Justice Forward Virginia x The Self Portrait Project
The Self portrait Project traveled from New York City to collaborate with Justice Forward Virginia on July 22, 2023. The “photo booth” installation was part of the annual Women’s Summit–a three day event that brings together grassroots activists, organizations, elected officials, and candidates. Created by National Geographic Traveler award-winning photographer Andy Lin, the Self-Portrait Project is a system and method for self-representation using a patented two-way mirror, camera, and remote control–the Project itself is an exploration of shared humanity.
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Expungement Informational Workshop
Nolef Turns, Justice Forward Virginia, the Richmond Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney, and the Richmond Public Law Library present an informational workshop on Expungement in Virginia. Learn about updates to the law, taking effect July 1 of 2023, and updates that will come in 2025.
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How do we keep our kids out of jail? Southwest Virginia Criminal Justice Town Hall
On Friday June 16, 2023 at 6:00 PM EDT, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers, advocates, and impacted people will come together at New River Community College in Richardson Auditorium in Rooker Hall–5251 State Rd 373, Dublin, Virginia–to discuss public safety and how Virginia’s criminal legal system is impacting Southwest Virginia communities and families. The event is sponsored by several Virginia organizations, American for Prosperity Virginia, Justice Forward Virginia, and SALT(Social Action Linking Together).
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2023: What to Ask Candidates About Criminal Justice Reform
Virginia made historic strides toward reforming our criminal legal system in 2020 and 2021, but there is still much to do. In 2022 and 2023, we have protected that progress. We want to know from legislative candidates what they will do in 2024 and beyond to keep pushing to reduce the harms caused by Virginia’s criminal legal system.
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How Soon They Forget: Overcharging is Good Again?
Overcharging is common nationwide as a tool of coercion. This is generally known as the “trial penalty” or “trial tax”: the ability of prosecutors to make the risk of losing at trial so great, with punishment so harsh, that any rational person would plead guilty—even those who are innocent.
In Virginia, however, overcharging is even more problematic because of how it is incentivized by the state. The “funding formula” for prosecutors in Virginia relies mainly on the number of felonies they indict and the number of felony sentences they obtain.
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A Letter From Our Executive Director, Criminal Law Legislative Summary
In April, legislators returned to Richmond for the one-day reconvened session, to address the governor’s recommended changes to and vetoes of legislation. Except for the budget, which likely won’t be finalized until after the June 20 legislative primaries, we can now summarize what the General Assembly accomplished in 2023 in criminal law. The new laws, which take effect July 1 unless otherwise noted, fall into seven categories…
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Oppose Mass Surveillance--A Letter to the Virginia General Assembly
We encourage you to protect the lives, liberty, and interests of the people you represent, not the predatory private companies whose technology invades our private lives and pushes Virginia further into a police state. We call on you to strongly oppose SB 1165 and HB 1437. There is still time to stop this disturbing, unnecessary proposal.
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Justice Reform Lobby Day
Join Justice Forward Virginia, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on February 8, 2023 in Richmond, Virginia. We're excited to be back together and gathering in person in Richmond this year. We’ll be speaking with legislators about preserving evidence-informed criminal justice reforms that eliminated presumptions against bail, reformed our probation system, and limited pretextual policing, among other priorities.
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2023 Legislative Priorities: A Letter From Our Interim Executive Director
I have remained committed to one vision: ending the structural racism and classism that forms the foundation of Virginia’s criminal legal system. I’m honored to take the reins at Justice Forward Virginia.
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Annual Justice Reform "Prep Rally" - 2023
The Virginia General Assembly General Session is upon us. And in the annual tradition, Justice Forward Virginia is hosting its Justice Reform “Prep Rally”—to educate and mobilize advocates for action. We’re excited to have Delegate Jay Jones and Senator Jennifer Boysko join our policy experts, Rob Poggenklass and Brad Haywood on Facebook LIVE–Wednesday, January 18th at 8:00 pm
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New Polling: Virginia voters reject tough-on-crime policies, show widespread support for evidence-informed criminal justice reforms
Virginia voters have experienced the positive impacts of criminal justice reforms and they are ready to see public safety funding be spent proactively on strengthening their communities rather than incarcerating even more residents. Virginia-based advocates Sheba Williams, Executive Director of Nolef Turns, Brad Haywood, Arlington County and City of Falls Church Chief Public Defender, Rob Poggenklass, Executive Director of Justice Forward Virginia, and Valerie Slater, Executive Director of RISE for Youth agree that evidence-informed criminal justice reforms keep communities safe.
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Justice Forward Virginia Seeking New Board Members
Justice Forward Virginia is Seeking to Add Three New Board Members.
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The Need For A Second Look In Virginia
The Need for a Second Look in Virginia—A February 2022 report by the nonpartisan Justice Policy Institute—analyzes Virginia’s heavy-handed reliance on lengthy prison sentences and reveals how extreme sentences play a significant role in our mass incarceration crisis and surging geriatric prison population. The number of people in Virginia’s prison system, which declined for the first time in 2009 after four decades of growth, has plateaued in recent years and remains plagued with dysfunction that keeps people locked up for extremely long sentences, disproportionately impacting Black families, and costing Virginia taxpayers a BILLION dollars a year.
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Moving Forward
Nothing embodies the public defender experience quite like a rousing game of “Oh, you think that’s bad?” This is a time-honored tradition where defenders from different jurisdictions take turns one-upping each other with the arcane and draconian criminal laws and procedures that endanger the freedom and lives of the people they represent, in the various courthouses where they practice.
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Looking Back: Virginia Criminal Justice Reforms in 2021
2021 was a tumultuous year in so many ways. The murder of George Floyd, and the shock so many of us felt as we watched videos of police abusing Americans, opened people’s eyes to the excesses of the criminal justice system. In Virginia, dedicated state-level advocacy and some courageous legislators created a unique opportunity. The result was the most meaningful and comprehensive changes to Virginia’s criminal justice system in its history
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ANNUAL Justice Reform "Prep Rally” - January 9th, 2022
January 13th, 2022 marks the start of the Virginia General Assembly General Session. In its annual tradition, Justice Forward will host its “Prep Rally”— to better inform and mobilize advocates to effectively lobby for meaningful criminal justice reform in 2022.
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Lobby Days--2022 Legislative Session
The 2022 Virginia General Assembly Session starts Wednesday January 12th, and in preparation we’ll be hosting our annual Lobby Day(s) virtually. Sign up to advocate with us.
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Opinion: Virginia's criminal justice reform leads to campaign fictions.
Until 2020, the United States had never truly reckoned with the legacy of racism inherited by its criminal legal system. Then, all at once, a reckoning was unavoidable. In nine minutes and 29 seconds caught on video, the life of a Black man, George Floyd, was brutally extinguished by a police officer who rejected Floyd’s right even to the breath in his lungs.
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Professional Diversity and the Court of Appeals
JFV letter to the General Assembly expressing support for increased professional diversity on the Court of Appeals. Professional diversity is one important way to ensure that the judges of the Court of Appeals understand the intersection of the law with the lives of disadvantaged people. Unfortunately, for many years our appellate courts have suffered from a lack of diversity in many respects. Seven of the ten current judges worked as prosecutors or in the Office of the Attorney General. None of the current judges spent their careers as public defenders, legal aid lawyers, or civil rights lawyers.
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Professional Diversity in Our Federal Courts - A letter to the Committee on the Judiciary
Justice Forward Virginia joined We Demand Justice and over 55 other partner organizations in in calling out unfair attacks on public defenders nominated to federal judgeships and supporting efforts to increase professional diversity in our federal courts.
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