Common Justice is a Brooklyn-based criminal justice advocacy organization that promotes efforts to defund the police and end the incarceration of criminals, including violent felons. ¹ The organization promotes the idea that violence can be ended by the construction of more affordable housing units, drug legalization, gun control, and increasing welfare payments to address root causes of criminality. ² It claims that policing does not work because police have a “violent mentality that tells officers to shoot unarmed civilians.” ³

Instead of imprisonment, Common Justice advocates for restorative justice circles in which both criminals and victims willingly meet and repair the damage done by the crime committed without the threat of force. ⁴ Common Justice supports critical race theory and has supported the idea that violence by white people and police triggers “inherent racialized trauma” among African Americans that has been passed down through their DNA after generations of oppression. According to the organization, this trauma can only begin to be resolved through race-based reparations. ⁵

Founding and History

Common Justice was founded in 2008 as a project of the Vera Institute of Justice, ⁶ a left-of-center advocacy organization that agitates against what it characterizes as mass incarceration and in favor of antiracism. ⁷ The Vera Institute of Justice was originally founded in the 1960s as the Manhattan Bail Project by New York philanthropist Louis Schweitzer and Herbert Sturz, a trustee at George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. ⁸

Like the Vera Institute of Justice, Common Justice operates in New York City and engages in efforts to promote alternatives to incarceration and to transform the justice system. ⁹ It seeks to prevent felons, including violent felons, from being prosecuted in the criminal justice system and instead to have criminals and victims engage in a participatory process  that includes face-to-face dialogue in a restorative justice circle where both the criminal and the victim agree on a way to hold the criminal accountable. In Common Justice’s proposed system, victims willingly accept that criminals will not be punished and criminals willingly accept agreed-upon accountability, all without the threat of force. ¹⁰

Common Justice is led by Danielle Sered, former deputy director of the Vera Institute of Justice’s Adolescent Reentry Program, as of 2022. ¹¹

In 2022, JASS was also the recipient of a grant from Mackenzie Scott (formerly Mackenzie Bezos), ¹² the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and a major supporter of left-wing organizations and political movements such as Black Lives Matter ¹³ and Planned Parenthood. ¹⁴

Activities

Common Justice has rejected calls from Democrats like President Joe Biden and New York Mayor Eric Adams for increases in policing to reduce violent crime. ¹⁵ Instead, Common Justice advocates for not only abolishing police departments wholesale, but also abolishing prisons. The organization has argued that the police have a “violent mentality that tells officers to shoot unarmed civilians” and that people who support the police are “invested in the continued oppression and control of people of color.” ¹⁶

As part of these anti-prison and anti-police efforts, Common Justice seeks to change the language surrounding crime, advocating for using the term “responsible party” instead of “criminal,” accountability instead of punishment, and restorative justice circle instead of imprisonment. The organization claims that instead of restoring safety, prisons are drivers of violence. ¹⁷

Common Justice states that “including critical race theory in our education system is crucial.” ¹⁸ In line with its support for critical race theory, Common Justice promotes the idea that violence by white people triggers “inherent racialized trauma” among African Americans that gets “passed down through the father’s DNA.” As a result of this trauma, the group contends that African Americans are owed reparations including government-funded mental health services and affordable housing. ¹⁹ The organization supports the propositions that American society can only be healed by government-run health care, race-based reparations, open borders, and pacifism. ²⁰

This view of American society and incarceration as inherently divided between oppressor and oppressed is applied by Common Justice to other left-progressive issues. For example, Common Justice denounces ableism, which it labels one of the “structures of oppression.” ²¹ Likewise, Common Justice claims that “mass incarceration and climate change are not separate issues” but are instead “byproducts of the same systems” and if those systems are not addressed then we will fall “deeper into a state of eco-apartheid.” According to the organization, “our nation’s massive incarcerated population is exposed to the worst effects of climate change.” ²²

