In 2018, the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People & Families Movement (FICPFM) launched the Quest for Democracy Fund (Q4D) through a partnership with Criminal Justice Initiative. Today, through the fund, we administer and distribute grants to organizations in collaboration with our broader funding network. Led by people with conviction histories at organizations from across the country, grantees have average operating budgets of less than $500k. In addition to funding, grantees participate in FICPFM-led capacity building, technical assistance, and cooperative information exchanges that strengthen grassroots and community engagement campaigns.
FICPFM selects recipients through a competitive application process that includes the release of a request for proposals (RFP). FICPFM requires that formerly incarcerated leaders govern organizations applying for funding.
Beyond organizational leadership requirements, the determinants of eligibility are:
- 1. A demonstrated ability to grow and build the criminal justice reform movement infrastructure
- 2. A demonstrated ability to advocate for policy change
- 3. A demonstrated ability to build collaboration between sectors of the criminal justice reform movement with other movements that are similar in scope
- 4. A demonstrated ability to engage in voter outreach and education
- 5. An organization must demonstrate that the leadership development of incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, or detained people is fundamental to their organizational leadership’s work and decision-making process.
Since our first grant cycle in 2019, FICPFM has awarded 102 grants totaling $3,461,000.
In addition, during the COVID-19 crisis of 2020, FICPFM awarded 58 additional grants to fund civic engagement initiatives, fines & fees work, census outreach, and rapid response housing support. These grants totaled $1,746,20. Over the last four years, FICPFM has administered $5,207,200 through our grantmaking programs.
The long-term strategy of the FICPFM organization includes maintaining hands-on financial and technical support for subgrantees who have benefited from FICPFM grant funding.
Restoration of Rights / Ending Perpetual Punishment
Alabama Justice Initiative, Birmingham, Alabama
Alabama Justice Initiative (AJI) is committed to assisting disenfranchised and marginalized communities through advocacy, policy, and organizing to end mass incarceration in the United States. Their initiatives are grounded in analysis and action that challenge economic, social and racial injustice. Thanks to AJI’s Participatory Defense Hubs six people have regained their freedom to date. With further support from CJI, they set out to expand the hub model to surrounding cities including Dothan, Montgomery, and Huntsville. A formerly incarcerated Board Member and Executive Director of the Determine Program will provide leadership training and skill development to his formerly incarcerated peers so that they may continue this important work for years to come.
I.Am.Legacy, Rapid City, South Dakota
With the primary goal of improving the quality of life for their community members, I.Am.Legacy aims to reform policies that are disruptive to community stability. Native Americans consist of roughly 8.7% of South Dakota’s population, yet those aged 15 – 64 are incarcerated at 10 times the rate of their white counterparts. Through their non-traditional leadership development, I.Am.Legacy has formed the Indigenous Americas Institute. This center offers support groups, talking circles, workshops, seminars, and conferences as a courtesy to the community. Additionally, I.Am.Legacy extends support to currently incarcerated people through the Topa Kiciyuge Fellowship, which provides leadership training ahead of an individual’s release. They identify quantifiable alternatives to incarceration that justice-system actors can implement, informed by people with first-hand experience of the system’s failings.
California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Oakland, California
The California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) has a membership base of over 400 people that spans from inside prisons to the outside world, challenging the institutional violence aimed at women, transgender people, and communities of color by the prison industrial complex. They recognize that the struggle for racial and gender justice is intrinsically tied to dismantling the prison industrial complex. DROP LWOP (Life Without Parole) is a campaign they created to change public opinion regarding people serving life without parole sentences. They have contributed to Governor Brown’s commutation of 154 people – 31 of whom were women. They have also developed a toolkit that assists women and trans people serving LWOP sentences to petition for commutations, which they share with allies advocating on behalf of their male counterparts. CCWP will continue to work alongside the DROP LWOP statewide-coalition as they plan to sponsor a resolution to end extreme sentencing in California. Eventually, they will move on to eliminate life without parole from the penal code.
Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Providence, Rhode Island
Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) organizes low-income families in communities of color for social, political, and economic justice. Behind the Walls (BTW) is a committee – consisting of formerly incarcerated people, family and friends of currently incarcerated people, and allies – within their organization that aims to restore the rights of people with justice-system involvement. They recently launched the Fair Chance Licensing Campaign, which is a campaign to remove bans denying people with records from obtaining occupational licenses. In the past, they have successfully campaigned to bring an end to mandatory minimum drug sentencing, the shackling of pregnant women who are incarcerated, and more. For 2020, they have four key areas of focus: base-building and leadership development, organizing and activating coalition members, organizing broad support for Fair Chance Licensing, and continuing to pressure legislators to pass legislation that removes barriers faced by justice-system involved people.
