Partners for Justice was founded to transform public defense locally and across the United States to ensure that race and wealth no longer determine legal outcomes.
Partners for Justice is transforming public defenders into a robust network of dynamic, people-centered service centers to reduce incarceration, increase equity, and positively impact the lives of those harmed by cycles of incarceration, poor health, and poverty. Since 2018 they have connected thousands of people with stabilizing services and eliminated an estimated 5,000 years of jail and prison time, compared to maximum exposure.
-5,000
YEars of incarceration
Our team has saved clients an estimated 5,000 years of incarceration, compared to maximum exposure, yielding millions of dollars in potential taxpayer savings
15,000+
people
supported in connecting with services, telling their stories, and coming home every year
Dignity and Connection
Partners for Justice has a goal — to infuse dignity and connection into an otherwise traumatic and dehumanizing experience of legal system contact.
The result is a world in which every person gets the kind of collaborative, interdisciplinary service team that ensures race and wealth no longer determine legal outcomes, and that every person has a chance to walk away with their life—and future—intact.
After an elderly client spent five years experiencing homelessness, our Advocate finally managed to get him approved for affordable housing after convincing a prosecutor to defer prosecution on his felony charge. Though the Advocate secured her client a subsidized apartment, she found out in the height of the pandemic that his landlord was moving to evict him. Her client was unable to see well enough to read and had no idea what the notice on his door said. Returning to homelessness would be lethal for him given that he is over 70 and in fragile health.
But the PFJ Advocate worked with the property manager, gathered advice from local housing lawyers about the client’s rights under HUD and disability law, documented every aspect of her client’s vulnerability, including cardiac and respiratory conditions, and even convinced a local pastor to get on her client’s team and help. Not only did she stop her client from losing his housing, she convinced the property manager to continue keeping the Advocate in the loop on all correspondence about the property, given her client’s near blindness.
PFJ is performing powerful direct services, but achieving system change. After growing tenfold since 2018, PFJ’s program has begun convincing governments to invest in expanding public defense. Since 2021, PFJ has partnered with defenders to secure $8.6M in government revenue, creating new wraparound service hubs with full governmental buy-in and support.
