Fair Fight Initiative

News: Lawsuit Seeks to Dramatically Reduce Baton Rouge, LA Jail Population Due to Coronavirus.

When a culture of punishment replaces a culture of rehabilitation, everyone loses. That very change has taken place in the United States’ justice system. Mass incarceration, violence, and corruption create fear in this country, but it wasn’t always this way. But we do have the power to change it.

Everyone deserves a fair fight in the criminal justice system, and you can be part of a positive shift towards peace and equanimity.
Fair Fight Mission: Through litigation and community advocacy, Fair Fight Initiative exposes mistreatment in the law enforcement system and works to end mass incarceration.

The Fair Fight Initiative is a non-profit a 501(c)(3) committed to combatting and exposing:

Unjust Treatment & Incarceration

The lack of accountability for law enforcement officers at all levels of the system, from police, to prosecutors, to prisons, has become a significant stress on our society, fueling the gap between law enforcement and the communities they are charged with protecting. Many communities struggle with how to reform their law enforcement culture toward respect for all people, able to provide equal treatment under the law. Egregious cases of brutality, racism, and inability to appropriately assist those with mental illness have shone a spotlight on these troubling trends. It is critical that these cases of mistreatment be exposed and litigated to ensure a groundswell of public demand for accountability and change.

The Negative Impact of the Profit Motive

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other country in the world. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, our prison population increased 700 percent since 1970 to 2.3 million as of 2016. That population boom carries a huge taxpayer burden – more than $80 billion per year – and drove the creation of the private prison industry. The two top players in the private prison industry alone raked in more than $4 billion in 2017. The financial incentive to keep the prisons full and to demonstrate demand for new prisons helps to fuel the unjust law enforcement policies that have had negative social impacts on our society, particularly in communities of color. Further, the financial incentives inherent in the system lead to denial of healthcare, unsafe living conditions, lack of appropriate staffing, and even death of those mistreated while incarcerated.

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