Life Coach…Each One Teach One Re-entry Fellowship, Louisville, Kentucky
Life Coach…Each One, Teach One Re-entry Fellowship works to bring awareness, enlightenment, and resources to formerly incarcerated people that are returning to families and communities in Louisville, KY. The focus of their work is to help their fellows understand and advocate for improvements in the 3P’s: Prison, Probation and Parole. By building out their fellows’ network, they expand the capacity of the greater movement to transform and abolish the criminal justice system. Fellows are required to join and be active in organizations and initiatives such as All of Us or None, JustLeadershipUSA, The Bail Project, and the Campaign for Black Male Achievement. In the year ahead, they plan to establish a greater presence throughout the state, build a relationship with state and national legislators to push for policy change, and work with the Kentucky Department of Corrections to facilitate the expansion of their fellowship program inside of correctional facilities to prepare individuals before they are released.
National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens, Washington, DC
The National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens is building a strong, national network comprised of individuals returning from incarceration who support each other’s successful reintegration. They use a client-centered approach to identify basic needs and to create a continuum of care that can address barriers to reentry, promote restorative practices, and reduce recidivism. Partnerships with ONE DC, DC Jobs with Justice and Stop Police Terror DC have helped win the decriminalization of low-level offenses such as marijuana possession and fare evasion. Because of the many positive implications landing a job has on a successful post-incarceration experience, they are creating a pipeline of jobs with companies and organizations that will agree to the second chance hiring of their members.
Women in Need Recovery, Champaign, Illinois
Women in Need (WIN) Recovery fills a much-needed void for women before and after incarceration. They provide alternatives to incarceration, safe housing for formerly incarcerated women, and life skill development to help acclimate women as they return to the community. The WIN Decarceration Project will create partnerships between various state agencies across Illinois to assist in reducing the state’s prison population. Through the implementation of Moving to Work Reentry Tenant-Based Voucher, the Housing Authority Champaign County (HACC) is able to waive discriminatory policies regarding a person’s history of convictions. Following the completion of the WIN Recovery program, women will continue to receive case management assistance from WIN Recovery and HACC for up to eight years.
National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Washington, DC
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) works to abolish torture in U.S. policy, practice, and culture while confronting racism and bigotry. NRCAT’s efforts to end solitary confinement lend themselves to the broader movement for justice transformation by exposing the systematic torture and human rights violations perpetuated by the current criminal justice system. By amplifying the voices and leadership of directly impacted people, they were able to form an Advisory Committee that will help with recruiting and training a Network of 100 directly impacted leaders to bolster their work for 2020 and beyond.
Women Who Never Give Up, Camden, New Jersey
Women Who Never Give Up (WWNG) has been doing prison reform work for over 25 years. Their mission is to H.E.A.L. (Help, Educate, Advocate, and Lobby) people suffering at the hands of the criminal justice system. Over the past few years, WWNG has amassed several major accomplishments including the graduation of 53 men who obtained their Associate degrees at East Jersey State Prison. Seven men to date have received Bachelor’s degrees in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University. WWNG is looking forward to hiring new staff in order to facilitate wrap-around services for currently and formerly incarcerated people. Efforts will be geared towards housing, employment, education, parental rights, and mobility.
People’s Justice Project, Columbus, Ohio
People’s Justice Project (PJP) is a statewide organization that organizes working class people of color to lead the fight against mass incarceration. Their volunteer leaders are surfacing new stories, leaders, and passion, as they canvass neighborhoods spreading the work of PJP. In June 2016, following the killing of 23-year-old Henry Green by “plainclothes” Columbus police officers, they launched a community reinvestment campaign to move resources out of aggressive lethal policing programs and into youth engagement and employment opportunities, restorative justice services, and other community-based strategies. They plan to hold a minimum of two community public meetings on bail reform drawing over 100 people, and to organize one direct action on the jail.
