Funding to Reform U.S. Criminal Justice System

Posted by on August 13, 2012

Open Society Foundations Invites Letters of Inquiry for Funding to Reform U.S. Criminal Justice System
Deadline: September 21, 2012(Letters of Inquiry)

The Open Society Foundations’ United States Criminal Justice Fund works to reduce mass incarceration, eliminate harsh punishment, eliminate racial disparities, and secure a fair justice system by promoting public investments in effective, community-based strategies that increase public safety.

The fund provides support to organizations and projects working to advance its programmatic strategies, including efforts to expose the social and economic costs of incarceration; promote just and effective sentencing policies; foster policies and practices that reduce prison and corrections populations; challenge the criminalization of people with mental disabilities, the homeless, and women; abolish the privatization of prisons, detention centers, and correctional supervision; abolish the death penalty; end the prosecution, sentencing, and incarceration of children as adults; end the criminalization of children in schools; challenge harsh immigration enforcement and detention; eliminate the use of long-term solitary confinement in prison; eliminate collateral consequences of criminal convictions; promote the civic engagement and leadership of people with criminal records; improve indigent defense services and systems; reduce unnecessary pretrial detention; and/or eliminate stop-and-frisk policing policy and practices in New York City.

Funding is available to organizations that address one or more of the program’s funding priorities through at least one of the following strategies: policy-driven nonpartisan analysis and research; public education; policy advocacy; community organizing and mobilization; coalition-building; and/or impact litigation.

The fund will consider proposals from advocacy groups, community groups, scholarly or research institutions, government agencies, associations of elected officials, and nonprofit business associations or initiatives. Emphasis is placed on projects that prioritize the participation and leadership of people directly affected by criminal justice policies and practices.

The fund does not provide support for activities constituting lobbying; programs or direct services; start-up costs or seed monies; annual fundraising drives; projects undertaken by individuals not affiliated with an organization; general support for first-time applicants; capital costs, including equipment or real estate purchases/renovations; or film production or post-production.

Complete program guidelines and application procedures are available at the Open Society Foundations Web site.

http://www.soros.org/grants/us-criminal-justice-fund