Support Healing Centered Justice

The National Black Women’s Justice Institute (NBWJI) aims to eliminate racial and gender disparities in the U.S. criminal legal system that are responsible for its disproportionate impact on Black women, girls, and gender nonconforming people. We engage in rigorous research and capacity building in order to transform the current system and promote policy change that centers and uplifts the voices and experiences of Black women, girls, and gender nonconforming people who have been impacted by the criminal legal system. We seek to dismantle the punitive paradigm driving the U.S. criminal legal system and build, in its place, pathways to healing and opportunity. 

We research, elevate, and educate the public about innovative, community-led solutions to address the criminalization of Black women and girls. We aim to dismantle the racist and patriarchal US criminal-legal system and build, in its place, pathways to opportunity and healing.

We envision a society that respects, values, and honors the humanity of Black women and girls, takes accountability for the harm it has inflicted, and recognizes that  real justice is healing.