Criminal Justice

The Healing Justice Program empowers individuals harmed by violence and by criminal justice policies to transform the conditions under which they live, and to heal.   We recognize and advance the worth and dignity of all people in and around the criminal justice system.

kadi and family

Kadi (far right), her two sisters, and their father, with a photo of their mother who was deported in 2002.

The Newark office is home to the Immigrant Rights  program and the New Jersey site of our Healing Justice program.

The Immigrant Rights Program in Newark NJ works to ensure that all immigrants to the US are treated with respect and are able to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms.  We work to address the vast need among immigrants for access to legal counsel and fair and non-discriminatory treatment by government agencies.

AFSC promotes alternatives to incarceration, educates the public about new models for justice, and humanizes prisoners and their families while calling attention to the human and fiscal disaster of California's overgrown prison system.

Transforming Criminal Justice

Solitary Confinement.

Early Quakers were leaders in the prison reform movements in England and later in colonies such as Pennsylvania.  AFSC has carried the concern for prisoners, as well as victims for many years, believing that even if a person is convicted of a crime, incarceration should not take away their inherent dignity or humanity.