1. Quiroz, Emilce. “Defund the Mass Incarceration System.” Common Justice. August 27, 2020. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://blog.commonjustice.org/blog/defund_mass_incarceration_system.
2. Cameron, D’Angelo. “More Police Is Not the Answer to Gun Violence.” Common Justice. May 26, 2021. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://blog.commonjustice.org/blog/gun-violence-policing.
3. Quiroz, Emilce. “Defund the Mass Incarceration System.” Common Justice. August 27, 2020. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://blog.commonjustice.org/blog/defund_mass_incarceration_system.
4. “New Solutions for Violent Crime: Common Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice.” Vera Institute of Justice. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://nycourts.gov/ip/justiceforchildren/PDF/RestorativePracticeConf/J3-Sered-New_Solutions_Violent_Crime.pdf.
5. Shepherd, Kira. “How Images of White Terrorism Impact Black Bodies.” Common Justice. January 8, 2021. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://blog.commonjustice.org/blog/how-images-of-white-terrorism-impact-black-bodies.
6. ^[1] “New Solutions for Violent Crime: Common Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice.” Vera Institute of Justice. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://nycourts.gov/ip/justiceforchildren/PDF/RestorativePracticeConf/J3-Sered-New_Solutions_Violent_Crime.pdf
7. “About Us.” Vera. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.vera.org/who-we-are/about-us.
8. Johnston, Laurie. “Louis J. Schweitzer Dead; Founder of Vera Institute.” The New York Times. September 21, 1971. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/1971/09/21/archives/louis-j-schweitzer-dead-founder-of-nera-lnstitute.html.
9. “Community Is What Keeps Us Safe, Not Prisons.” Common Justice. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.commonjustice.org/.
10. New Solutions for Violent Crime: Common Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice.” Vera Institute of Justice. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://nycourts.gov/ip/justiceforchildren/PDF/RestorativePracticeConf/J3-Sered-New_Solutions_Violent_Crime.pdf.
11. “Danielle Sered.” Common Justice. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.commonjustice.org/danielle_sered.
12. Scott, Mackenzie. “Helping Any of Us Can Help Us All.” Medium. March 23, 2022. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/helping-any-of-us-can-help-us-all-f4c7487818d9.
13. Hasson, Peter. “MacKenzie Bezos Reveals Donation To Movement For Black Lives, Which Wants to Abolish Police, Prisons.” Daily Caller New Foundation. July 28, 2020. https://dailycaller.com/2020/07/28/mackenzie-bezos-movement-black-lives-abolish-police-prisons/.
14. Scott, Mackenzie. “Helping Any of Us Can Help Us All.” Medium. March 23, 2022. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/helping-any-of-us-can-help-us-all-f4c7487818d9.
15. Cameron, D’Angelo. “New Mayor, Same Old Mass Incarceration Problem.” Common Justice. February 4, 2022. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://blog.commonjustice.org/blog/new-mayor-old-mass-incarceration.
16. Quiroz, Emilce. “Defund the Mass Incarceration System.” Common Justice. August 27, 2020. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://blog.commonjustice.org/blog/defund_mass_incarceration_system.
17. Common Justice. “LinkedIn Post.” LinkedIn. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/common-justice_words-matter-activity-6828415424049278976-LlBR?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web
18. Brown, Aliya. “Centering Critical Race Theory in the Fight for Justice this Juneteenth.” Common Justice. June 18, 2021. Accesses April 18, 2022. https://blog.commonjustice.org/blog/juneteenth-crt.
19. ^[1] Shepherd, Kira. “How Images of White Terrorism Impact Black Bodies.” Common Justice. January 8, 2021. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://blog.commonjustice.org/blog/how-images-of-white-terrorism-impact-black-bodies.
20. Common Justice. “LinkedIn Post.” LinkedIn. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/common-justice_endmassincarceration-carenotcages-investincommunities-activity-6818944115259015169-N6kU/?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web%20Societal%20healing:%20healthcare%20for%20all,%20reparations,%20%E2%80%9Cno%20human%20is%20illegal%E2%80%9D%20%E2%80%9Cland%20back%E2%80%9D%20no%20more%20war.%E2%80%9D.
21. “Ableism is a Racial Justice Issue.” Common Justice. July 21, 2022. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://blog.commonjustice.org/blog/ableism-is-a-racial-justice-issue.
22. Quiroz, Emilce. “Mass Incarceration and Climate Change are Not Separate Issues.” Common Justice. December 2, 2021. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://blog.commonjustice.org/blog/climate-mass-incarceration.