Louisiana Information Sources: A Guide

The non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative produces cutting edge research to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization, and then sparks advocacy campaigns to create a more just society. Their Louisiana state profile page includes charts, graphs, reports, and briefings.

A datahub by the Vera Institute of Justice that provides access to parish-level data on arrests, pretrial detention, incarceration, and local spending on the criminal legal system.

New Orleans spends $378 million on courts, policing and surveillance. That's $378 million that could be better spent. Fund the people organizes to advocate for community investment.

The New Orleans page of the national Don't Call the Police directory. A list of resources to go to instead of calling the police, related to housing, LGBTQ+ support, mental health, domestic violence and sexual assault, youth, elders, crime, and substance abuse.

The Solitary Gardens is a social sculpture and collaborative project that cultivates conversations around alternatives to incarceration by catalyzing compassion. This project directly and metaphorically asks us to imagine a landscape without prisons.

The Abolitionist’s Apothecary+, Growing Abolition, an outgrowth of Solitary Gardens, is a multi-pronged cultural organizing strategy centered around abolitionist gardens, social practice and cultural initiatives designed by artists, exonerees, and organizers. The apothecary is built with plant medicine grown in collaboration with incarcerated individuals from around the country.

The mission of Women With A Vision is to improve the lives of marginalized women, their families, and communities by addressing the social conditions that hinder their health and well-being. They accomplish this through relentless advocacy, health education, supportive services, and community-based participatory research.

John Thompson (JT) was a fierce advocate for criminal justice reform, whose work was informed by the 18 years he spent wrongly incarcerated. The JTLC is a multi-use space that functions to bring people together for services targeted at healing the community, such as expungement clinics, post incarceration medical and addiction services, job skills development, resources for families torn apart by incarceration, art installations, and the Abolitionist’s Apothecary & Sanctuary.

A network for autonomous food production and neighborhood survival in New Orleans, LA.

Abolitionist seeds of hope.

Better Future Program (BFP) is a 501(c)(3) youth-run nonprofit headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, indigenously known as Bulbancha on Chahta Yakni and Chitimacha land. BFP's mission is to build a better and brighter global future for marginalized youth through education, awareness, and unity. Since 2016, BFP has been dedicated to educating the masses on various academic subjects, mental health, and social injustices that affect today's youth. They offer over 3,000 free novels, movies, podcasts, and more just to fulfill this goal.

Rethink's mission is to support youth of color in becoming thoughtful and capable leaders through the process of critically rethinking educational experiences and taking action to create transformative systemic change.

The Louisiana HOOP coalition is committed to uplifting the leadership and expertise of youth. Their coalition is led by a dynamic group of youth, committed to deconstructing the carceral state and building safe and loving communities. Their mission is to build a youth-led movement that dismantles intergenerational systems of white supremacy to abolish youth incarceration in Louisiana.

A grassroots, state-wide, membership-based, inter-generational organization working to transform the systems that put children at risk of prison. Through empowerment, leadership development, and training they strive to keep children from going to prison and support those who have and their families.

Ubuntu Village helps families advocate for themselves and their children in the juvenile justice system. They want young people to know that they are part of a caring community and come from a rich cultural heritage. They provide an array of programming in New Orleans’ juvenile jail and prison.

The First 72+ envisions a world where prior incarceration is not a barrier to secure housing, employment, and community acceptance. Their mission is to stop the cycle of incarceration by fostering independence and self-sustainability through education, stable and secure housing & employment, health care, and community engagement. Through the leadership and wisdom of formerly incarcerated people themselves, the First 72+ transforms the re-entry experience into one that builds on the strengths and abilities of people returning home from prison and ensures that they, their families, and their communities are given the greatest opportunity to grow and thrive.

IPNO frees innocent people sentenced to life in prison and those serving unjust sentences. They recognize the root causes of wrongful convictions and unjust sentences as systemic racism and inequities. They work to expose and address these root causes by sharing their clients’ stories in court, the legislature, the community and the media. They support our clients living well and fully in the world after their release.

Louisiana Survivors for Reform (LSR) is a coalition of crime survivors, homicide victims’ families, and organizations creating change in the criminal justice system. They are a group with a multitude of identities, and backgrounds united in the conviction that any approach to reform needs to include the voices of crime survivors and others directly impacted by the current system. Since 2018, LSR has been organizing through policy, education, and community. They believe the voice of every survivor should be heard and that the primary focus of reform should be supporting all impacted individuals and communities, investment in crime prevention strategies, and restorative justice that is trauma-informed.

Nola to Angola organizes an annual bicycle ride to Angola Prison to support and fund the Cornerstone Builders Bus Project, which connects families to their incarcerated loved ones. They also organize a shorter social justice ride around New Orleans to highlight the work of community partners fighting mass incarceration. They educate people about the ways in which mass incarceration works in tandem with other systems of oppression, such as poverty and white supremacy, to disproportionately harm members of our communities. They do this through collective organizing, as well as leading training rides and educational events. They prioritize partnering with organizations led by formerly-incarcerated people and people of color, and work to support their leadership on prison justice issues.

Operation Restoration supports women and girls impacted by incarceration to recognize their full potential, restore their lives and discover new possibilities.

PJI works to create positive change for people in the criminal legal system at the intersection of impact litigation, direct services and community engagement. Their tools include criminal and civil litigation, organizing, direct support, and policy advocacy.

Vera’s New Orleans office opened in 2006 during the city’s post-Katrina efforts. Today, it is home to Vera Louisiana, Vera's place-based initiative working to advance justice reform across the state. Over more than fifteen years, Vera has successfully worked to reduce the number of people held in local jails, advocated for data-driven reform, and partnered with people in the local New Orleans justice system, city leaders, and community organizations.

The Visiting Room Project is a digital experience that invites the public to sit face-to-face with people serving life without the possibility of parole to hear them tell their stories, in their own words. More than five years in the making, the site is the only collection of its kind, containing over 100 filmed interviews with people currently serving life without parole. The interviews were filmed at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which is, in many ways, the epicenter of life without parole sentences worldwide. As of 2022, more than 55,000 Americans are living in prisons serving life without parole, their lives largely hidden from public view.

VOTE is a grassroots organization founded and run by formerly incarcerated people (FIP) and their families and allies. VOTE is dedicated to restoring the full human and civil rights of those most impacted by the criminal (in)justice system. They build power through community organizing, policy advocacy, and civic engagement.