The Alliance of Families for Justice

Established in 2016 in NY, the mission of the Alliance of Families for Justice (AFJ) is to support families of incarcerated people and people with criminal records, empower them as advocates and enable them to marshal their voting power to achieve systemic change.

VISION AND GOALS

The Alliance of Families for Justice seeks to end mass incarceration and mass criminalization by: 1) empowering families of incarcerated people and people with criminal records; 2) helping them meet the challenges of incarceration or of having an incarcerated loved one through referrals and other services; 3) embracing and training them and their loved ones to be leaders; and 4) mobilizing their collective voting power in these efforts.

Our program paves the way for civic engagement of this distinctly marginalized group of people. It meets the needs of an overlooked and yet important voice in the public discourse about mass incarceration: family members who are concerned about the welfare of their loved ones. Their concerns include human rights violations and abuse, family re-integration and a desire to change harmful policies and laws. AFJ enables them to be an important and influential advocacy force to address these concerns. Furthermore, the maintenance of strong family ties has been proven to lower recidivism and build healthy communities. AFJ’s re-entry support services are uniquely tailored to meet the particularized needs of impacted families and individuals and strengthen their bond. An empowered community is a healthy community!

The four components of the Alliance of Families for Justice are legal representation, re-entry support services, advocacy and communications skills training and voter registration.