This is gonna be a really long thread on JUSTLEADERSHIPUSA.

According to their website, JLUSA is “a national non-profit, [and] is led by directly impacted people and is dedicated to decarcerating the United States by educating, elevating and empowering the people and communities most impacted by systemic racism to drive, amplify, and…

…sustain the kinds of policy reform that builds thriving, sustainable and healthy communities.

{They} are committed to educating, investing and supporting the leadership of those most impacted by discriminatory policies, to empower them with the tools they need to be more effective advocates to drive national and local policy change and better organize supporters in…

…their own communities.” JLUSA has only existed since 2013 but their presence has definitely been felt in NYC.

The grassroots groups fighting to Shut Down Rikers famously accused nonprofits such as JLUSA of co-opting their movement and greatly weakening the radical goals of the campaign.

In particular, organizers felt the goal of the campaign went from closing all prisons to closing Rikers with 4 smaller prisons being created to replace Rikers. The Appeal wrote a very good article about this issue. Foundation partners of JUSTLEADERSHIPUSA may disturb you.

Their partners include companies like American Express and Google. Foundation partners also include the Ford Foundation, W.K.

Kellogg Foundation, The Hill-Snowdon Foundation, the ACLU, the Robert Sterling Clark, the MacArthur Foundation, the Roy and Patricia Disney Foundation, the Weissberg Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Tikkun Olam Foundation, the JM Kaplan Fund, the New York…

…Community Trust, the David Rockefeller Fund, the Tow Foundation, the Brooklyn Community Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. But we do have to give JLUSA some credit-their website is generous enough to state who their partners are.

A lot of nonprofits would try to hide the fact they are working closely with companies like American Express and Google. Nevertheless, it is clear that JLUSA is heavily funded.

According to the 990 filed in 2018, the Vice President made approximately $121,000, the president made $195,000, their chief of staff made approximately $96,000 and their Senior Advisor made $138,000.

The former president and founder of JLUSA, Glenn Martin made approximately $488,000. In terms of total assets, the nonprofit seems to be worth around 15 million dollars. The board of directors and their advisory board include names you may be quite familiar with.

For example, the Board Chair, is Rev. Vivian Nixon. Nixon is a recipient of the John Jay Medal for Justice, the Sortos Justice Fellowship and the Ascend Fellowship at the Aspen Institute.

Another Board Member is Annabel Davis-Goff who is “the Director of the Bennington College’s Prison Education Initiative (PEI). PEI offers Bennington College courses with transferable credits at Great Meadow, a maximum-security men’s prison in Comstock, New York.

She is the director of Bennington’s Incarceration in America initiative, which offers courses, visiting speakers, theatrical events, conferences, think tanks, and panels focused of public action and policy around criminal justice reform.

She is also co-chair of the board of directors of Housing+Solutions (H+S), an organization that provides community-based housing and comprehensive services to women and their children.

H+S developed the first family alternative to incarceration program in the country, and is now expanding the program to divert women from Rikers Island.

“ Davis-Godd was also married to film director Mike Nichols for 11 years and her work has been covered by national news reporters like Diane Sawyer. We do think it is important to note that many abolitionists might find so much of Davis-Goff’s work to be problematic.

In other words, does Bennington College get some kind of benefit from providing education courses at these prisons? We would have trouble believing that any college is simply doing this work out of the kindness of their heart.

Another member of the board is Bruce Western who is “a professor of Sociology and Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy, Director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, and Faculty Chair of the Program in Criminal Justice at the Harvard Kennedy School of…

…Government.” “He is currently vice-chair of a committee studying the causes and consequences of high incarceration rates for the National Academies of Sciences and will lead an Executive Session at the Kennedy School on the future of correctional policy.”

According to Wikipedia, Western been called "one of the leading academic experts on American incarceration.” But perhaps the most fascinating director is Robert Liu who is the portfolio manager at BlueMountain Capital Management.

