Civil Rights Corps

www.civilrightscorps.org
Legal Representation, Policy & Advocacy, Art & Media
District Of Columbia, National

About

Civil Rights Corps (CRC) is a non-profit organization founded in 2016 that challenges systemic injustice in the U.S. legal system. We have pioneered landmark civil rights litigation that has liberated hundreds of thousands of people from illegal jailing, won tens of millions of dollars for the most vulnerable people in our society, pioneered political education and narrative strategies to change the way our society thinks about mass incarceration and family separation, and set the agenda for innovative solutions to make our communities safer. Our work is guided by a commitment to the people and communities harmed by policing, surveillance, incarceration, discrimination, and the criminalization of poverty. We work with individuals accused of crimes, people currently and formerly incarcerated, their families and communities as well as organizers, policy organizations, and government officials to shift power to social movements fighting for greater equality, freedom, and human flourishing.

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  • Legal Representation

    We hold powerful carceral system actors accountable for abuse and misconduct through an array of strategies, projects, and partnerships. Having built a network of community-based organizations, advocates, attorneys, and law professors, CRC’s accountability work exposes abuses, litigates on behalf of those most harmed, and supports communities in implementing these unique strategies for sustainable change.

  • Policy & Advocacy

    Through developing deep relationships with partners on the ground from our most impacted communities, CRC’s advocacy work focuses on amplifying the voices of community organizers, directly impacted people and local advocates, as well as providing legal expertise where needed, to help create sustainable change in systems, government investment, and public policy. Our work aims to redefine the way people see jails and prisons as not just systems of mass human caging, but also as systems of mass family separation, and the “child welfare” system as its true function, family policing.

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  • Art & Media

    Since 2019, Civil Rights Corps has selected cohorts of artists to participate in our Poet- and Artist-in-Residence program. They each produce vital and vivid works that communicate the humanity of directly impacted people and sheds light on the toll the unjust practices in the criminal system take on the bodies and minds of directly impacted people, their loved ones, and our communities.

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