Sentencing & Incarceration Alternatives

Guidelines  |  Grantee List

The mission of the Sentencing & Incarceration Alternatives Project (the Alternatives Project) is to reduce the scale of incarceration in the United States. Radical increases in rates of incarceration and increasingly severe criminal punishments threaten open society values by building a permanent underclass in the United States defined largely by race and income. To counter this trend, the Alternatives Project supports advocates, researchers, and practitioners advancing campaigns, research initiatives, and policies that seek to:

• eliminate race and class disparities in sentencing and incarceration;
• reduce the length of criminal sentences and promote judicial discretion in sentencing;
• promote alternatives to incarceration that emphasize rehabilitation and treatment;
• limit prison growth and prison privatization; and
• empower communities most affected by mass incarceration to develop and advocate for alternative policies that address underlying social, racial and economic inequality.

Funding Priorities

Eliminating Race and Class Disparities in Sentencing and Incarceration

The number of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails now exceeds two million. More than half of those behind bars are black or brown, and if current trends continue, a black male in the U.S. will have about a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison during his lifetime, and a Latino male a 1 in 6 chance, compared to the 1 in 17 chance of a white male. Race and class disparities in incarceration and sentencing not only represent a failure of public policy but a threat to democracy. The Alternatives Project seeks to expose the race and class biases driving over-reliance on incarceration in the U.S. and support advocacy that seeks to eliminate disparities in sentencing and incarceration.

Reducing Sentence Lengths and Promoting Judicial Discretion

The U.S. prison population has been rising not only because more people are sentenced to prison, but also because they are serving longer sentences. Today people in prison are serving much longer terms than their 1990 counterparts convicted of similar crimes and their counterparts in other countries. The challenge remains to change public opinion, policy, and practice in order to reduce the length of criminal sentences and ultimately reduce the size of prison populations. To this end, the Alternatives Project supports advocacy and policy research that seek to reduce sentence lengths and challenge sentencing policies that deprive judges of the discretion needed to craft appropriate sentences.

Promoting Rehabilitation and Treatment Alternatives

Many jurisdictions are experimenting with a broad range of alternatives to incarceration. These programs take many forms, from drug treatment to intensive supervision probation. The Alternatives Project seeks to elevate best practices in and advocacy for alternatives to incarceration that improve public safety and promote rehabilitation with compromising public safety or individual civil liberties.

Limiting Prison Growth and Prison Privatization

The prison-building boom of the past two decades has been driven by a number of factors: “tough on crime” policies, such as mandatory minimums and truth in sentencing laws, as well as prison privatization which inserts a profit motive into corrections. To adequately expose and counter the threats to open society values reflected in continued prison expansion and privatization, the Alternatives Project makes grants to promote greater accountability in public decision-making about prison expansion, highlights the fiscal and social trade-offs associated with prison expansion, and promotes alternatives to prisons.

Empowering Most-Affected Communities

The Alternatives Project’s theory of change is that the most effective agents of social change are directly affected constituencies. Woven throughout the project’s priorities is the goal of bringing to the policy table those who are rarely heard but who are themselves most affected by sentencing and incarceration policy.

Application for Funding

To be considered for funding, submit a complete letter of inquiry as indicated below. Email submissions are preferred. Letters of inquiry should be 1-3 pages in length (including project budget). DO NOT submit supporting materials, such as brochures, press clips, newsletters, annual reports, or websites.

All letters of inquiry must include:

• full contact information for the principal project contact, including mailing address, phone, fax, and e-mail;
• a description of the organization that will undertake the proposed project;
• a description of the project for which funds are sought, including a specific description of how the project’s goals will be achieved; and
• a preliminary project budget and amount requested (there is no minimum or maximum request).

Incomplete inquiries will not be considered.

Deadline

The Alternatives Project accepts inquiries on a rolling basis. Applicants will be notified within 2-4 weeks that their request has been received. Please allow approximately 1-3 months for a decision on an inquiry, at which time the applicant will receive a letter of declination or an invitation to submit a full proposal.

Eligibility

The Alternatives Project provides funding for policy reform, including the following strategies:

• grassroots/community-led advocacy, constituency-building, and mobilization;
• coalition-building;
• public education;
• impact litigation;
• policy-driven research and analysis;
• leadership development.

The Alternatives Project will consider letters of inquiry from advocacy groups, community groups, scholarly or research institutions, government agencies, associations of elected officials, and nonprofit business associations or initiatives.

Ineligibility

The Alternatives Project does NOT provide funding for:

• lobbying activities;
• programs or direct services;
• start-up costs or seed monies;
• annual fundraising drives;
• projects undertaken by individuals;
• capital costs, including equipment or real estate purchases/renovations;
• film production or post-production.

Contact Information

Please submit letters of inquiry to:

Georgia Kirtland
Program Associate
U.S. Programs
Open Society Institute
400 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019
gkirtland@sorosny.org