Program areas at Pure Justice
Voter / civic engagement : using community education and community organizing to create access to democracy for low propensity voters and residents in the local county jail. To register, educate and turn out houstonians for the 2023 municipal elections, we tabled at 27 events, knocked on 1,309 doors, made 30,914 phone calls and sent 339,024 texts.
Participatory defense: using community organizing for people facing charges, their families, and communities to impact the outcomes of cases and transform the landscape of power in the court system. We supported 34 clients with participatory defense, we referred 38 clients to attorneys for civil lawsuits, we spent 174 hours attending court for support and court watching, we saved our clients 331 years of time incarcerated, we have 6 cases dismissed and 4 life sentences saved.
Rise campaign (reimagine public safety for everyone) - a community safety education campaign to develop ways to create safe and healthy communities without police involvement. To stop police violence and demand that houston tax dollars be spent on community programs that actually make us safe, we held a mayoral candidate town hall, collected 33 endorsements for the rise campaign from community organizations and leaders, held 95 community teach-ins, coalition meetings and elected official information sessions, and collected 1,118 signatures on a petition supporting the rise campaign.
Police accountability - working with residents who have experienced police abuse to find avenues for Justice from educating them on their rights to connecting them with civil rights attorneys. 303 people attended Pure Justice new member orientations. Pure Justice was featured in the media 10 times, we posted 540 pieces of original content, 15,800 social media subscribers/followers, and 19,560+ social media impressions and engagement.