About
Our Mission
DC Justice Lab is a team of law and policy experts researching, organizing, and advocating for large-scale changes to the District of Columbia’s criminal legal system. We develop smarter safety solutions that are evidence-driven, community-rooted, and racially just. We aim to fully transform the District’s approach to public safety and make it a national leader in justice reform.
Our Vision
DC Justice Lab envisions a District that:
- Eradicates the root causes of crime and violence.
- Ends overreliance on police, prosecutors, and prisons, in favor of solutions that maximize safety and freedom for all.
- Treats every person as essential to our community.
- Constantly reexamines its rules and practices to ensure they make us safer, freer, and more equal.
- Takes dramatic measures to recognize, rectify, and reverse harm it inflicted on poor people and Black people.
Our Values
- We believe in fully reimagining the systems that fail to keep us safe. We are committed to not only fighting against the past that holds us back but fighting for the future we want.
- We believe that sustainable change cannot happen without the expertise of the community that is most impacted. We are committed to honoring the express interests, concerns, agency, and capacity of Black native Washingtonians.
- We believe in liberation and compassion for all people. We are committed to advocating for those core values without judgment or contingency.
