Blog

Over the past 6 years, the Detroit Justice Center has held onto our foundational belief that we must remedy the impacts of mass incarceration to create truly just cities. With our three-pronged approach of defense, offense, and dreaming, DJC has offered direct services to community members, helped change legislation for wider imapct, and shifted narratives around divesting from the carceral system and investing in community care. Back in 2018, during the inception of DJC, our Community Legal Advocates (CLA) team was launched to assist Detroit homeowners with appealing their property tax assessments in the highly overtaxed city. Since then the CLAs have been dedicated to democratizing the law and making it accessible to everyone, especially those most vulnerable to punishment from the legal system. Between the CLA’s and our attorneys, we have offered direct services including record expungement, legal defense against unjust landlords, assistance setting up co-ops and Community Land Trusts (CLTs), defense against water shut offs, and assisting Detroit homeowners with property tax assessment.  At its inception, DJC worked closely with Namati, an international legal organization that has pioneered the use of community paralegals in 160 countries, to devise the community legal worker pilot which over time grew into...Read More

Last month, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib introduced the Youth Homelessness Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act, which is an innovative way to address homelessness across the nation. The Detroit Justice Center endorses this bill as we champion eliminating economic barriers that keep our residents from garnering safe and secure affordable housing.“The Youth Homelessness Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act is a welcomed first step towards addressing the ongoing issue of homelessness and the manner in which unhoused residents are disproportionately impacted by the criminal system,” said Nancy Parker, Executive Director,  Detroit Justice Center.Read More

The Detroit Justice Center is thrilled to share that we’ve recently received a grant from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). This funding is a significant boost to our intricate model that focuses on utilizing the law to create economic opportunities for communities which have been damaged by the systems we currently have in place.Read More

Today, MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving announced the Detroit Justice Center (DJC) as one of the Yield Giving Open Call’s awardees working with people and in places experiencing the greatest need in the United States. DJC received an award of $2 Million. (...) DJC believes that this donation signifies a genuine commitment to racial and economic justice as an intergenerational practice and not merely a passing trend. “We see this donation as an act of wealth reclamation,” said DJC’s Executive Director Nancy A. ParkerRead More

How can technologists and scientists engage communities in a spirit of partnership, without extractive practices? How can community organizations work with researchers in ways that benefit their communities and expand their capacity, rather than burdening their staff? The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy's newest publication, the Community Partnerships Playbook, has some answers.Read More

It’s official, we’ve now moved into our new home — the LOVE Building! The LOVE Building is located at 4731 Grand River in the Core City neighborhood of Detroit. Its mission is to amplify social justice organizing, nurture creativity, and provide a community space that is inspiring, accessible, and responsive. At the LOVE Building we also highly value intergenerational wisdom, community accountability, environmental responsibility, and place-keeping.Read More

Today we mourn the loss of William “Bill” Goodman, an attorney known for his work on human rights and civil liberties and an avid supporter and colleague of DJC.Read More

DJC’s Metro Detroit Restorative Justice Network (MDRJN) concluded its second community RJ facilitator training on Saturday, October 28th! We welcomed 11 incredible participants aged 22 to 65 and representing community block clubs, sexual violence crisis response teams, K-12 schools, community centers, and solution-minded community members!Read More