The Justice Collaborative Engagement Project is a left-of-center advocacy organization related to the left-of-center Justice Collaborative. The Engagement Project works to support the Justice Collaborative’s litigation and policy efforts including through supporting the election of local prosecutors who support extreme leniency in criminal justice. These include left-wing policies on criminal justice, such as abolishing all youth detention centers and allowing all criminals who have served 15 years to access bail regardless of their crimes. ¹ The Justice Collaborative and the Engagement Project also support left-wing policies on immigration and social issues. ²

The Justice Collaborative Engagement Project is a project of Tides Advocacy, a fiscal sponsorship nonprofit associated with the Tides Nexus of liberal grantmaking and incubation groups that supports left-progressive lobbying projects. It is unclear whether the Justice Collaborative Engagement Project is still active, as its website has been made private as of December 2020. ³

Status

Though the Justice Collaborative Engagement Project was described as a “new” organization in October of 2018, it appears to be inactive as of December 2020,⁴ as the Project website has been made private as of December 2020. ⁵ It is unclear whether Tides Advocacy continues to run the Engagement Project, though the Justice Collaborative is still active as of December of 2020. ⁶

Issue Stances

The Justice Collaborative Engagement Project supports policies outlined by the Justice Collaborative and works to help other organizations elect district attorneys who subscribe to those positions. ⁷ These include a range of left-wing policy proposals, including government-controlled healthcare, government-funded housing access for all, a “living” minimum wage attached to inflation, guaranteed taxpayer-funded government jobs for all who want them, and zero-fare public transportation. ⁸

The Engagement Project also supports the Justice Collaborative’s radical criminal justice proposals, including abolishing all fines in the legal system, refusing to prosecute offenses like theft if they arise from poverty, abolishing all youth detention centers in the country, allowing all criminals who have served at least 15 years to access parole regardless of their crimes, ending all criminal penalties for prostitution, and automatically expunging almost all offenses after criminals serve prison sentences. ⁹ The Justice Collaborative also supports far-left policies on immigration, demanding the end of all collaboration between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ending deportations for convicted criminals. ¹⁰

Support for TJC Policies

While active, the Justice Collaborative Engagement Project researched and advocated for policies supported by the Justice Collaborative. Recently, the Engagement Project published a report alleging “rampant” racial disparities in Virginia’s criminal justice system. The report alleged racial injustice in all areas of Virginia’s criminal justice system, from arrests to sentencing to parole proceedings. ¹¹ At the end of the report, the Justice Collaborative Engagement Project recommended that police officers stop all traffic stops for regulatory violations and to refuse to pursue charges for drugs or illegal firearms found in cars, ask no questions unrelated to the reason for the traffic stop, and require video footage of all encounters between police officers and individuals in order to prosecute those accused of a crime. ¹²

The Justice Collaborative Engagement Project has also taken public positions on political figures, specifically on district attorneys. In 2018, Engagement Project senior legal counsel Jennifer Soble criticized then-Dallas County district attorney Faith Johnson (R) for refusing to follow through on left-of-center policy positions for prosecuting low-level offenders. ¹³

The Justice Collaborative Engagement Project also works to create public dialogue in support of left-of-center criminal justice policy. In May 2018, the organization joined the University of California, Berkeley Law School’s East Bay Community Law Center to discuss discrimination and criminal justice. ¹⁴

Leadership and Financials

The Justice Collaborative Engagement Project does not list any staff members or leadership.

The Justice Collaborative Engagement Project is a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Advocacy. As such, it does not disclose any of its donors. In January of 2019, the National Football League (NFL) Players’ Coalition, a group of professional athletes that are involved in philanthropy around racial issues, gave a donation in an undisclosed amount to the Engagement Project. ¹⁵

1. “End Unnecessary Family Separation.” The Justice Collaborative, February 28, 2020. https://thejusticecollaborative.com/about/blueprint/end-unnecessary-family-separation/.   
2. “Put Stability Within Everyone’s Reach.” The Justice Collaborative, February 28, 2020. https://thejusticecollaborative.com/about/blueprint/put-stability-within-everyones-reach/.   
3. “Private Site.” Accessed December 18, 2020. https://www.tjcengage.org/.
4. Stockman, Farah. “How ‘End Mass Incarceration’ Became a Slogan for D.A. Candidates.” The New York Times, October 25, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/us/texas-district-attorney-race-mass-incarceration.html.   
5. “Private Site.” Accessed December 18, 2020. https://www.tjcengage.org/.   
6. “Put Stability Within Everyone’s Reach.” The Justice Collaborative, February 28, 2020. https://thejusticecollaborative.com/about/blueprint/put-stability-within-everyones-reach/.   
7. Stockman, Farah. “In Ferguson, a New Prosecutor ‘Gives Us Hope’ 4 Years After Shooting.” The New York Times, August 9, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/us/ferguson-prosecutor-wesley-bell.html.   
8. “Put Stability Within Everyone’s Reach.” The Justice Collaborative, February 28, 2020. https://thejusticecollaborative.com/about/blueprint/put-stability-within-everyones-reach/. 
9. “Allow People to Grow and Change.” The Justice Collaborative, February 28, 2020. https://thejusticecollaborative.com/about/blueprint/allow-people-to-grow-and-change/. 
10. “End Unnecessary Family Separation.” The Justice Collaborative, February 28, 2020. https://thejusticecollaborative.com/about/blueprint/end-unnecessary-family-separation/. 
11. “Racial Disparities in Prosecution and Policing in Virginia.” The Justice Collaborative Engagement Project. Accessed December 18, 2020. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a7bd92b90bade4801f98e8c/t/5cab7220652dea6d87c7df81/1554739745043/VA-Candidate+Brief+-+Racial+Disparities.pdf
12. “Racial Disparities in Prosecution and Policing in Virginia.” The Justice Collaborative Engagement Project. Accessed December 18, 2020. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a7bd92b90bade4801f98e8c/t/5cab7220652dea6d87c7df81/1554739745043/VA-Candidate+Brief+-+Racial+Disparities.pdf
13. Stockman, Farah. “How ‘End Mass Incarceration’ Became a Slogan for D.A. Candidates.” The New York Times, October 25, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/us/texas-district-attorney-race-mass-incarceration.html.   
14. Cohen, Andrew. “Youth Justice Experts Target Reforms to Increase Equity, Lower Recidivism.” East Bay Community Law Center, May 31, 2018. https://ebclc.org/in-the-news/youth-justice-experts-target-reforms-to-increase-equity-lower-recidivism/.
15. Phillips, Carron J. “NFL’s Players Coalition Announces Six Groups Who Will Receive Funds in 2019.” nydailynews.com. New York Daily News, April 7, 2019. https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/ny-sports-players-coalition-nfl-20190130-story.html.