ABOUT THE DETROIT JUSTICE CENTER
The Detroit Justice Center (DJC) is a national nonprofit organization rooted in Detroit. We were founded on the belief that we must remedy the impacts of mass incarceration to create truly just cities. We achieve this mission through innovative community lawyering–fighting for racial justice and economic equity with defensive and offensive representation and novel approaches to land use, housing, and employment. With its history of racialized economic disinvestment, we believe Detroit is uniquely positioned to create policy solutions that can be replicated across the country.
Sustainable social change occurs when directly impacted people take collective action, lead their own struggles, and gain the power to change the conditions of oppression. We are a community law firm working in service to movements, and we recognize the importance of decentering attorneys as experts or relying on litigation or other legal strategies at the expense of direct organizing. Our attorneys practice movement lawyering, which is lawyering in a way that centers relationships and the people organizing on the ground. It is
about relationship building, building trust with people; thus building the community first, then the institution to hold it.
We see our work in the lineage of abolitionist thinkers and align with Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s framework of “abolition as a presence.” While we fight to end incarceration and policing for the safety and well-being of our communities, we must also determine what we are building in place of those systems and involve our community members in those conversations.
We collaborate on local, statewide, and national campaigns focused on the needs, wisdom, and vision of our clients and community partners. Within our communities, we participate in people’s forums, coalition building, community surveys, policy advocacy, cultural organizing, and direct action to effect change. Together, these actions empower residents and communities and help to build a more equitable society for all.
ABOUT THE DETROIT JUSTICE CENTER
THE DETROIT JUSTICE
CENTER IS A NONPROFIT LAW FIRM
WORKING ALONGSIDE COMMUNITIES TO CREATE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES, TRANSFORM THE JUSTICE SYSTEM, AND PROMOTE EQUITABLE AND JUST CITIES OUR MISSION & VALUES
LIBERATION
Our collective freedom is intertwined with all those who are systemically oppressed.
INNOVATION
We are committed to forging new pathways for our communities to thrive and seeking solutions to new challenges as they arise.
COLLABORATION
Nothing long-lasting can be achieved in solitude; we dedicate ourselves to following the lead of diverse, intergenerational movement builders.
EMPOWERMENT
We dedicate ourselves to decentering the authority of the criminal legal system and enabling non-attorneys to shift policy, law, and culture.
A LETTER FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dearest Detroit Justice Center Community,
Nationally, 2024 was an unpredictable year with a number of unprecedented turns. The year at DJC was not nearly so chaotic, though we did experience highs and lows. We celebrated our single largest donation to date in the Yield Giving Award, which granted us $2 million in unrestricted funds. This funding afforded us the ability to continue operating at pace while we determined a sustainable rate for future growth. In the spirit of transitional leadership, we said goodbye to a number of our beloved staff, many of whom had been at DJC since its earliest days, as they moved on to new and powerful pursuits. We also added some new faces to our team, and we’ve been thrilled by their creativity and enthusiasm.
I was heartbroken by the police killing of Ryan Gainer, an autistic Black teenager in California in March 2024. The tragedy reminded me so much of the dangers my own brother has faced that I did something vulnerable and wrote an op-ed about my brother and how autistic people deserve better than being met with armed law enforcement when they are in crisis. The essay was published in Teen Vogue, and the response has been remarkable. When I took on the role of Executive Director, I didn’t anticipate that it would mean sharing something so personal with millions of readers, but one of the things 2024 brought into focus is the inseparability of the personal and the political.
As we moved through our sixth year in operation, I was not the only member of DJC on a national stage. Our Economic Equity team attended the Midwest Community Land Trust Conference and shared the work of Detroit’s burgeoning CLT movement. Our Community Legal Advocates also created a curriculum based on their work to be shared with our partners at three historically Black universities in Texas, North
Carolina, and Washington, D.C. At home, we celebrated the official opening of the LOVE Building with a week of activities that saw hundreds of people tour our new offices. We hosted a powerful screening of the documentary Coldwater Kitchen, complete with a meal catered by Chef Dink, of Green Mile Grille, who is featured in the film. We closed out the year with our Mental Wellness Partner Convening, where we were able to collectively address the mental health and harm reduction needs of our community.