RAHAM Inc., Detroit, Michigan
Formerly incarcerated people are 10 times more likely to be homeless than the general population. At the same time, homelessness increases the likelihood of incarceration by 11%. Enter RAHAM, which engages local landlords to create a database of available, decent and affordable housing for men and women returning from prison. With CJI’s support, they will provide first month’s rent and security deposits for returning persons in exchange for sweat equity in community organizing projects. RAHAM raises awareness around housing reform through old school canvassing, posting online, and by composing and distributing testimonies. They gather testimony from returning persons who have had difficulty obtaining housing due to their felonies, regardless of how old and/or type of conviction. By securing shelter for those returning from prison, they intend to curb recidivism and crime at all levels. Their ultimate goal is to see more formerly incarcerated leaders thriving in their communities.
SWOP Behind Bars, Altamonte Springs, Florida
Between 70,000-80,000 people are arrested for prostitution each year in the U.S. After the use of force, sexual violence is the second most reported form of police misconduct. SWOP Behind Bars (SBB) supports sex workers engaged with the criminal justice system, and seeks to end discrimination against them. During incarceration, they provide newsletters, pen pals, reading materials, GED self-study guides, and scholarships. In 2019, they engaged with the legislative process to decriminalize sex work, increase services and support for people leaving prison, and fight enhanced penalties related to HIV. SBB also provides reentry gift cards, promotes access to housing, food, clothing, and harm reduction tools including syringe exchange, Fentanyl testing strips, and Narcan, the lifesaving overdose treatment drug.
The Prison Project Formerly Incarcerated Restoring Rights Engagement, Santa Cruz, California
TPPFIRRE advocates for policy changes affecting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals and families. Their Peace Warriors use cultural and spiritual practices to engage communities in prisons to build a strong Peace Movement. Several of TPPFIRRE’s formerly incarcerated board members, who are confirmed Peace Warriors, received authorizations to go into selected prisons to provide workshops, talking points, and motivational speeches. They also prepare individuals for parole release and provide educational and political information for formerly incarcerated people, networking them with local, state and national organizations to continue having their voices heard.
Try Together, Providence, Rhode Island
Try Together creates supportive structures that facilitate de-entry in the criminal legal system through economic empowerment initiatives that create a foundation for marginalized communities to live and sustain abundant lives without engaging in survival crimes. Understanding that transgender, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ people are overrepresented in the criminal legal system because of the extreme forms of discrimination they face, Try Together engages in initiatives that support impacted people’s own self-determination, including: Establishing support systems that assist formerly incarcerated transgender women in overcoming collateral consequences of incarceration; Creating a safe and affirming space focused on healing inside and out in hopes of family and community reunification; and Empowering transgender women to explore entrepreneurship and social and economic empowerment.
How Our Lives Link Altogether, Brooklyn, New York
How Our Lives Link Altogether (H.O.L.L.A!) is a safe-haven for the longtime residents of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn. Their work catalyzes youth of color who are survivors of trauma and systematic oppression by providing tools and spaces for healing. Additionally, they partnered with their youth organizers to create the Healing Justice Movement Album – an organizing tool that assists in sustaining community engagement from justice-system impacted youth. Simultaneously, H.O.L.L.A! made key investments in staff and youth organizers, which led to the establishment of a pipeline for youth organizers to become full-time staff.
Equity and Transformation, Chicago, Illinois
Equity and Transformation (EAT) is devoted to building social and economic equity from Black Chicagoans engaged in the informal economy. Recently, Illinois passed the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (HB1438). EAT assisted with the crafting of the legislative policy to ensure tax revenue collected from the sale of cannabis would be directed towards communities most harmed by the War on Drugs, that formerly incarcerated people would be eligible for record expungement and discounted application fees in certain cases, and more. 800,000 Chicago residents are currently eligible for expungement, and EAT is invested in securing successful expungement for 250,000 of them through their own efforts. It is important to note that 100% of their staff and members are formerly incarcerated.
Voting Rights and Civic Engagement
All of Us or None Texas, San Antonio, Texas
All of Us or None Texas has proven they are capable of leveraging the political power of formerly incarcerated people with the passing of legislation such as “Ban the Box” and dramatically increased voter turnout amongst disenfranchised communities. Using data spanning back to 2010, they will begin measuring and analyzing formerly incarcerated people’s voting patterns to maximize their potential and impact. Impressively, All of Us or None Texas has been able to make noteworthy strides without a budget for over 13 years. In the year to come, they plan to hold at least two leadership trainings, one legislative training, and provide election campaign management.
