Partners for Justice

Partners for Justice (PFJ) is transforming public defense in America, increasing access to justice, and reducing racial and economic disparities within the criminal legal system. They do this by expanding public defender services into collaborative defense practices, where each client has their needs met inside and outside the courtrooms. PFJ has connected nearly 17,000 people facing criminal charges with community-based social services, resulting in the elimination of more than 5,000 years in jail. This approach creates $3 to $6 in potential savings for local governments through reduced incarceration for every dollar spent on collaborative defense.

The Problem
Ever-growing research, news coverage, and lived experience tell us that the U.S. criminal legal system exacerbates racial, health, and economic inequality and creates generational cycles of harm, instability, and trauma. Yet, police, courts, and institutions of punishment are given the lion’s share of public dollars and power, even during a monumental moment of reckoning with how race and wealth determine legal and life outcomes. Almost half of Americans have had this system directly impact a loved one, costing them their health, livelihood, child custody, education, housing, and more. Public defenders are often best suited to address these complex problems and force greater equity on a historically discriminatory system. They hold a unique position of trust and come into contact with community members early in the process, representing 80% of accused people. However, public defenders are often overburdened and under-resourced, without the capacity or skills to intervene beyond the narrow bounds of the criminal case.

The Solution
Partners for Justice’s flagship program brings defenders ready-to-use personnel and expertise. Across the country, PFJ embeds specially-trained teams within public defender offices to meet their clients’ housing, employment, educational, health, and mental health needs. They then channel the achievements they make in partnership with clients back into the criminal matter, securing better outcomes and eliminating jail time for their clients. By embedding in public defender offices and demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach, PFJ also helps shift the culture of practice among attorneys. Public defenders see the benefits of holistic defense in their criminal cases when advocates can convey the full breadth of their support and their clients’ humanity to the court. In just one year of this type of storytelling work, their Delaware team secured no-prison, no-jail outcomes in 87% of their misdemeanor and felony cases. With this kind of impact on their case outcomes, attorneys engage differently with their clients; 73% of attorneys reported that they are more likely to ask clients about non-criminal matters affecting their lives since PFJ partnered with their office. PFJ is now expanding their reach by creating public-facing resources and engaging in strategic capacity-building projects to help more defenders develop their services and empower their clientele.

Since 2018, PFJ has grown from 10 Advocates to over 100 and expanded their public defender partnerships from two agencies to over 40 locations across nearly 20 states. Lasting change requires government adoption, a commitment underscored by significant government buy-in: PFJ began as a fully philanthropically-funded pilot and has evolved to be 76% government-funded as of 2024.