Goals

• Immediate Relief for Our Communities

  • Maximize the number of people we can release from cages through the payment of criminal and immigration bonds.

  • Grow to support decarceration efforts within the state of Minnesota. 

  • Deepen interventions that prevent pre-trial jailing by building participatory defense practices.

• Systemic Change to Minnesota’s Criminal Justice System

  • Abolish cash bail in Minnesota.

  • Advocate for wide-scale decarceration.

  • Move for the end of detention based on immigration status, race/ethnicity, and class.

• Building Solidarity, Capacity & Collaboration for Broader Change

  • Support organizations that transition resources and power to Black, Indigenous and communities of color, as well as the others directly harmed by cash bail and the justice system.

  • Stand with national organizers and advocates for criminal and immigration justice change  in Minnesota and across the country.

Values

Accountability to Community. The trust of our community is essential to our work. We are committed to transparency and to remaining accountable to the communities that we serve as well as our supporters, donors, and partners. We will also work to empower local organizations across our state. Read our full statement on accountability here.

Abolishing Systems Intended to Harm. We believe that our criminal justice system, like many other systems in our society, was designed to maintain and uphold white supremacy while prioritizing the wealth, power, and influence of the few at the expense of the many. It is long past due to abolish these systems so that together we can create a more inclusive, just, and equitable society.

Intersectional Racial Equity. We are mindful of the interlocking oppressions that face the people we serve, especially Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, who are subject to disproportionate rates of arrest, higher bails, harsher sentences, and other institutional abuses. We are working to dismantle a criminal justice system that is particularly unjust and inequitable towards those at the intersections of race, poverty, homelessness, and immigration status, among others factors.