Black Leadership Organizing Collaborative, Youngstown, Ohio
The Black Leadership Organizing Collaborative (BLOC) is challenging the current two party political apparatus by building independent Black political power. Their formerly incarcerated leadership has been shaping change in the Black community since 2001, and will be spearheading voter education and turnout initiatives. BLOC believes that increasing voter turnout numbers will help decrease the disparities in health care, jobs, education and economic development for the Black community. Currently, only half of Ohio’s 14.3% of Black voters are leveraging their right to vote. BLOC intends to organize 10 reentry organizations into a statewide reentry network in order to build Black leadership and political infrastructure in Black communities throughout Ohio
Community Success Initiative, Raleigh, North Carolina
Community Success Initiative (CSI) organizes impacted community members to fight for measures that help end the disproportionate incarceration of African American males and the collateral consequences that are attached to their sentences. Primary projects for the year ahead include working for clean slate reforms that expand access to criminal record expungement; a fair chance policy for public employment and occupational licensing that facilitates fair consideration of an applicant’s criminal history; investment in education in jails and prisons as well as in community based reentry services; elimination of unaffordable criminal court costs, and common sense limitations on driver’s license suspensions for failure to pay traffic court costs. In this critical election year, they will also organize for voting rights and voter empowerment.
Ex-incarcerated People Organizing, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Ex-incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO) is a formerly-incarcerated led organization that works to dismantle all systems that support mass incarceration and excessive supervision. They played a pivotal role in successfully organizing for the state of Wisconsin to increase treatment and diversion funding to $7 million. They were also able to influence the Department of Corrections to refrain from using the term “offenders” and begin referring to incarcerated people as “people under [their] care.” In the coming year, EXPO intends to grow their base by a minimum of ten percent and increase voter turnout amongst formerly incarcerated people.
FirstFollowers, Champaign, Illinois
FirstFollowers is building community through reentry organizing. They run a drop-in center that assists over 300 formerly incarcerated people with housing, employment, and more. In addition, they have worked with State Representatives and the Circuit Clerk to implement four expungement and sealing summits, resulting in the amendments of hundreds of people’s records. In the months ahead, they will open the first transition house for people returning from state prison in partnership with the Housing Authority of Champaign County (HACC). They will continue to engage with the HACC to remove all existing criminal background restrictions for residence in public housing, while gaining employment contracts for their Go Make a Difference (GoMAD) participants. They will also organize three public events to educate the public about the negative impacts of electronic monitoring to build awareness of pending state legislation being considered in 2020.
Homies Unidos, Los Angeles, California
Homies Unidos works to defend the rights of youth, families, and communities to pursue their dreams and achieve their full potential in a society that is conducive to their overall well-being. They organize families to use their voices and train them to advocate on behalf of an emerging movement of immigrant family members and formerly incarcerated people to address state and local policy officials. Since 2016, they have opened 144 cases, and 44 Latinx immigrants with life sentences were released back to their country of origin. In 2019, their Executive Director was appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for District 1 to the Probation Reform Implementation Team (PRIT) to develop the infrastructure of a Probation Oversight Commission and help design the first overhaul of the the nation’s largest probation department housing youth. Moving forward they will conduct two community forums to address the intersection of the crimmigration systems and organize actions to reduce mass incarceration and detention with the intention of creating a movement of people who are affected by the criminalization of Central American immigrants
Reign 4 Life, Hempstead, New York
Reign 4 Life educates newly released people about their civic rights and responsibilities, including information on legislation that re-enfranchises formerly incarcerated individuals, filling out voter registration forms, and knowing local polling places. Reign 4 Life also trains facilitators to teach community-organizing skills to youth at risk of joining gangs, gang members, and formerly incarcerated people. Facilitators use structured dialogue to empower participants to uncover societal factors that have influenced their life choices, and help them achieve personal insight and become effective community activists.
Riverside All of Us or None, Corona, California
Riverside All of Us or None will enhance civic engagement of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people by: Launching the Family Reunification, Equity, and Empowerment project to help people with convictions in gaining child custody, providing foster care, and adopting children in need; Demanding that Riverside County Housing Authority stop evicting families with children in juvenile hall, and work with the Riverside County Fair Housing Council to redefine “crime-free” housing; Increasing civic engagement of people with criminal convictions by 10% in inland California through organizing and base building; Continuing voter registration and education in five county jails; Conducting ongoing voter education and registration at courts, probation departments, and social services offices; and Producing community engagement forums, resource fairs, and ballot parties to increase turnout of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated voters.
