The Washington equity and justice community works every day to eradicate policies and practices that create worse outcomes for communities of color and to further racial justice. Below are a few examples of current or recent advocacy issues and cases of interest. If you’d like to add your own, please contact jenniferw@justleadwa.org.

Race & the Criminal Justice System

• Black Lives Matter: Eliminating Racial Inequity in the Criminal Justice System (The Sentencing Project)
• Racial Disproportionality in the Criminal Justice System (Harris, UW Dept of Sociology, 2013)

Juvenile & Youth Justice

• No New Youth Jail (Ending the Prison Industrial Complex)
• The School to Prison Pipeline in Washington State (TeamChild)

Immigration

• Northwest Detention Center Resistance

Legal Financial Obligations (court fines, fees, and restitution associated with criminal convictions)

• Court-Imposed Debts and the Poor: Reforming Policies for Legal Financial Obligations (ACLU-WA)
• Questions & Answers about LFOs (ACLU)
• A Modern-Day Debtors’ Prison in Washington (Columbia Legal Services)
• Legal Financial Obligations are the New Debtor’s Prison (Pacific Standard)

Criminalization of Homelessness

• Homeless Rights Advocacy Project