Organizations We Love
Humans of New York: They were our original inspiration to bring the unheard voices behind bars to you. HONY shares individual stories in order to show similar experiences.
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Ella Baker Center: Named after Ella Baker, a brilliant, black hero of the civil rights movement. Following in her footsteps, they organize with Black, Brown, and low-income people to shift resources away from prisons and punishment, and towards opportunities that make our communities safe, healthy, and strong.
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Brothers in Pen: San Quentin Wednesday Night Creative Writing Class producing anthologies of fiction and memoir since 2001.
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Big House Cards: The greeting card company for families impacted by incarceration.
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Initiate Justice: Actively works to end mass incarceration by activating the power of the people it directly impacts.
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Through the Bars: Gains to alter society by giving incarcerated people the opportunity to change by giving direction, encouragement and knowledge; the chance to make a positive impact on their life and others.
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Friends of the San Quentin Prison Library: Works to support and supplement the needs of the San Quentin prison library to better meet their patrons’ needs.
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Black Lives Matter: Focuses on eradicating white supremacy and building local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.
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William James Association: Promotes work service in the arts, environment, education, and community development. Our major concern has been transformative arts experiences in nontraditional settings, working with prisoners, high-risk youth and parolees.
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The Place 4 Grace: Understands healthy connected families ensure healing in and out of prison.
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Just Detention International: A health and human rights organization that seeks to end sexual abuse in all forms of detention.
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Humane Prison Hospice Project: An organization working to develop a humanitarian, cost-effective, and restorative justice solution to ensure that those aging and dying in prison receive compassionate care.
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Sara Bennett Photography: After spending 18 years as a public defender, Sara Bennett turned her attention to photographing women with life sentences, both inside and outside prison.
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Imani’s Safehouse: A community organization founded and led by survivors, works to empower intersectionality-impacted women, girls, and gender non-conforming people to end gender violence.
Solitary Watch: A watchdog group that investigates, documents, and disseminates information on the widespread use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails.
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The Beat Within: Provides incarcerated youth with consistent opportunity to share their ideas and life experiences in a safe space that encourages literacy, self-expression, some critical thinking skills, and healthy, supportive relationships with adults and their community.
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Prison Journalism Project : Highlights the voices of the men, women and youth behind bars as well as those of their loved ones.
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Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice: Their mission is to reduce society’s reliance on incarceration as a solution to social problems.
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The Ahimsa Collective: Offers in-person, restorative justice programs to heal our communities and land–for good.
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The Justice Collaborative: Working to end extreme vulnerability and create a more free, more stable, more safe America.
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California Prison Focus: Works to abolish the California prison system in its present condition, with a focus on ending long-term solitary confinement.
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Addiction Group: Helps people struggling with substance abuse successfully enter treatment by providing information such as how to prepare to enter treatment, what to look for in a rehab center, and how much rehab costs.
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Ben & Jerry’s: Invites us to join them on a journey to better understand the issue of race in our country, to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism and the implicit biases that all of us carry—and to join hands and move forward together.
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Five Keys Charter High School: Provides a high school education for adults in county jails, with the goals of reducing recidivism rates and promoting economic self-sufficiency.
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Root and Rebound: Advocates for policy reform to reduce the devastating impacts of the criminal justice system on people’s lives and families.
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Color of Change: They move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America.
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Aid to Inmate Mothers: Provides services to Alabama’s incarcerated women with an emphasis on enhancing personal growth and strengthening the bonds between inmate mothers and their children.
Back to the Start: Reflections from Behind Bars: Produces powerful narratives to help build empathy and a shared understanding of the legacy of our nation’s systemic and racial inequities starting at birth.
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Prison Policy Initiative: Produces cutting edge research to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization, and then sparks advocacy campaigns to create a more just society.
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Curb Prison Spending: A coalition that amplifies the work of community leaders on issues from sentencing reform to conditions of confinement.
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Mend Collaborative: Increasing access to high quality restorative justice processes for individuals and communities impacted by violence and harm.
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California Arts in Corrections: Working on the positive impact on the social and emotional well-being of the incarceration population, promoting healing and interpersonal transformation inside and out through art.
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ACLU: Committed to challenge the “school to prison pipeline” and implements change for learning differences, poverty, abuse, neglect with additional education and counseling services.
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Inside-out: Organizes initiatives that create the personal and systemic change to perform violence and suffering into opportunities for learning and healing.
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The Marshall Project: Nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system.
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California Reentry Program: Provides comprehensive, short and long-term one-on-one pre-parole assistance to hundreds of people in incarceration every month.
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Walls to Bridges: Aims to break the silence and address the trauma and emotional needs of system impacted families.
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Ear Hustle: A podcast that shares stories verbally, real time of incarcerated people.
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Prison University Project: Educates incarcerated people and fosters values of equity and civic engagement through education.
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The Center for Restorative Justice Works: Unites children, families, and communities separated by crime and the criminal justice system.