Law Enforcement Accountability
Families for Justice as Healing, Roxbury, Massachusetts
Families for Justice as Healing (FJAH) was founded by women inside federal prison focused on ending the incarceration of women and girls. In 2018, they launched the MA Participatory Defense Hub and have worked with more than 70 clients in the past year. FJAH then went on to train 100 volunteers to conduct the First 100 Days Court Watch to hold District Attorneys accountable. Presently, FJAH can be found touring Massachusetts most incarcerated neighborhoods to conduct participatory research with formerly incarcerated women and the daughters of incarcerated parents, and learn about the solutions they believe will transform their communities.
TRANScending Barriers, Atlanta, Georgia
TRANScending Barriers is dedicated to providing leadership-building, advocacy, and direct services to the transgender and gender non-conforming communities in Georgia. They apply an inside-outside game, organizing in prisons and on the outside, in their efforts to end the denial of hormone treatment, provide education for prison staff regarding care, eliminate sexual abuse and exploitation in detention facilities, and bolster re-entry support that is Trans- and Nonbinary-specific. In addition to their work in Georgia, they are also members of the National LGBT/HIV Criminal Justice Working Group.
Release Aging People in Prison, New York, New York
Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) mobilizes community power to end mass incarceration and promote racial justice through the release of older and aging people and those serving long sentences from prison. They work to advance advocacy initiatives that collectively offer everyone in prison a meaningful chance for release, regardless of their sentence. RAPP played a role in increasing parole release rates in New York from 20% to 40% since 2017. In 2018, the elder prison population as well as people serving life sentences decreased for the first time in 20 years as a result of their efforts. The pending Elder Parole bill (S2144), which would ensure New York’s parole release process consider releasing people aged 55+ years who have served 15 or more years in prison, is one of the three initiatives they intend to move forward in this grant cycle
Organized Communities Against Deportations, Chicago, Illinois
Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) is an undocumented-led organization that fights against deportation, detention, criminalization, and incarceration of Black and Brown communities in Chicago. They lead the Chicago Immigration Working Group and the Erase the Gang Database coalition – two increasingly prominent city-wide coalitions that address city policy. Now, OCAD is working with the new administration to expand Sanctuary City Ordinances for all immigrants and to reduce the harm caused by the gang database. Moving forward, they are looking to secure representation for about 25 people facing deportation or in detention who would be interested in joining them in their organizing efforts.
Witness to Mass Incarceration, New York, New York
Witness to Mass Incarceration (WMI) intends to show that high levels of sexual harassment, abuse and assault still exist fifteen years after passage of the PREA law. Inspired by the Trans Pride Initiative (TPI), which documented the experiences of transgender people in Texas prisons, where only 13 of 1,567 reports of sexual abuse were “substantiated,” WMI will design a new survey to distribute to 200 incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. WMI will then analyze and publish its findings.
Women on the Rise, East Point, Georgia
To end mass incarceration in Georgia, Women on the Rise supports their members in developing their capacity to engage in resistance. Their campaign “Close the Jail ATL: Communities Over Cages” aims to close the city jail, reallocate its annual budget of $32.5 million, and transform the facility into a Wellness and Freedom Center that benefits those communities that the jail has most harmed. They also seek to change the culture of the Atlanta Police Department and end policing for profit. Their current campaigns include building their membership base, educating the community and elected officials, pressuring the police chief, winning legislation, and gathering data that show how their solutions improve safety, whereas increasing police and jail beds do not.
Bail Reform
Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In Philadelphia, a third of defendants is in jail simply because they cannot afford bail, many among them young people. Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project (YASP) seeks to end the use of cash bail in Philadelphia, one of the highest in the country, and significantly decrease all pretrial detention through: Partnering with Philadelphia Community Bail Fund to do a bailout event focused on posting excessively high bails for youth tried as adults; Completing and publishing a report on youth experiences in adult jails and prisons, with a focus on solitary confinement; Lifting up YASP members’ art, poetry, and music as a way to share stories of young Philadelphians’ experiences with pretrial incarceration; Canvassing neighborhoods to gather signatures to end cash bail, and document community experiences with pretrial detention; Hosting community meetings and events with #No215Jail Coalition partners to engage neighborhoods citywide in the movement to end cash bail; Engaging with MacArthur Safety & Justice Challenge implementation team to push all institutional stakeholders – the courts, the District Attorney’s Office, pretrial services, the Mayor’s Office, etc. – towards a transformative vision to end cash bail in Philadelphia.