We Are All Criminals

One in four people has a criminal record, but all of us have a criminal history. We Are All Criminals collects stories from people who have the luxury of living without an official reminder of a past mistake and encourages those people to consider how different their lives would be had they been caught. We educate them about the disparate impact race, ethnicity, and class have on whether a neighborhood is policed, whether a person is arrested, charged, and prosecuted, how heavily they are punished, and how harshly they are impacted by collateral consequences after they have served their court-assigned punishment. We Are All Criminals also collects stories from people who were caught and allows those individuals to reclaim their stories, providing personal information that is more pertinent to a character assessment than a past criminal act. We Are All Criminals collects stories from family members of incarcerated individuals, and amplifies the voices of currently incarcerated artists. These stories are shared through photographs, poetry, and prose in various forums, including art exhibits, presentations and trainings, radio interviews, the website, and the book We Are All Criminals, to encourage everyone to reassess the relevance of a criminal record when making decisions about housing, employment, licensing, and nearly every other aspect of a person's life. These stories are grouped into categories such as "Luxury to Forget," "More Than My Mugshot," "Ripple Effect," "See Me," "SEEN."