VERA INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE INC

Vera’s Greater Justice New York (GJNY) initiative is committed to building a leaner, fairer, and more effective criminal legal system in New York in which incarceration is the last resort, and public safety is synonymous with racial equity and thriving communities. GJNY uses data analysis, research, strategic communications, policy modeling and analysis, and advocacy to achieve the following core priorities:

• Reducing the use of incarceration throughout New York State’s criminal legal system.
• Shrinking the footprint of jails in New York State through jail closures and reductions in corrections spending.
• Promoting investments in tangible solutions that build stronger, safer communities for everyone (e.g., violence intervention, pretrial services, alternatives to detention and incarceration, and mental health and substance use services).
• Promoting and advancing narrative change about what solutions truly deliver community safety for everyone.

In 2017, Vera launched its Ending Girls’ Incarceration Initiative with the goal of reducing the incarceration of girls in the United States by 25 percent by 2027. We engage in multi-year local partnerships with advocacy groups, community organizations, government agencies, and system-impacted girls and gender-expansive youth to help them implement programs and policies that reduce girls’ incarceration, advance the safety and well-being of girls and gender-expansive youth, and address the root causes of their incarceration. These currently include the State of California; New York City; Santa Clara County, CA; and Hawaii.

Vera’s Redefining Public Safety initiative is committed to supporting communities in their efforts to design, strengthen, and invest in civilian-led public safety ecosystems. These offer appropriate emergency responses that minimize involvement with the criminal legal system, connect people to health and human services, and enhance safety through means other than punishment. To achieve this goal, Vera is:

• Providing support and guidance to local governments, community partners, and public safety stakeholders to help them implement sustainable, civilian-led frameworks that reduce the scope and footprint of policing, as well as empower civilian personnel and community partners.
• Generating compelling research and evidence that informs and supports programmatic and system changes.
• Engaging in advocacy and coalition-building to ensure that public safety stakeholders are held accountable for pursuing changes in policy and practice that deliver safety and justice for everyone.

Vera’s Reshaping Prosecution initiative seeks to support reform prosecutors and the communities most impacted by the criminal legal system in their efforts to advance public safety and race equity for everyone, shrink the footprint of mass incarceration and the criminal legal system, and increase accountability to system-impacted communities. We do this by:

• Encouraging the adoption of diversion program models that both promote safety and center race equity by removing barriers to access to these programs that exclude system-impacted communities.
• Actively engaging and empowering justice-involved communities to participate in and contribute to program design, implementation, and measurement of outcomes.

We undergird all of our work with a comprehensive research strategy for building compelling evidence that demonstrates how keeping people out of the system, addressing racial disparities, and increasing accountability to communities contributes to real public safety for everyone.

In response to the fundamental injustice of mass incarceration, in 2017, Vera partnered with the MILPA Collective to launch Restoring Promise. Restoring Promise leverages partnerships with state departments of corrections, designs reimagined housing units for incarcerated young adults who are supported by caring staff and mentors, and conducts rigorous research and analysis in order to transform prison culture in the United States so that it centers human dignity, safety, and race equity. Restoring Promise was founded upon the core principle that prisons and jails must become safe and healthy places to live and work, and where people are given opportunities for healing, learning, and growth.

Over the next two years, Restoring Promise will be pursuing a new strategy of working with state departments of correction to help them to assess and transform their institutional policies, training, and resource allocations so they systemically center human dignity and race equity.

The Vera Institute of Justice launched Vera California in 2019 to advance policies and practices that will make California a model for ending mass incarceration, centering community health, and advancing racial justice. Through data and policy analysis, research, and strategic communications, Vera California is partnering with community and government leaders to:

• Advance a “care first, jail as a last resort” agenda in Los Angeles County (which includes decarcerating Los Angeles by one-third, closing Men’s Central Jail, and securing public investments for a robust system of community-based care).
• Build community power to advance decarceration and a “care first” agenda statewide by equipping local advocacy and government partners to advocate for decarceration and public investments in services that deliver real public safety for everyone.
• Harness the power of advocacy to win tangible policy reforms around decarceration, racial justice, and budget justice.

Vera Louisiana is working to build smaller, fairer, and more effective justice systems in both New Orleans and the state of Louisiana in which incarceration is the last resort, and public safety is synonymous with centering racial equity and community health. Through data and policy analysis, research, and strategic communications, Vera Louisiana is partnering with community and government leaders to:

• Shrink the footprint of jails and prisons across Louisiana.
• Minimize the harms of involvement with Louisiana’s criminal legal system.
• Advocate for investment in concrete crime prevention strategies that build truly safe, thriving communities for everyone.
• Promote narrative change that defines public safety in terms of safe, thriving communities, race equity, and public health.

For nearly a decade, Vera's work to expand access to quality postsecondary education in prison has been a cornerstone of our commitment to affirm human dignity behind bars, advance racial equity, and ensure the economic well-being of people leaving prison and returning to their communities. Our core strategies include:

• Providing tailored support for colleges and prisons to implement and expand high-quality college-in-prison programs.
• Piloting strategies that colleges and corrections departments can to reduce racial disparities and improve enrollment and completion rates for students of color.
• Leading the Corrections Educational Leadership Academy to help corrections leaders create high-quality statewide education systems for incarcerated people and encouraging the adoption of best practices.
• Working with corrections and community stakeholders to establish programs and solutions that increase access to in-demand jobs and meaningful careers for justice-impacted people.

Safe, affordable housing is essential for the success and well-being of over 600,000 people leaving prison and 12 million people cycling through jails annually. However, people with conviction histories often face challenges finding housing, both because landlords are often reluctant to rent to individuals with any sort of criminal background, and because individuals with conviction histories are more likely to have lower income than the general public.

Vera is working to expand access to housing for people with conviction histories across the United States by:

• Conducting research on the policies that govern affordable housing funding within state housing finance agencies in the United States.
• Partnering with state housing finance agencies to provide technical assistance to change their affordable housing funding policies.
• Conducting message testing to shape broader discussions and affirmative narratives about providing housing people with conviction histories nationally.