Dc Justice Lab

OUR MISSION

DC Justice Lab is a team of law and policy experts researching, organizing, and advocating for large-scale changes to the District’s criminal legal system. We develop smarter safety solutions that are evidence-driven, community-rooted, and racially just. We aim to fully transform the District’s approach to public safety and make it a national leader in justice reform.

OUR VISION

DC Justice Lab envisions a District that:

• Treats every person as an essential part of our community and no longer subjugates, dehumanizes, or jettisons people who have broken the law.

• Recognizes that it has historically underserved and overpoliced poor people and Black people, creating and subjugating an undercaste that is system-involved.

• Takes dramatic measures to rectify and reverse the harm it inflicted.

• Constantly reexamines its rules and practices to ensure they are calibrated to make us collectively safer, freer, and equal. 

• Ends its reliance on police, prosecutors, and prisons, in favor of solutions that maximize safety and freedom for all.

• Ensures its criminal legal system cannot be weaponized by the powerful against the poor.

• Eradicates the root causes of economic and violent crime.

We promote decarceration, compassion, and giving people the tools and resources they need to thrive. We work with and transfer power to DC residents most impacted by criminal laws and policies.

OUR VALUES

1. We believe in liberation and compassion for all people. We are committed to advocating for those core values without judgment. 

2. We believe in fully reimagining the systems that fail us. We are committed to not only fighting against the past that holds us back but fighting for the future we want.

3. We believe that true sustainable change cannot happen without the expertise of the community that is most impacted. We are committed to centering the expressed interests, concerns, and capacity of Black native Washingtonians.