Policy & Advocacy in the US.
Our Work.
RBIJ works with local justice reform campaign organizations and recruits businesses to lend their voices and platforms to drive change on these key issues. We have worked on campaigns across the United States, ranging from ending extreme sentencing (like abolishing the death penalty and juvenile life without parole) to advancing justice for the workforce (like passing Clean Slate laws, bail reform, driver’s license revocation reform, and occupational licensing reform).
Where We Work.
Our Issues.
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Current Campaigns: Ohio
Every year, 650,000 people exit prison and re-enter their communities. Returning home can be an extremely arduous and vulnerable time, as individuals attempt to navigate housing, find employment, access medical care, or advance their education or trade skills. Without critical government documents, records, however, these obstacles can become even greater.
Providing access to identification documentation for justice impacted individuals is a critical step in helping individuals find employment immediately upon their return.
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Current Campaign: Illinois
After an arrest, an individual's ability to leave jail, return home, and maintain steady employment typically depends on their ability to provide bail. Bail is the temporary release of a person awaiting trial, often on the condition that money be given to guarantee their appearance in court.
On any given day, more than 600,000 Americans are incarcerated in local jails alone. Over the past three decades, the number of annual jail admissions doubled, and the average length of stay increased from 14 to 23 days. Reforming our bail system will strengthen the economy, improve long-term community safety, and increase justice and equity for our communities.
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Current Campaigns: Kentucky, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oregon, Texas, federal
Even a decades-old criminal record can create significant barriers to employment, housing, educational opportunities, and more. While processes to clear these records exist across the country, less than 5% of eligible individuals will ever even apply due to a lack of access, knowledge, and funds required.
Clean Slate refers to legislation that automatically clears or expunges qualifying criminal records if a person stays crime free for a period of time. Clean Slate is a technological solution for closing the justice gap. By removing the collateral consequences of incarceration for justice-impacted individuals, the effort is a critical step in strengthening our communities — and our economy.
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Current Campaigns: Alabama, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, federal
There are nearly 2,300 people facing execution in the United States. While more than half of all states (27) across the country still allow for the punishment of execution for certain crimes, only 13 have actually carried out an execution in the last decade. Support for the death penalty continues to decline around the world. Over 70% of countries have abolished it in law or practice and, in the United States, public support for capital punishment is at an all-time low across the political spectrum. Conservatives and people of faith increasingly reject the death penalty because it conflicts with pro-life values, wastes public resources, and risks the execution of an innocent person.Business leaders play a critical role in speaking out against this cruel and unusual practice.
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Current Campaigns: North Carolina, Ohio, federal
Most states suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew driver’s licenses for unpaid fines and fees. They also criminalize driving on a suspended license, and suspend licenses for failures to appear in court. Loss of a license leaves those who drive to work with an impossible choice: lose their jobs or risk further penalties — even arrest — to keep their income. Simply put, it forces Americans into a vicious and desperate cycle of poverty and incarceration.
Ending driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees will keep workers in their jobs and out of the justice system.
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Current Campaigns: Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina
Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP) is a sentence of life in prison, without the possibility of parole, for a child under the age of 18. Nationally, 59% of juveniles sentenced to life without parole are first-time offenders, meaning they didn’t have a single crime on their juvenile court record prior to their sentence. More than 25% of people serving life without parole after being sentenced as children were convicted of felony murder or accomplice liability – meaning, they were not the primary perpetrators of the crime, and may not have even been present at the time someone was killed. The United States is the only known country that routinely sentences children to die in prison by imposing life without parole on children under 18.By speaking out against JLWOP, businesses can assure their home communities are equitable and allow for rehabilitation.
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Current Campaign: Georgia
Occupational licensure refers to legal permission to work in certain occupations. Nearly one in every four workers across the labor force has obtained a license, which is necessary for individuals pursuing occupations as varied as plumbing, dentistry, nursing, cosmetology, and law. The process can require substantial investments of time and money. In many professions and most states across the country, people with old criminal convictions can be completely barred from obtaining an occupational license, regardless of how long ago they were convicted or the relevancy of the conviction to the licensed industry.
Reforming this system would expand the workforce for in-demand professions and strengthen the economy.
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Transit options in cities across the country often don’t meet the needs of employees, and can have a huge impact on stable employment as well as economic mobility. This is especially true for vulnerable communities, including those who are justice-impacted. Limited access to transportation hinders the upward mobility of justice-impacted individuals.
With debt-based driver's license suspension as another obstacle to job security, reliable and accessible transit options are as important as ever.