Our Crowdfunding Groups
Hey all!
Thank you for taking the time to visit our fundraising page!
As some of you may know, “Ending the Prison Industrial Complex” (EPIC), formerly the “Prison Reform and Education Project” (PREP) is an abolitionist student group at NYU Law that organizes meaningful opportunities for students to engage in programming that works with and for justice-impacted communities.
Our specific projects are:
Access
The Access Project aims to increase access to legal education and careers for those who have been directly impacted by the criminal legal system. Our goal is to help open the door to creating positive change in a system that tends to stigmatize and marginalize poor people and people of color. In collaboration with formerly incarcerated people and other stakeholders, we research barriers to law school admission, job-search success, and bar passage, while continuing to advocate for fairer admissions practices at law schools and better bar examination processes.
Prison Teaching
This project involves teaching people incarcerated in New York state prisons legal research skills. Each semester we conduct a seven-week course on site at prison classrooms and libraries.
Solitary Confinement
Students interview people incarcerated in New York City Jails (mostly at Rikers Island), who have served time in either solitary confinement or restrictive housing. Students write and file grievances on behalf of clients and meet with clients to monitor incarceration conditions. Additionally, project participants read client testimony at Board of Corrections meetings.
St. Francis Partnership
This reentry program partners NYU Law students with an amazing group of formerly-incarcerated college students who have scholarships through the Post-Prison College Opportunity Program at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights. The Post-Prison College Opportunity Program at St. Francis College helps formerly-incarcerated students earn a degree through intensive student monitoring, ongoing assessment, and integrated social service supports within a rigorous college program. NYU Law students meet with St. Francis College students individually and participate in group meetings and events to provide students with support in fulfilling their personal goals, engaging with reentry-allied communities, and overcoming unique barriers they may encounter as a result of prior involvement with the criminal or juvenile justice systems.
Advocacy
The Advocacy Project fosters a culture of anti-carceral activism on campus. Last year, our work included a voter registration drive at Rikers Island. This year, we will expand, build new partnerships, and create more opportunities for students to get involved. We strive to serve organizations on the front lines of prison reform in any way they may ask, whether it be showing up at a rally, phone-banking, helping out with administrative work or providing legal research.
Parole Advocacy
NYU Parole Advocacy is a student-led project created in collaboration with Appellate Advocates (AA) to address the parole preparation needs of AA’s clients. Through this project, law students are paired with an individual who is incarcerated in a New York state prison and who will be appearing before the Parole Board. Students communicate regularly with the individual they are paired with in order to support them in preparing for their Parole interview, which includes assembling a Parole Packet on their behalf, conducting mock interviews with them and connecting them to re-entry services.
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This year, parole advocacy is a new project that we are very excited about. We are also hoping to expand our efforts in terms of providing programming to students about topics such as community based safety, abolition and personal identities, and radial lawyering. Currently, we do not have sufficient funding to be able to accomplish all of our goals, let alone run our projects. Any amount you could contribute to our organization and or/any networks you could share this page with would be so deeply appreciated by all of us!
