Snapshot: Philadelphia.

Philadelphia serves as a home base and key region for Just Media’s work. The city is the poorest big city in the country and has the third largest Black population. It’s at the epicenter of national justice reform efforts:

• The city has been granted $7.5 million from the MacArthur Foundation to reduce its jail population by half.

• In 2017, the city elected Larry Krasner, a civil rights attorney who took over the District Attorney’s Office on a platform of sweeping reform, catalyzing a national movement for progressive judicial and prosecutor candidates.

• This year, the city has groundbreaking opportunities to push lasting changes—ending cash bail, removing youth from adult jails, and more—that can radically transform how we think about harm and incarceration. 

Philadelphia offers ample material for coverage. This includes:

• Broad efforts to overhaul the DA’s office and the justice system as we know it. Advocates range from the coalitional Judge Accountability Table to former Eagles captain Malcolm Jenkins.

• Pathbreaking work on juvenile justice. This includes the first ever youth participatory defense hub, where directly impacted youth advise their peers on navigating the courts, as well as a restorative justice program to defer youth from jail. 

• National efforts, based here, to ensure that our current system of cash bail isn’t replaced with algorithmic “risk assessments” that reinforce existing racial hierarchies. 

• Political shifts in suburban counties, which present additional opportunities for reform. Coinciding with these shifts, formerly incarcerated people have formed their own 501c4 vehicle, Free the Ballot.