Susan Herman Parallel Justice

We have also implemented strategies to help our board members, staff, and key partners better understand the link between the American criminal justice system and America’s history of white supremacy, including cohort visits to the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial to Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, AL and relevant...

Changing how black people are treated in America requires us to embrace black history in all its power

The typical American curriculum, historically, teaches on the topic of black people in America through the lens of slavery and the civil rights movement. These are important parts of our history but they are not exhaustive. As Malcolm X said, “Our history did not begin in chains.” Yet, most black history timelines start with slavery. This creates s...

At the Vera Institute of Justice, we are committed to ending mass incarceration and ensuring equal justice for all. However, achieving these commitments—and ensuring we don’t simply repeat past mistakes—cannot be done without an explicit commitment to advancing racial equity. As we have written in some of our recent reports—and as a growing n...