JLUSA was founded in 2014 by Glenn E. Martin, a New York native and nationally recognized leader and reform advocate who spent six years in New York State prisons. JLUSA’s founding premise was to empower leaders by investing in them with transformative leadership training, giving them the resources and support they needed to be in key leadership roles in the nationwide effort to decarcerate the United States and reimagine how the criminal legal system is utilized.
In its first five years JLUSA also supported the building of a number of grassroot campaigns. These campaigns became our pilot projects to demonstrate that when those most impacted rise into leadership and demand change, change happens. JLUSA built the foundation of successful movements to close jails in Philadelphia (#CLOSEthecreek), Milwaukee (#CLOSEmsdf) and Los Angeles (JusticeLA), and New York (#CLOSErikers).
We launched into the national spotlight with a major focus on our multi-complex state and local approach to close the infamous Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. Many efforts to close Rikers had failed in the past. JLUSA’s campaign achieved its goal because leaders directly impacted by the jail’s horrific conditions demanded its closure and the city’s divestment in punishment and investment in building healthy, thriving communities.
The #halfby2030 campaign was created to half the prison population in the U.S. by the year 2030, because that was the year Glenn’s son would turn 18, and he did not want his son’s feet to ever touch the inside of a prison facility.
In 2018, DeAnna Hoskins assumed the helm as President and CEO of JustLeadershipUSA. Ms. Hoskins—who hails from Cincinnati, Ohio—is a nationally recognized leader and graduate of the 2016 Leading with Conviction™ cohort. She is herself a previously incarcerated individual who received a pardon from Governor Ted Strickland. With a strong background in the field of policy, reintegration, and advocacy, she was the first formerly incarcerated individual to serve as Senior Policy Advisor Over Corrections and Reentry with the Department of Justice and as the Interim Deputy Director of the Federal Reentry Interagency Council during the Obama Administration before joining the staff of JLUSA.
Under Hoskins’ leadership, JLUSA has transitioned from a start-up non-profit to a well-established organization and leader in the movement to dismantle racist and oppressive systems in the United States. During 2020, JLUSA’s staff and board underwent an intensive strategic planning process. The organization remained committed to its founding principle: educating, elevating, and empowering people who have traditionally been excluded from power so they can be active change agents in dismantling the systemic racism and oppression that continues to marginalize them and their communities. DeAnna Hoskins explained:
In its first five years JLUSA spearheaded a number of grassroots campaigns. These campaigns became our pilot projects to demonstrate that when those most impacted rise into leadership and demand change, change happens. JLUSA spearheaded successful movements to close jails in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles. We were launched into the national spotlight with our multi-year campaign to close the infamous Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. Many efforts to close Rikers had failed in the past. JLUSA’s campaign achieved its goal because leaders directly impacted by the jail’s horrific conditions demanded its closure.
During this period, JLUSA also launched its #WORKINGfuture Campaign which was committed to eliminating the devastating barriers to health, housing, and work experienced by 70 million people living with a criminal record in the United States. Led by JLUSA, and in partnership with directly impacted communities, the #WORKINGfuture campaign built power within and among impacted communities to challenge legislative barriers that exclude people from the future they deserve, and transform the narrative about the lifelong impacts of collateral consequences on people, families, and communities.
Milwaukee, WI
The infamous Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility was built to warehouse people alleged to have violated rules of probation or parole--”technical violations” rather than new crimes, like missing an appointment or being late for curfew. Problems facing people incarcerated at MSDF have included extreme heat, poor ventilation, no access to outdoor recreation or sunlight, being locked down for over 20 hours a day, no in-person visits, and other abuses. Close to twenty people have died there, some by suicide and some because of the lack of medical care, since the facility opened in 2001.
In June 2017 Mark Rice, a Leading With Conviction alum (2017 cohort) founded #CLOSEmsdf. A coalition of four organizations--JustLeadershipUSA, Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO), Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, and WISDOM--launched a campaign, demanding the closure of the facility, an end to incarcerating people for technical violations, and the reinvestment of money wasted on MSDF back into the most affected communities.
Op-Ed by Mark Rice
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