Located in Austin and Houston, Texas Advocates for Justice uses personal stories and direct experience with incarceration to build power and lead campaigns to transform the criminal legal system and build safe and healthy communities.
About us:
Texas Advocates for Justice is on a mission to end our communities' criminalization, break down barriers to reentry from jail and prison in Texas, and demolish the legacy of racism in the criminal justice system.
Texas Advocates for Justice unites formerly incarcerated individuals, their families, people of all faiths, and allies to build safe and resilient communities through organizing, leadership training, and connections to community resources.
What do TAJ members do?
TAJ members attend training sessions to give them the tools they need to do policy research and strengthen their speaking skills. They will testify before policy-making bodies, using their experiences and new skills to change laws and rules in order to benefit their communities or combat laws and rules that harm those same communities.
Despite the reality that Black women and femmes bear the brunt of incarceration, both as the fastest-growing population of people incarcerated in jails and prisons over the past 50 years. As caregivers and space holders for our families and communities, there has been little discussion of the specific ways Black women and femmes experience the impacts of incarceration.
Women and femmes absorb the immediate financial costs of the incarceration of a loved one, such as attorney’s fees, court fees, and bail. At the same time, they lose the financial support of their incarcerated loved one.
Publications
Slavery through Mass Incarceration:
