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Eighteen months ago, Building Justice in Berks and The Real Deal 610 partnered with the Vera Institute for Justice to investigate the carceral system in Berks County. The project, called Walk With Us, began in response to plans for a new county jail, but it became much more than that.
Our report -- which will be released on May 1 -- highlights the voices of people impacted by incarceration who are typically left out of conversations about the jail, exposes the true costs of jail detention, and offers a vision for a safe, healthy and thriving Berks.
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Please be our guest on Thursday, May 1, for an exciting evening at the WCR Center where we'll share our findings and recommendations. We’ll have a few speeches (not too many), audio interviews, charts, graphs, and time to talk to each other. The evening will also include a hands-on painting project for a series of public murals and a free dinner catered by Southern Side Kitchen.
Group listening in conversation, Illustration by Alex Nabaum
Building Justice in Berks
Building Justice in Berks (BJB) is a grassroots advocacy group focused on criminal legal system reform in Berks County. Our mission is to reduce the number of people in the system, identify interventions that maximize community safety, and ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and equity across race, ethnicity, socio-economic status and gender.
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We are currently engaged in a year-long project designed to gather precise data about who is in our jail, why and for how long, and document the stories of residents and their families who have lived experience with the criminal legal system. Our Walk With Us Listening Tour, conducted in partnership with TheRealDeal610, a local organization supporting returning citizens, includes interviews with 100 formerly incarcerated individuals.
Funding for the project comes from a multi-faceted grant and technical assistance from the Vera Institute of Justice, a national organization dedicated to ending the overcriminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, immigrants, and people experiencing poverty.
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Your tax-deductible gift to the BJB Fund supports ongoing research on Berks County's jail population