Project Overview
America has seen a 500 percent increase in the prison and jail population since 1980, the result of increasingly retributive, “tough on crime” attitudes—a one-size-fits-all approach to criminal justice that often calls for severe sentences of death or life without parole. Advancing Real Change seeks to eliminate excessive sentencing by highlighting the life history of offenders—their unique vulnerabilities, potential, and life circumstances—that have shaped them as individuals. Through extensive record collection, in-depth interviews, and other techniques, investigators are able to identify inter-generational patterns ranging from mental health issues to racial oppression that offer critical context for a client’s actions. Indeed, in death penalty cases, defense teams have honed this approach over thirty years of advocacy, successfully showing how a constellation of factors—including histories of trauma, mental illness, and intellectual disability—led to an alleged crime. Through casework, consultation, and training, Advancing Real Change seeks to bring the transformative power of state-of-the-art mitigation investigations to all corners of the criminal justice system. Particularly in cases involving juveniles sentenced to life without parole—where life history research is desperately needed—highlighting a person’s humanity can be a profoundly effective tool to reshape the way justice is served.
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