Transparency & Accountability

JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM

Holding Officials Accountable

Those in power must be held accountable. If state or local officials misuse their power against marginalized people or communities, we stand with those directly impacted and help them fight back.

Edenton confederate monument with the sign "remove this statue"

When those in power are not held accountable, the harms ripple outward.

Marginalized people and communities are the first and hardest hit, but the damage corrodes trust in government for everyone. Abuses of authority multiply when left unchecked, allowing injustice to become routine. Without transparency, institutions designed to serve the public instead end up silencing, disempowering, and endangering the very people they are meant to protect.

Featured Cases

JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM

Lawsuit Against Central Piedmont Community College

N.C. residents sued Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) and its Board of Trustees due to CPCC’s efforts to hide information about its development of a controversial public safety training facility.

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Edenton Confederate Monument with large x covering it to demonstrate that its racist origins are unjust.

JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM

Rev. Shannon v. Town of Edenton

SCSJ filed a lawsuit alleging the Edenton Town Council and Chowan County Board of Commissioners brokered an unlawful secret deal to relocate the Edenton Confederate Monument.

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Transparency & Accountability Resources

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Racial Equity Report Cards (RERCs) with a silhouette of the state of North Carolina, produced by the Youth Justice Project

Racial Equity Report Cards

The RERCs use public data to provide a snapshot of a community’s school-to-prison pipeline, including any racial disproportionalities that exist in the pipeline.

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Open Data Policing User Interface

Open Data Policing

This platform aggregates, visualizes, and publishes public records related to all known traffic stops to have occurred in North Carolina since 2002, in Illinois since 2005, and in Maryland since 2013.

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SRO Resource Tool User Interface

Police in Schools: How to File a Complaint

This first-of-its-kind tool aims to help students, parents, and school employees navigate local policies regarding filing school grievances in connection with SROs.

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Transparency & Accountability News

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Justice System Reform

SCSJ Statement: ICE Detention Expansion Threatens Southern Communities

DURHAM, N.C. (March 24, 2026) — Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) is opposed to the federal government’s aggressive expansion of immigration detention centers, which threatens the safety, stability, and dignity of communities across the South and beyond.   The federal government is pursuing a multi-layered detention expansion plan that has already pushed the number of…

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Outside of ICE detention center, barbed wire fence
Justice System Reform

U.S. Citizen Represented by Civil Rights Groups Files Federal Claims After Violent Immigration Stop in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (March 3, 2026) — Today, Willy Wender Aceituno, a U.S. citizen, took steps to sue the U.S. government and filed federal damages claims after a confrontation in Charlotte late last year where armed and masked immigration agents shattered his car window, violently pulled him from his vehicle, and wrongfully detained him despite having…

Read More U.S. Citizen Represented by Civil Rights Groups Files Federal Claims After Violent Immigration Stop in Charlotte

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