According to Wikipedia, “BlueMountain Capital Management is a privately owned diversified alternative asset manager founded in 2003.” As of 2016, the company manages 22 billion dollars and has made trades with famous financial companies like JPMorgan Chase.

Numerous protestors have also accused BlueMountain Capital Management from profiting off Puerto Rico’s debt crisis; the company was also accused of doing everything possible to prevent Puerto Rico from having access to bankruptcy.

What is really fascinating though is some of these protests against BlueMountain were coordinated by nonprofits like Communities For Change.

Yet on Communities for Change own website-they state the following: “We work with communities of color to fight against capitalism and centuries of oppression.

We’ve done this by building a strong community within our leadership and by teaming up with some of our strongest partners like Just Leadership USA and Coalition for Education Justice.” In other words, one has to question how genuine certain protests really are.

Another board member of JLUSA is Jackie Mann; she’s the president of the Elias Foundation.

She is also “a member of the Steering Committee of the Youth Justice Funding Collaborative – a unique partnership between philanthropists and activists that supports efforts to eliminate abuses in the juvenile/criminal justice system.

Organized by alumni of The Philanthropy Workshop and Next Generation Leadership of the Rockefeller Foundation, YJFC has granted over $3M to community-led advocacy organizations in New Orleans that are in the vanguard of change for vulnerable youth and Formerly Incarcerated…

…Persons.” According to JLUSA’s website Jackie Mann was planning this Fall to “co-lead a Group Therapy program for women at the Rose M. Singer Center at Rikers.”

The Elias Foundation has funded nonprofits such as Community Voices Heard, Hudson Valley Community Coalition, Jacobin, Dissent, In These Times, YES!

Magazine, YMCA of Central Maine, Jewish Voice for Peace, New Economy Coalition, Advocacy Institute, Chicago Community Bond Fund, Ossining Union Free School District (a parent leadership institute created by the public school system to be exact).

The board members of Youth Justice Funding Collaborative deserves its own thread lol. The board members of that group are leaders of various wealthy foundations like the Ford Foundation, Edward W. Hazen Foundation, and nonprofits like United We Dream, and Bend the Arc.

Advisory board members of JLUSA include famous civil rights Lawyer and activist, Michelle Alexander, the author of Orange is the New Black, Piper Kerman and wealthy real estate developer Francis J. Greenburger, We would be remiss if we didn’t also mention the fact that the…

…founder and former president of JLUSA Glenn E. Martin was forced to resign after being accused of sexual conduct by three women which was reported in the New York Times.

Details of the article can be found here https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/nyregion/glenn-martin-rikers-advocate-report-of-sexual-misconduct.html The current president of JLUSA is DeAnna Hoskins. “Prior to taking the helm at JLUSA, Ms. Hoskins was at the Department of Justice where she joined under the Obama Administration.

There, she served as a Senior Policy Advisor (Corrections/Reentry) providing national leadership on criminal justice policy, training, and technical assistance and information on best and promising practices… Prior to joining the DOJ, Ms. Hoskins was the founding Director of…

…Reentry for Ohio’s Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners where she worked to reduce recidivism by addressing individual and family needs; increased countywide public safety for under-resourced communities of color; reduced correctional spending; and coordinated social…

…services to serve populations at risk that were impacted by decades of generational disinvestment and deprived of first chances.

She has worked in local neighborhoods in Cincinnati and at the Indiana Department of Corrections on improving conditions and treatment of incarcerated people.” So what can one take from this incredibly long thread? Well, we have to give credit to JLUSA.

Despite only existing for 6 or so years, they have managed to display all the various aspects of the nonprofit industrial complex-the co-opting of grassroots movements, the toxic work environment, leaders violating women repeatedly with little if any consequences, the…

…partnerships with giant corporations, the grotesque salary of higher-ups, and the weird embrace of the real estate sector, the financial sector, and the Department of Justice.