We accomplished a great deal this year while doing a great deal of internal reflection in light of the shifting political landscape, where we’ve seen a rollback on progress and a condemnation of diversity, equity, and inclusion. As we reminded our followers after the election, we remain as committed as ever to the work of dismantling racial and economic oppression and encouraging the freedom dreams of those negatively impacted by the criminal legal system. We see our work as part of an intergenerational struggle, meaning that we are dedicated to leaving a better world for those who come after us. As our organization continues to broaden the reach of our work, we are sure that we will continue to attract more collaborators who are dedicated to building just cities alongside us everywhere we find ourselves.
In solidarity,
Nancy A. Parker
INSIDE DJC
Our People & Culture Department continued to innovate workplace policies that set national standards. DJC continued to lead in the development of people-first policies that are replicable across the nonprofit and legal sectors, demonstrating that justice-centered organizations can thrive while prioritizing employee well-being.
People & Culture took its cues from movement in the following ways: expanding parental leave & wellness policies. In response to movement calls for family-centered policies, we enhanced parental leave in 2023 to ensure that staff could take time to care for their growing families without financial strain that our staff was able to take advantage in 2024.
Aligning with the broader social justice movement’s focus on sustainability, we deepened our sabbatical policy and four-day workweek, recognizing that well-being is fundamental to effective advocacy.
Inspired by grassroots leadership models, we embedded program development into staff transitions, ensuring that DJC remained an incubator for movement leaders.
As external forces pushed back against DEI efforts nationwide, DJC remained steadfast in prioritizing Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (JEDI-B) across all policies, ensuring that equity and inclusion remained at the forefront of our work.
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Our Finance and Operations team provided tremendous logistical support for all of our staff, making our offices a true gathering space for our community and enabling our team to expand our work beyond Detroit.
We began the practice of inviting community partners to attend our staff meetings to introduce themselves to the organization and provide insight into how we could best support their organizations.
In 2024, our financial team began meeting with departments quarterly and shared the budget with our staff in order to promote transparency in our work.
We furnished our new offices with artwork from a former tenant (when the Love Building was artist studios) in a way that honored the building’s legacy, uplifted the artists’ work, and infused warmth and connection into our space.
METRO DETROIT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE NETWORK
The Metro Detroit Restorative Justice Network (MDRJN) is a multi-sector network of practitioners, advocates, and community members seeking to increase support for, and access to, a sustainable restorative justice infrastructure as one avenue for systemic alternatives to punitive justice
We completed our community circle keeper training pilot, which trained over 56 community members on how to mediate harm within their communities without relying on police over the course of two years, expanding our vision for restorative justice in Metro Detroit. The trainings were tailored for community members looking to learn restorative practices to address harm and conflict in their communities.
After surveying dozens of Detroiters about community safety, we authored a report entitled “Unraveling Harm, Cultivating Safety: Learnings on
Healing, Justice, and Accountability from Metro Detroiters” that will be published in spring 2025.
In addition to publishing our findings, we also advanced the “Access to Restorative Justice Act” in the legislature, which aims to expand restorative justice in Michigan. It will create a grant program to fund community groups (nonprofits, schools, local governments, etc.) to provide restorative justice services, which focus on repairing harm, accountability, and healing instead of punishment, encourages the use of RJ as a diversion to incarceration, and affords legal privileges to RJ processes.
LEGAL SERVICES & ADVOCACY PRACTICE
Our Legal Services & Advocacy Practice removes legal barriers, helping clients remain out of jail, hold onto jobs and stable housing, and keep their families intact. Under our national Just Cities strategy, equal access to legal services is fundamental to ending the criminalization of poverty, which plagues our criminal legal system.
We opened the doors to our new offices and hosted 3 legal services workshops, focused on family, housing, and traffic issues.
