CHICAGO BEYOND INVESTS MILLIONS IN INNOCENCE ORGANIZATION, LIFE AFTER JUSTICE
Jarrett Adams, Esq. is the co-founder of Life After Justice. The organization, which works on getting people exonerated, as well as helps those who are exonerated with the psychological aspect of returning to society. PHOTO PROVIDED BY LIFE AFTER JUSTICE.
BY TIA CAROL JONES
Justice, a Chicago-based innocence organization,
founded by exonerees. Chicago Beyond was launched
in 2016 by Liz Dozier, a former principal at Fenger
High School. The goal of the organization is to think about
how young people can be better served.
leaders who work to change the lives of young people in the
City of Chicago.
and Antoine Day, who were both exonerated after being convicted of crimes they did not commit. With Life After Justice,
Adams and Day use their experience and expertise to assist
other innocent people who were convicted due to flaws in
the legal system. Life After Justice was chosen to receive the
funds because Adams and his team are committed to righting
the wrongs of what is happening in the criminal justice
system.
thoughtful way of doing legislative things. But, he’s also
thinking, in a holistic way, about how to really support
people. Once people are exonerated, how do you think about
their mental and physical well-being, how do you think about
helping them start new lives and what does that look like,” Dozier said, adding that Chicago Beyond is proud to be Life
After Justice’s first institutional funder and they will receive
the resources to continue the work.
about Life After Justice because she was looking for organizations that were looking at criminal justice from a different perspective. She did her research on them and she was impressed on how the organization structured their work. Not only was Life After Justice working on exoneree cases, it was also doing psychological work necessary to acclimate those exonerees back into society. Dozier was also impressed when she learned about Adams’ story.
experience as a key way to help shape programs and ideas
and things that can really move folks forward. I learned about
Jarrett’s own story and his own experiences of being an exoneree.
It further piqued our interest as an organization to get
to learn more,” Dozier said, adding it led to Chicago Beyond
having conversations with Adams about his work.
Justice will be used to hire legal and after exoneration staff;
support initial case discovery and litigation; increase access
to holistic mental health care and ancillary services for exonerees;
build out organizational infrastructure; and elevate the
organization’s work in transforming the criminal legal system.
The hope is the funds from Chicago Beyond will assist
the Life After Justice grow its efforts in changing policies and
laws and elevate wrongful convictions.
working on securing a clemency petition for Terrence
Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne, two Black men who
have been wrongfully incarcerated for more than 20 years in
federal prison for the murder of Alan Gibson, a Waverly, Va.,
police officer, despite a federal jury finding them not guilty of
the crime.
support that is desperately needed,” Adams, President
and Exoneree of Life After Justice, said in a release.
chicagobeyond.org. For more information about Life After
Justice, visit www.lifeafterjustice.org.
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