An Occasional Note from U.S. Programs

Ann Beeson is executive director of the Open Society Institute's U.S. Programs.

Greetings.  In the past few months, we have seen promising movement on open society issues that had languished for many years.  President Obama signed executive orders to prohibit torture and close Guantanamo, and launched a government transparency initiative that promises to open a window for all Americans into the business of government.  While there is still much to be done to reverse years of wrongheaded policies, we are inspired to see these issues among the priorities on the national agenda and are proud to have supported a number of organizations who pushed for early action on them.

We are equally determined at OSI to ensure that other entrenched threats to open society are addressed during this critical period for change.  Any conversation about transformative change in America must address structural inequality.  The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, and our criminal justice system continues to target and disproportionately impact poor people of color.  We must confront massive over-incarceration as part of a broader agenda for equality and opportunity in America.

Smart Public Investments Strengthen Public Safety

For decades, despite falling crime rates, vast public resources have been committed to a wasteful, largely punitive system of justice that has done little to improve public safety. Against the backdrop of the current financial crisis, however, the need for government to do business more cost effectively presents an unprecedented opportunity for meaningful reforms. OSI has promoted two related efforts that answer the call of this historic moment—Justice Reinvestment and the Civic Justice Corps.

Justice Reinvestment efforts across the country have earned bipartisan support from governors and legislators for strengthening public safety and ensuring justice by eliminating government spending on criminal justice policies that do not work.  With assistance from the Council of State Governments, along with the Justice Mapping Center and JFA Associates, Justice Reinvestment initiatives in ten states have already averted new prison construction and reduced prison populations while generating millions for reinvestment in smarter prevention, prison, parole and probation policies and in jobs, education, healthcare, affordable housing and economic development in neighborhoods with the highest levels of concentrated poverty, segregation and incarceration. 

Building Healthier Communities

We applaud President Obama’s strong commitment to national service and the recent passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.  OSI supports efforts to ensure that service opportunities extend to groups that are often excluded, including people returning home from prison and other residents of high incarceration communities.

The Civic Justice Corps is an OSI-initiated and seeded national service model, also supported by the Department of Labor,  the Corporation for National Service, and the Lowcountry Civic Justice Corps.   Today there are 22 local Civic Justice Corps – members of The Corps Network, a national association of service and conservation corps – offering pathways out of prison and poverty through education and careers in the green economy.

By working on visible and valuable neighborhood improvement projects, such as weatherizing low income homes and maintaining public parks, Civic Justice Corps members from California to Colorado to South Carolina are helping to reverse the stigma and alienation associated with a criminal conviction, increase acceptance of those returning to the community, and build public support for smarter justice policies. 

Soros Justice Fellowships to Advance Criminal Justice Reform

In addition to our grantmaking programs to advance criminal justice reform, OSI invests in leadership to build a vibrant field of advocates. Over the past twelve years, the Open Society Institute has awarded nearly more than $14 million to nearly 250 visionary advocates, lawyers, scholars, activists, journalists, authors and filmmakers as part of our Soros Justice Fellowships program. Our 2009 fellowship recipients will be announced later this month. For more information, see the Soros Justice Fellowship webpage.

More Philanthropic Support Needed

The JEHT Foundation was one of OSI’s key partners in providing philanthropic support for criminal justice reform for nearly a decade.  We salute their valuable contributions to the field and offer our deep regrets that the JEHT Foundation had to close its doors early this year. 

To ensure that criminal justice advocates can continue their work during this critical period for reform, OSI is pleased to be able to make emergency grants this year to some of our grantees who lost funds due to JEHT’s closure. OSI grantees should check in with their regular OSI program officers for more details. Organizations that are not current OSI grantees, but who had been promised funds from JEHT, should direct inquiries to jef@sorosny.org.
 
We are eager to form new partnerships with foundations to reform the criminal justice system is an essential element of other key agendas including urban revitalization, anti-poverty initiatives and education reform. 

The Moment for Reform

As we strive to build a better America, we must stop criminalizing poverty and provide pathways to opportunity for all Americans.  With real solutions in sight, criminal justice reform must become part of the national conversation about what we must do to restore America as a beacon of freedom and fairness in the world.  We are encouraged by growing signs of progress. The dismantling of New York’s infamous Rockefeller drug laws comes amid reports that other states are reconsidering their own draconian sentencing guidelines.  And Senator Jim Webb (D-WV) convened a recent hearing calling for a blue-ribbon, bipartisan commission to undertake a top-to-bottom review of the federal criminal justice system. OSI is committed to providing the resources it takes to build a criminal justice system that treats all people fairly while ensuring the security that all communities need.