Advancing Universal Representation
A Toolkit for Advocates, Organizers, Legal Service Providers, and Policymakers
At a time of unprecedented challenge, we’re fighting for justice reform built on bedrock American values and grounded in action at the state and local level.
Vera is committed to
Featured Work
A New Path to Justice
Getting Women Off Rikers Island
New York City has expressed a strong commitment to criminal justice reform—including consensus among policymakers to close the notorious Rikers Island jail and cut the number of people involved in the system by half within a decade. Yet even as the number of people incarcerated in New York City has declined significantly in recent years, this decli...
Why Does Representation Matter?
The Impact of Legal Representation in Immigration Court
Representation before any court of law is a matter of fundamental fairness. However, immigrants facing deportation are entitled to representation paid for by the government only in extremely limited circumstances, despite the high stakes involved in these proceedings. A growing body of research demonstrates the need for representation and its signi...
Reimagining Prison Report
Prison in America causes individual, community, and generational pain and deprivation. Built on a system of racist policies and practices that has disproportionately impacted people of color, mass incarceration has decimated communities and families. But the harsh conditions within prisons neither ensure safety behind the walls nor prevent crime an...