Focus AreasThe Soros Justice Fellowships fund outstanding individuals to implement innovative projects that advance OSI efforts to reform the U.S. criminal justice system. OSI’s criminal justice reform strategy takes aim at two overarching ills in our system: the over-reliance on incarceration and harsh punishment, and the lack of equal justice—especially for people of color and the poor. Since its inception in 1997, the Soros Justice Fellowships have supported over 250 dynamic individuals working to address these issues at the local, state, and national levels.
The Soros Justice Fellowships fund individuals through two programs:
- Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowships, which support lawyers, advocates, grassroots organizers, activist academics, and others with important perspectives;
- Soros Justice Media Fellowships, which support print and radio journalists, filmmakers, authors, and others with distinctive voices.
All fellowship projects must seek to further OSI’s U.S. criminal justice reform priorities and should involve the intersection of these priorities with the particular needs of one or more of the following specific constituencies: communities of color; immigrants; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities; and women and children. Fellowship applications are especially encouraged from individuals directly affected by, or with significant direct personal experience with, the issues their projects seek to address.
For program inquiries, please contact Christina Voight at cvoight@sorosny.org.
