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Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Partnering with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the south to defend and advance their political, social and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing and communications.

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Justice System Reform

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Our Mission

SCSJ’s Justice System Reform team promotes social and economic justice through its efforts to ensure police accountability, end racial profiling and mass incarceration, eliminate the unfair collateral consequences of involvement with the criminal legal system, and challenge systemic racial discrimination and inequities at all stages of the system.

Our Work

  • Impact Litigation
  • Policy Advocacy

SCSJ represents individuals and community-based organizations in cases throughout the South that raise important criminal justice issues, and that create the potential for structural change that will benefit entire communities and have positive implications for racial justice, particularly if there is community-wide organizing support.

Learn more about our cases here.


SCSJ engages in policy advocacy around a number of different issues, including police accountability, mass incarceration, and helping people with criminal records reintegrate with their communities.  We believe that individuals are not the sum of their worst mistakes.

Umar Muhammad Clean Slate Toolkit: The Umar Muhammad Clean Slate Toolkit is a free resource providing a step-by-step guide to the expunction process. With a typical criminal record expungement costing between $1,500 and $2,000 in court costs and attorney’s fees, the toolkit is designed to help individuals navigate the process independently, making expunctions easier to obtain for people of color and economically underserved populations.


We dedicate this toolkit to Umar Muhammad who was an upbeat, passionate advocate who committed his life to helping people of color who were impacted by the criminal justice system. He joined Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) in 2014, where he fought against the discrimination of justice-involved individuals. He was a community organizer and leader in All of Us or None, an organization that lifts up the voices of those most affected by mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex. Umar opened every Clean Slate Clinic by stating, “You are not the sum of your worst mistakes.”

View the Umar Muhammad Clean Slate Toolklit

Your First 48 Toolkit: Your First 48 Toolkit is a Durham County resource guide for successful reentry within 48 hours after incarceration and beyond by connecting you to resources and service providers that help overcome the barriers to a successful reentry. Your First 48 Toolkit promotes social and economic independence through relationship building, strong community involvement, education, and public support. The Toolkit will help you foresee barriers to a successful reentry and identify likely solutions by informing you of who to connect with and what questions to ask.

View Your First 48 Toolkit

Open Data Policing: Open Data Policing is a first-of-its-kind platform that aims to make real the recommendation of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing to make stop, search, and use-of-force “data…publicly available to ensure transparency.” The site currently aggregates, visualizes, and publishes public records related to all known traffic stops that have occurred in North Carolina since 2002, in Illinois since 2005, and in Maryland since 2013. Data is collected in all states pursuant to mandatory data collection statutes and reported monthly to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Illinois State Police, and Maryland State Police. The platform does not alter or manipulate raw data. Where data sets are incomplete or missing, it is because they have not been reported to the state agency from which the site derives its records. Although the site permits users to identify the career enforcement patterns of individual officers associated with known traffic stops, Open Data Policing does not have access to, nor does it publish, the names of drivers, passengers, or officers involved in traffic stops.

Visit Open Data Policing.

Ban the Box: The “box” is that spot on many employment applications that asks whether the applicant has been convicted of a crime or been incarcerated. Some employment applications may even inquire into arrests. A Ban-the-Box ordinance would remove these questions from the application at the initial stage of the employment process so the hiring authority will first get an opportunity to learn about the candidate’s experience, skills, and personality as they relate to the position to be filled. The Ban-the-Box movement began with All of Us or None, a national grassroots civil rights organization that fights for the rights of formerly- and currently- incarcerated people and their families. SCSJ supports communities, municipalities, counties, and businesses as they move toward ban-the-box policies.

Learn more about Ban the Box.

Fair Chance Business Certification: Fair Chance hiring is an incredibly impactful practice, especially considering that one third of Americans have a criminal record. Here at SCSJ, we believe that people are not the sum of their worst mistakes. Therefore, we recruit businesses and nonprofit organizations to create an inclusive hiring practice that selects candidates based on their qualifications, rather than rejecting them for their past mistakes. We call it our Fair Chance Business Certification.

In order to become Fair Chance Business Certified, businesses must:

  • Remove all questions about criminal records from the initial job application form.
  • Delay asking questions about criminal records until the applicant is given a conditional offer.
  • Give applicants a chance to see any background checks you run.

The certification is free and open to any small business in the South. Certified businesses receive a free window sticker, access to special events, and resources for creating effective fair chance hiring policies.

Learn more about the Fair Chance Business Certification.

SCSJ’s Clean Slate Project addresses the collateral consequences of having a criminal record, including barriers to employment, housing, and occupational licenses. We provide direct criminal record relief services and we support organizing efforts to ensure that people impacted by the criminal justice system are leading the movement for reform.

Learn more about the Clean Slate Project.

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Contact

1415 West Highway 54, Suite 101
Durham, NC 27707
info@southerncoalition.org
office: 919-323-3380
fax: 919-323-3942
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SAVE THE DATE: Fri, 1/29, Mitch Brown, our VR Counsel & @EJW_org Fellow sponsored by the Ottinger Foundation will be a panelist during the George Henry White Day Program hosted by the Phoenix Historical Society! Visit our FB or LinkedIn pages to learn more and for the Zoom link. pic.twitter.com/TMNc…

About 2 days ago

SAVE THE DATE: Sat, 2/27, from 9AM-noon CST, @AllisonJRiggs will be speaking on a panel about #redistricting. Hosted by @LWVLouisiana, this convention is free, open to the public & incredibly important to attend as redistricting occurs this year. Register: bit.ly/3sLX10F pic.twitter.com/FabD…

About 2 days ago

Congressman John Lewis spent his life fighting for racial justice & voting rights. We teamed up w/ @Participant @MagnoliaPics & @JohnLewisDoc to #MakeGoodTrouble in the record-breaking election. To our fellow good troublemakers: we're just getting started. bit.ly/goodtroubleca…

About 3 days ago

Mitch Brown, our VR Counsel & @EJW_org Fellow sponsored by the Ottinger Foundation, spoke w/ @NCPolicyWatch about voting while on felony probation or parole: those who do so can be prosecuted for voting illegally even if they don’t know they’re ineligible. bit.ly/3sIQunB

About 3 days ago

1. Today, we filed an amicus brief to protect voters’ rights in Arizona. In 2016, Arizona lawmakers passed laws limiting ballot collection and out-of-precinct voting to make it easier for local and state government officials to discriminate against voters of color.

About 4 days ago

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