Our attorneys cleared 127 warrants, allowing our clients to live without fear of incarceration.
We co-facilitated 27 Road to Restoration (R2R) clinics, three of which were held in MI Dept. of Corrections facilities.
IN 2024...
To date, the R2R clinics have aided nearly 10,000 Michiganders with removing obstacles to reinstating their licenses.
We represented 577 legal services clients, including 429 R2R clients, 25 housing clients, 46 traffic court clients, 31 family court clients, and 8 anti-war protestors.
We were able to save our clients over $76,000 in fines and fees that they otherwise would have been saddled with, including almost $7000 to pay fees from DJC’s Barrier Relief Fund, which helps clients settle their court costs
KEEPING DETROITERS IN THEIR HOMES
In July, our partners at Detroit Eviction Defense passed along two cases of clients who were experiencing deed fraud. Deed fraud is when one person unlawfully claims that they have the deed to a property without the owner’s knowledge. Our first two deed fraud clients, Ms. Squires and Mr. Bell, were each displaced from their homes for six months because police wrongfully sided with the individuals committing deed fraud. After taking on these cases, our attorneys realized that there
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
We helped our client Ms. Ghaskin go from being formerly unhoused to being a first time homeowner. Ms. Ghaskin was unhoused for a time and then found unstable shelter in a house that was in dramatically poor condition. Holes in the structure of the house left Ms. Ghaskin and her family exposed to the elements during the harsh Detroit winter. Unfortunately, the family lost a young grandchild due to these inhospitable conditions. In 2019, SER Metro and the City of Detroit found her more stable housing, where she’s been
was a pattern in these cases–police evicting people without doing due diligence, and we offered to take any deed fraud cases encountered by the Wayne County Register of Deeds. Attorneys typically charge $3000-5000 for the services we provide, and between July and December, we took on 14 deed fraud cases at no charge to our clients. So far, we have had a 100% success rate in restoring deeds to their rightful owners.
ever since. She came to us as a client in 2024 because her out-of-state landlord had gotten scammed by a “property management company” that would take on rentals like Ms. Ghaskin’s, abandon them, and stop sending money to the property owners. One of our attorneys was able to broker a deal with her landlord to sell her the home at an affordable price. Until we have truly just cities, we will continue to fight to make housing affordable for everyone and accessible to those who are or have been unhoused in the past.
ECONOMIC EQUITY PRACTICE
Our Economic Equity Practice provides legal support for community land trusts, affordable housing, worker owned co-operatives, and enterprises led by returning citizens. It is our belief that in order to have just cities we must have equitable opportunities for security and growth.
We signed on to work with 9 new clients, including 5 Community Land Trust (CLT) clients who are creating long-term affordable housing for Detroiters.
135 people attended our Economic Equity Practice’s events, including one convening that brought together 85 stakeholders from across Detroit’s CLT ecosystem to strengthen collaboration, share strategies, and advance the movement for community-owned land and housing.
Our Economic Equity attorneys spoke at over 20 events about our work, engaging funders, city officials, and philanthropic leaders in the CLT movement.
Our ShotSpotter litigation obtained the holding that citizens have a cause of action (evidence that opens the door for a legal remedy) under Community Input Over Government Surveillance (CIOGS) ordinance.
A community land trust is community-owned nonprofit that acquires, holds, and sometimes manages land, leasing it to others for residential, commercial, or agricultural uses. They are an effective way to create permanent affordable housing.
RESTRUCTURING
Our Economic Equity Practice (EEP) implemented a restructuring of the department to provide the scaffolding and resources to continue EEP’s community land trust work and further grow our entrepreneurship work. As the CLT practice within EEP has grown, it has provided DJC with increased visibility and credibility amongst community development organizations (CDOs), government agencies, and funders. A restructured EEP will be better positioned to take advantage of these opportunities to support CLTs and other affordable housing models, Including limited
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
The North Corktown Neighborhood Association (NCNA) was the first CLT to construct new homes in Detroit. They were completed in August and part of a 4-day community-wide open house attended by more than 500 people. DJC established special meetings where more than 25 City Officials toured the homes. Subject to final utility-related work, the homes will be listed for sale in the Spring of 2025. The process was
equity co-ops, public housing, social housing and others yet to emerge.
