All Resources — Community Justice Exchange

Best Practices for Establishing a Legal Defense Fund

There is no one “right” way to set up a legal defense fund or rapid response bail fund, and these definitions can be fluid depending on the needs of your local community. Historically, legal activists have employed a variety of approaches when creating and operating these funds, often specific to political circumstances and differences in local legal systems. This document, developed by the National Bail Fund Network and the National Lawyers Guild, provides an overview of some of the best practices distilled from decades of legal defense fund experiences.

DocumentDavid NalaNovember 16, 2022Bail Funds

Beyond Criminal Courts: Defund and Divest

Beyond Criminal Courts: Defund and Divest is a digital resource hub for organizers, advocates and community members working together to build the organizing-power we need to defund, divest, and ultimately to dismantle criminal courts for good. It is a collaborative project created by Community Justice Exchange and Interrupting Criminalization, with incredible web design and development by Research Action Design, illustrations by Noah Jodice, and Spanish translation by tilde Language Justice Collaborative.

Website, DocumentDavid NalaNovember 15, 2022Criminalization, Community Interventions

Community Bail Funds as an Organizing Tool: A Primer for Exploring the Tactic

There is no one right way to start a bail fund. This document is intended for organizers, legal advocates, and organizations contemplating starting a bail fund as an intervention in the criminal legal and/or immigration detention systems

DocumentDavid NalaNovember 13, 2022Bail Funds

COVID-19 Response Guidance for Community Bail & Bond Funds

As community bail and bond funds, we are fighting to abolish detention in all of its forms and for all individuals. In times of crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, we uplift our call to #FreeThemAll with more urgency than ever. There are local and state-specific responses to the current COVID-19 crisis, many with specific calls to release individuals in local jails, prisons, and ICE detention. We hope this is an additional resource for community bail and bond funds to support and amplify efforts to release as many people as possible.

DocumentDavid NalaNovember 12, 2022Bail Funds, COVID-19

End Immigration Detention & Free Them All: An Abolitionist Messaging Guide on Immigration Bond

The guide provides an analysis on the use of immigration bond as a limited tactical intervention that organizers use to free as many people as possible from detention, but not a solution (nor a system we are trying to improve) to end immigration detention.

DocumentDavid NalaNovember 11, 2022Bail Funds, Immigration Detention and Enforcement

Decarceration During COVID-19: A Messaging Toolkit for Campaigns for Mass Release

This document provides some guidance and tools for families, organizers, and advocates who are demanding real decarceration and health equity while pushing back against the false narratives that invoke public health in order to uphold mass criminalization and incarceration during COVID-19.

Document, ToolkitDavid NalaNovember 10, 2022Criminalization, Community Interventions

Direct Action for Prison Abolition Web Zine

In the context of a global pandemic, and an unprecedented uprising for Black liberation and against policing, we created this educational resource for abolitionist organizers considering strategic escalation of tactics in our campaigns to free them all and defund policing.

DocumentDavid NalaNovember 9, 2022Community Interventions

Ending the Criminalization of Failure-To-Appear: An Organizers’ Guide to Demanding Court Changes in the Time of COVID-19

This document provides guidance for organizers in their fights to end the criminalization of failures-to-appear, as a step towards decarceration and abolition.

DocumentDavid NalaNovember 8, 2022Criminalization, Community Interventions

From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition

This report and website provide frameworks and tools for organizers who are working to oppose the interlocking systems of incarceration, criminalization, and social control.

Document, Webinar, WebsiteDavid NalaNovember 7, 2022Criminalization, Community Interventions, Social control

On the Road to Freedom: An Abolitionist Assessment of Pretrial & Bail Reforms

This resource is a collaboration between Community Justice Exchange and Critical Resistance. It provides guidelines for examining pretrial reforms from an abolitionist perspective, as well as specific case studies of recent bail reforms from cities and states across the country.

DocumentDavid NalaNovember 6, 2022Bail Funds, Criminal Courts & Pretrial Freedom

Resources for Immigration Bond Funds

For guides and training materials on immigration bond funds, email network@communityjusticeexchange.org.

DocumentDavid NalaNovember 5, 2022Immigration Detention and Enforcement, Bail Funds

Safety Planning and Intimate Partner Violence: A Toolkit for Survivors and Supporters

This toolkit was created for those grappling with how to support survivors through intimate partner violence, with the intent of strengthening community-level responses to abuse by sharing practical skills and information for safety planning.

Document, Video, ToolkitDavid NalaNovember 4, 2022Interpersonal Violence

So You Want To Court Watch? Guide

This guide is written for organizers who are thinking about using courtwatching as a tactic within a larger campaign strategy to dismantle the criminal legal or immigration systems.

Tracked& Trapped: Experiences from Ice Digital Prisons

This report highlights the excruciating toll that ICE electronic monitoring and constant surveillance takes on immigrant communities, underscoring the stories of folks forced to enroll in the program.

DocumentDavid NalaNovember 2, 2022Criminalization, Supervision & Surveillance, Social control

Transparency is Not Enough: Framework and Curriculum

The Transparency is Not Enough introductory framework and workshop curriculum were created for activists, organizers, advocates, and community members thinking about transparency and access when developing campaigns that target the criminal legal system.