Equal Justice Initiative on Criminal Justice Reform + Racial Justice

YLC is honored to welcome the Equal Justice Initiative to host a conversation on criminal justice reform and racial justice narrative efforts. Participants will leave this webinar with an understanding of the work that EJI is doing across communities and the country to increase equity. They will also learn how, as young leaders, to be agents of change in their communities, building a more inclusive and equitable future for New Orleanians.

About Equal Justice Initiative (EJI):

The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

Founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson, a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer and bestselling author of Just Mercy, EJI is a private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. We challenge the death penalty and excessive punishment and we provide re-entry assistance to formerly incarcerated people.

EJI works with communities that have been marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment. We are committed to changing the narrative about race in America. EJI produces groundbreaking reports, an award-winning wall calendar, and short films that explore our nation’s history of racial injustice, and we recently launched an ambitious national effort to create new spaces, markers, and memorials that address the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, which shapes many issues today.

EJI provides research and recommendations to assist advocates and policymakers in the critically important work of criminal justice reform. We publish reports, discussion guides, and other educational materials, and our staff conduct educational tours and presentations for thousands of students, teachers, faith leaders, professional associations, community groups, and international visitors every year.

About Jonathan Kubakundimana, EJI Program Manager
Jonathan graduated from Furman University in 2016 with a B.A. in Political Science. Prior to joining EJI, he interned for U.S. District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks in the District of South Carolina, where he researched rehabilitative approaches to federal non-violent drug offenders for the nation’s first federal drug court. As a survivor of the Genocide Against Tutsis in Rwanda, he has helped lead initiatives in the United States and around the world raising awareness of genocide and other crimes against humanity.