Criminal Legal System

Our police accountability initiatives seek to equip communities with the tools to influence how their neighborhoods are policed, address officer misconduct on individual and systemic levels, and make budgetary recommendations. 

Our Rights Matter was a collaboration with RISE for Youth, Peter Paul, and the Legal Aid Justice Center. The mission of the project is to educate, engage and empower youth and young adults on what to do when they interact with law enforcement. 

Through partnerships with groups like the People’s Coalition and the Richmond Transparency & Accountability Project (RTAP), LAJC works in deep relationship with Virginia communities to strengthen community power over-policing and end police misconduct. 

Virginia’s pretrial system, in which bail decisions are made, produces unnecessary pretrial detention rife with racial and economic disparities. We advocate for comprehensive reform across the entire pretrial system to ensure just outcomes for all people. 

Assisting low-income Virginians, many of whom are people of color, trapped by Virginia’s burdensome court costs because of their inability to pay criminal and traffic court fines and fees.  We collaborate with community members and stakeholders to dismantle predatory court debt policies and practices that punish people for their poverty and cause hardship for their families. 

Helping low-income Virginians, many of whom are people of color, access employment, housing, and educational opportunities by expunging their criminal records. Although Virginia law currently limits the types of cases that can be expunged, even the removal of a dismissed criminal case from a background check can help a person land a job or apartment that wasn’t previously available to them. 

We are fighting against mass incarceration while also seeking to protect incarcerated Virginians.  We continue to enforce a settlement agreement with the Virginia Department of Corrections over unconstitutional medical care at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, as well as promote reforms to shrink Virginia’s bloated prison and jail populations.