The revision will also permit EEP to re-engage with community partners on the solidarity economy and entrepreneurship, focusing on individuals and communities impacted by our criminal legal system. EEP is reaching out to Detroit area
organizations and programs that support entrepreneurs and startups to help them identify justice-impacted participants, develop programs to support them, and provide legal and business services as a part of such support.
very complicated with NCNA spinning off a new non-profit entity, North Corktown Housing Community Land Trust, to take ownership of the homes, sell them, and manage the process on a long-term basis. DJC worked with the client’s funders to facilitate a legal structure to accomplish these goals. The project utilized modular housing, which is now under review to determine how it can be utilized in other CLTs going forward.
POLICY
In 2024, our department played a crucial role in advancing justice-centered policy and advocacy:
LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY
We wrote and submitted testimony to legislators in support of critical reforms such as HB 5103 -- Bill to Repeal Driver’s License Denial Law, originating from the Road to Restoration Clinics. We also worked on educating legislators on the harms of HR9495, also known as the Nonprofit Killer Bill (Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, 501 c3 Legal Strategies), HB5598 (Deed Fraud) and End Cash Bail Bills (HB4655, HB4656, HB4657)
BAIL REFORM RESEARCH & NARRATIVE BUILDING
We initiated discussions on studying local bail reform efforts as part of the Bold Against Bail Coalition to shape the broader narrative around cash bail reform advocacy, ensuring our work is grounded in data-driven, movement-aligned strategies. We also contributed to efforts to advance the Pretrial Fairness Bill Package.
Our department also provided testimony and advocacy support for key legislative reforms, including:
Fair Chance Access to Housing Act – Expanding access to housing for formerly incarcerated individuals.
Decriminalization of Public Health Materials – Permitting legal access to syringe service programs to reduce harm and support public health efforts;
Elimination of Juvenile Life Without Parole – Advocating for the end of extreme sentencing for youth, aligning Michigan with national trends in youth justice reform.
Our attorneys also worked with the City of Detroit Assessor’s Office. We are part of a Working Group including the City Assessor, Chief Financial Officer and representatives of the Law Department.
The first policy objective focused on a CLT’s ability to split a parcel of land from its vertical improvements has been approved. Splitting a parcel is what makes CLTs affordable. A new form was developed in December 2024 by the City which is now in use by DREAM CLT and North Corktown Housing Community Land Trust to complete this process.
The second policy objective is to develop a tax assessment policy that supports the affordable housing goals of CLTs by minimizing property taxes based on the resale restriction on the property tied to Area Median Income Levels. The DJC Team is presenting legal precedent from case law as well as statutory guidance from other states to support this position.
As part of our ongoing work to stop ShotSpotter and end mass surveillance, we advised Community Input Over Government Surveillance (CIOGS) Amendments to:
Set up a system where any agency acquiring surveillance technology would automatically trigger a notification about CIOGS;
Strengthen the Technology Specification Report requirements; reports are the disclosures that require the requesting department to disclose everything from costs to civil liberties implications to what data will be collected.
Add a provision that allows citizens to sue when the ordinance is violated by city departments;
Increase frequency of reporting requirements; and
Create a community advisory council to liaise with City Council.
DIVEST/INVEST
Nationally, we suffer from a lack of strategic vision about how to divest from jails and prisons and reinvest in the health and safety of our communities. Our divest/invest work focuses on introducing and normalizing noncarceral alternatives to punitive justice.
MENTAL WELLNESS PARTNER CONVENING
Throughout 2024, we conducted an ecosystem scan of mental health, substance use, and harm reduction in Detroit with fifteen partner organizations, learning about the work they do and assessing what support they might need. The learnings from this work culminated in the planning of a partner convening.
