small-scale grants ranging from $200 to $2,000 in response to proposals from incarcerated people in California. The fund will not only move resources from the free world into prisons, it will also make visible the ideas, talents, energy, and accomplishments of people who are largely invisible within society at large. A grants committee of formerly incarcerated Californians will choose which projects to fund, supporting life-enriching activities, events, and other initiatives developed by and for people in prison in California.
Create a national reentry housing incubator
The incubator will support the development of reentry housing programs across the country using Second Chance Act funds. Impact Justice will run a competitive grant award process, allocating $2.8 million over five years to community-based organizations. For those organizations, we will also provide technical assistance, drawing on our years of success running the Homecoming Project and other successful reentry programs to help them achieve their goals and serve their communities.
Provide healthcare for people experiencing menopause in prison
Between 2000 and 2017, the share of incarcerated people age 50 or older in California more than quintupled, from 4% to 23%. The prison healthcare system, designed for men, has few resources for people who are seeking care for menopause and perimenopause health-related issues. To fill this gap, we are designing a pilot program in partnership with Midi Health that will bring modern resources, such as telehealth specialists, into prison facilities; discover how new and existing funding mechanisms can make the latest therapies available; and create awareness among prison health officials, corrections administration staff, and incarcerated residents about the need for appropriate health care resources for women 55 and up.
Research and Action Center
The Research and Action Center (RAC) partners with individuals, organizations, and communities to better understand overlapping problems of injustice through original research and evaluate promising solutions, especially from the perspectives of those most impacted.
Understanding men, trauma, and violence
In 2021, the Research and Action Center team began surveying and interviewing men convicted of a violent offense serious enough to result in a lengthy prison sentence, learning from their early life experiences to better understand trauma among men and how it can fuel cycles of violence. Roughly two years later, in August 2023, the most salient findings were released as an immersive scrolling story, The Things They Carry.
The findings paint a picture of childhood characterized by traumatic events and circumstances across multiple environments, essentially robbing these boys of a safe place to grow up. And the presence of a loving, supportive, and trusted adult, so essential to resilience in childhood, was inconsistent at best for more than half of them. But the story is not without hope: it suggests the power of healing to change lives and end the epidemic of violence in this country.
I’ve read a lot of studies on trauma and violence, but few have made me feel like this. It made me think a lot about folks like my paternal grandfather (he was a lifer convicted for Murder I) and what could have been done to change his trajectory in life. Kudos and thank you for your work.
Looking ahead
With a grant from the Blue Shield Community Foundation, the Research and Action Center will help two community-based organizations in Southern California and two in Northern California assess their use of restorative justice as a response to domestic and intimate partner violence. All four organizations serve predominantly communities of color, and one, DeafHope, serves the Deaf community.
Cross-team collaboration
Trauma-informed research practices: Drawing on their insights from the Men and Trauma report and their expertise in participatory research, Research and Action team members are working with the PREA Resource Center to develop trauma-informed data collection approaches and tools for people in the carceral system.
Working and brainstorming with the brilliant RAC team on the sexual safety culture assessment tool that the PREA Resource Center is heading up has invigorated and solidified for me the importance of Impact Justice's cross-sectional work to reduce harm and violence, foster healing, and transform spaces that are centered around humanity and dignity.
Dream Builders
The infrastructure that supports our programs
Development
Creative connections to new supporters
The development team spent 2023 pursuing a variety of strategies to deepen the bench of Impact Justice supporters. The team is laying the groundwork for longer-term strategic partnerships and major gifts strategies, including investing in a new, more effective tool to track donor relationships. As part of these efforts, we collaborated with the communications team on digital fundraising campaigns, including a well-received joint Father’s Day campaign with Freedom Reads. The team’s success in developing new funding streams continued throughout the year, as Impact Justice secured initial seed funding for new programming, including a national reentry housing incubator, a South Carolina Growing Justice site, research on prison labor, and a project delivering menopause and perimenopause care to incarcerated women.
Communications
Boosting outreach
Our innovative programs, their promising results, and the expertise of the people who lead them continued to get attention from the press this year. The communications team placed more than 50 pieces in 2023, in national outlets like NowThis and CNN and in local outlets like ABC 7 and Afro LA that help make our impact known in Los Angeles. Once people hear about us, they often want to know more, so the communications team has built on our growing base by establishing a steady cadence of external emails coupled with targeted outreach to project-based contact lists. We're seeing great engagement rates here and on our social media channels, where strategic use has grown our audience across all channels.
Finance
Strong foundations for continued growth
The past several years of explosive growth have been both an amazing opportunity and a challenge for our finance team. This year, the team worked to ensure that our finances mature alongside our programs, establishing a robust reserve fund and strengthening financial controls. We worked with program staff across the organization to refine priorities and concentrate financial resources where our projects need them most.
People & Culture
Coming together in California
For the first time since 2019, we gathered as a full staff in California for a week of connection, learning, and inspiration among the redwoods. At sessions like “Project Critical Questions,” staff shared their expertise while deepening their understanding of Impact Justice’s many programs. We had opportunities to rekindle our motivation in panels and workshops, not to mention the incredible screening of the film 26.2 to Life. And we connected as colleagues in conversations around fire pits and dinner tables, strengthening relationships while challenging and learning from each other.
What a year!
Thank you.
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