Florida Justice Center, Inc.

Florida Justice Center seeks to end the cycle of incarceration and treat the needs of justice involved individuals. The justice system is an institution that favors the privileged and subjects marginalized communities to inhumane conditions. The justice system does little to rehabilitate its inhabitants and exacerbates the reason for their incarceration. Our goal is to address the reason for their incarceration's through our mental and social services. We work to treat the individual and help them successfully reintegrate into their communities.

Florida Justice Center provides a holistic approach in our treatment for our clients. We begin by developing a personalized treatment plan that entails all the services our clients may need from our mental health counseling to our social services. Once the plan is created, we regularly meet with our clients to track their progress, provide counseling, and connect them with the proper services to get them back on their feet. Our mental health facilities help our clients develop healthy coping mechanisms, provide anger management, deal with substance abuse, and reestablish healthy relationships with their support networks. Our social services provide connections to legal assistance, housing, employment, food stamps, and gaining state identification. We attempt to provide all the resources possible for our clients so that they have an opportunity to reestablish themselves in their community.

Florida Justice Center has a trained staff of behavioral health, case management, and legal professionals that help our clients navigate our wide selection of services. Upon arriving we have our case management personal provide intake for our clients. Once the intake procedures are complete, our resident social workers develop a personalized treatment strategy for each of our clients. Our staff works with our clients through appointments, and routine calls, to monitor their progress. We regularly review the effectiveness of our strategy and see if there are any areas that may need to be adjusted. Our mental health facilities are on site for our clients and supervised by clinical social workers who provide counseling and referral services. Our social services are comprised of volunteer attorneys, assistance programs, and other nonprofit organizations that we connect our clients to. We regularly keep in touch with our partners about our client’s progress and ensure their needs are met. After about 6 months, we review our client’s case and determine whether they need additional assistance, through referral programs, or if they are successfully reintegrating into their communities.

Florida Justice Center is the first criminal legal aid organization in the state of Florida and an approved third-party voter registration organization. This past year (2020), we have provided bail assistance for over 18 individuals, defense attorneys for 19, and re-enfranchised 24 ineligible voters. We were also mentioned in popular media outlets such as Vogue Magazine, the Rolling Stone, and The Wall Street Journal.

The next step for us is to open our new reentry center at the start of 2021. We wish to double the number of clients we provide assistance to, while also increasing our range of services. We have been in contact with local universities to establish an internship program here at our reentry center to guide our community’s future leaders. By this time next year we hope to triple our social media following and to be more established in the Broward County area.