Our mental health partner convening engaged 73 attendees, representing 38 organizations, including advocates, service providers, community organizers, policymakers, and grassroots leaders. One featured exhibit at the convening was our Data Gallery Walk – a twenty-one data poster display that promoted engagement, critical reflection, and discussion throughout the convening.
PUBLIC EVENTS
38 organizations
73
attendees
PUBLICATIONS
DJC is a planning partner and facilitator with the MI-CEMI Statewide Learning Community on Diversion and Incarceration Offramps. In 2024, the Statewide Learning Community hosted 10 virtual sessions featuring a deep dive into five movement-led topics, and two sessions on harm reduction which tied in to the discourse being generated by our partner convening.
We completed our mental health ecosystem scan + guidebook. The two-year project included learning meetings with local organizations as well as exploratory meetings, network calls, conferences, literature reviews, and other research –all contributing to a deeper awareness of local offerings, services, systemic barriers, and areas where more significant investments and infrastructure are needed.
#FREEPEOPLE
COMMUNITY LEGAL ADVOCATES
Our Community Legal Advocates (CLAs) are non-attorneys who have been trained to assist the community with legal processes, such as filing property tax appeals. By democratizing access to the law, we seek to disrupt the power imbalance in the criminal legal system.
We brought our vision of democratizing access to the law to the community around Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law, a historically Black university in Houston, TX. Our work there led to the creation of Houston’s first community legal advocate at the nonprofit Collective Action 4 Youth.
Our CLAs coordinated DJC’s volunteer program, connecting community members with our work through meaningful engagement.
Our CLAs assisted 19 clients, including four Cash 4 Keys clients, who were able to move without an eviction on their records.
We partnered with Michigan Liberation for a mental health fair at SHAR house. This fair was to offer mental health resources to the community and to uplift the importance of mental health awareness in social justice work.
We began the process of notifying Detroiters that they may be eligible for tax surplus proceeds if their house was foreclosed on and sold by Wayne County between 2015 and 2020.
We worked with We The People of Detroit to convince policymakers to adopt an affordable water plan. Our position is that there should be an income based policy put in place.
2024 ARTIST RESIDENCY
Each year, we ask applicants from Wayne County, MI to submit proposals that answer the prompt: “Imagine a world without policing or incarceration.” Inspired by Detroit’s long history of arts and activism, and thanks to generous donations from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council administered by CULTURESOURCE and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the residency lasts one year and awards one artist $10,000 to deliver on their project proposal.
This year’s selection panel chose 2024-25’s Artist in Residence Cherise Morris, because her proposal
“Abolition is an Ancestral Wisdom,” wowed the judges with its innovation, impact, and artistic merit.
Morris’ selection marks the first time a writer has been selected for this residency. As articulated in her proposal, “This multipronged and interdisciplinary project…dismantles the fallacy that humans are incapable of living in societies without police and prisons by centralizing the ways abolitionist thought, theory and practices have been integral to the ways our ancestors lived through an exploration of African and Afrodiasporic cosmologies and ontologies that align with the theories and philosophies of prison and police abolition.” The project will include the completion of an essay series that will be released as a chapbook, as well as an abolitionist children’s book culminating in a “unique healing ritualperformance that will be based on writings in the book.”
JOIN OUR MOVEMENT!
DJC relies on a broad base of donors to sustain our work. We believe that we all have a stake in the fight to end mass incarceration and build truly just cities–where everyone has what they need to care for one another. To achieve this vision, we’re combatting decades of structural racism that has caused money and other resources to flee our communities, while public funding has been channeled into harmful systems like prisons and policing.
It’s in this context that we pursue wealth reclamation: the process of rehabilitating extracted and privately controlled wealth to restore and nurture community health and vitality. In 2024, we updated our Gift Acceptance Policy to better reflect our fundraising approach and values. We also hosted mission breakfasts, tours of our new headquarters, and a screening of Coldwater Kitchen to provide our supporters with a chance to build relationships with our team and deepen their connection to our work.
We launched two funds that provide direct channels to support our legal interns and clients.
Desiree Ferguson Fund: Deepens our capacity to recruit, mentor, and train the next generation of freedom fighters while honoring the life’s work of one of Detroit’s iconic movement lawyers.
Barrier Relief Fund: Directly addresses a wide range of fines/fees and ends cycles of unjust debt and incarceration for our community members.
THREE WAYS TO GIVE
JOIN THE FREEDOM DREAM SUSTAINERS
LEAVE A LASTING LEGACY
Recurring grassroots gifts are an efficient way to make an impact and keep our movement thriving yearround - not just in times of crisis. You can make a forward-thinking investment in a world where the caging of human beings is a distant memory by remembering DJC in your estate plans.
BECOME A DONOR ORGANIZER
You have the power to help DJC reach people we can’t reach alone. Grow our base & help us build power by encouraging your networks to give.
595 individual donors and 40 organizations and foundations supported DJC in 2024. We received 4,368 individual gifts. Grassroots giving continues to be one of the most powerful and effective ways to keep our movement resourced. The majority of gifts made in 2024 were less than $250, yet they made up 33% of total funds raised through individuals!
14 gifts of $1,001-$5,000
1 gift of $31,234.04
DONOR SPOTLIGHT
5 gifts of $5,001$25,000
1 gift of $75,000
“For generations movements for social, political and economic progress were organic creations of grassroots communities. Their effectiveness prompted the enemies of these movements to create what many refer to as ‘the non-profit/industrial complex.’ Wellheeled foundations dispense grants to 501(c)3 organizations - with strings. Conditions on how grants will be used allow the grantors to set the agendas for the grantees. It is all too convenient that permissible agendas rarely allow funded organizations to stand up to
4,288 gifts of up to $250
59 gifts of up to $251-$1,000
The average gift size was $52.
We welcomed 31 new Freedom Dream Sustainers in 2024 and have 410 active sustainers. The average gift size for sustainers is $24.50 monthly and they collectively gave more than $99,000.
powerful interests and to become authentic voices for the communities they serve. The Detroit Justice Center’s demonstrated commitment to serving as an authentic representative of the community inspires me to lend my support, and to hope that if many others will do likewise, it will guarantee that DJC will always remain an independent fighter for justice for the many who so desperately need it.”
- Mark P. Fancher Staff Attorney, ACLU of Michigan
DJC MEDIA HITS
Police Should Not Respond to Incidents Involving Autistic People
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Nancy A. Parker of Detroit Justice Center Is Helping To Change Our World
Get help restoring driving privileges
96 attend driver’s license restoration clinic in Monroe
Michigan’s cash bail system lacks data tracking as judges, prosecutors try to understand reform
Detroit’s LOVE Building hosts grand opening with four days of community events
Detroit police precincts using lasso-like restraints: What to know
A weight off my shoulders’: Driver’s license restoration clinic offers hope in Battle Creek
Nonprofit-anchored LOVE Building opens with history-laced art exhibition
Hundreds honor Martin
King Jr. at 21st annual rally and march in Detroit
Efforts across community begin to turn the coronavirus tide for Detroiters
Detroit Police have arrested your loved one. Here’s what to do next
Luther
The Detroit News
Detroit Free Press
Detroit Metro Times
Bridge Michigan
Bridge Detroit
From January to June of 2024, we welcomed a Morgridge Acceleration Program (MAP) Fellow, Victoria Gillison, who worked with our team to develop a cohesive online presence for DJC. During our time together, Victoria put together a set of comprehensive comms tools to streamline our online presence. Thanks to her thoughtful recommendations, we were able to better define our organizational values and execute our content on social media with better precision.
How to reclaim money from Wayne County, according to its treasurer
To cut Black infant mortality, Henry Ford program supports Black moms
Detroit Activists Hold Press Conference to Condemn Repression of Pro-Palestine Protesters
Community land trusts make strides toward long-term affordable housing in Detroit
Outlier Media
Left Voice
Outlier Media
Planet Detroit