Our mission.

 

Everyone is entitled to respect, equality, fairness, and dignity under the law. Yet systems of justice so often discriminate, over-criminalize, and trap the most vulnerable people in destructive cycles of punishment and poverty. The Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ) works with companies to champion solutions that promote public safety, deliver justice, and strengthen communities.

Our story.

 

RBIJ was created in 2017 by U.S. capital defense lawyer Celia Ouellette. Prior to this, Celia had founded The Powell Project, an organization dedicated to empowering and equipping capital defense teams with the knowledge and skills to level the playing field in death penalty cases. At Powell she combined her experience of legal representation and engaging foreign governments to pioneer a new way of using trade and economic diplomacy to conduct advocacy in death penalty cases. It was the success of this model that gave her the drive to set up RBIJ.

From its founding, RBIJ emphasized engaging business leaders to prevent executions around the globe. In the summer of 2019, RBIJ’s work expanded to incorporate other extreme sentencing issues, such as the abolition of Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP) sentencing, and workforce and justice issues, such as the adoption of Clean Slate legislation. The team grew accordingly and soon RBIJ was engaging businesses in legislative campaigns in states across the country on issues such as occupational licensing reform, driver’s license revocation reform, and bail reform. 

Growth was not limited to the U.S. however. In 2021, RBIJ partnered with Sir Richard Branson to launch Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty, an unprecedented global campaign that brought together 250+ preeminent figures including Sheryl Sandberg, Paul Polman, Alan Jope, and Marc Benioff to call for abolition of capital punishment around the world.   

As the organization grew, RBIJ’s extensive network of justice-engaged employers presented an opportunity: how could companies use employment not only to provide second chances, but also prevent incarceration in the first place? In 2022, RBIJ launched Unlock Potential (UP), a groundbreaking Walmart-funded hiring program aimed at providing career opportunities to 16–24 year-olds at the greatest risk of justice-system involvement. Participating businesses in UP include American Eagle, AutoZone, Ben & Jerry’s,  Burlington, Delta Air Lines, Flagger Force, Goodwill Columbus, Greyston, Sam’s Club and Sam’s Club Supply Chain, and Virgin Hotels. In the same year it was launched, it was named one of the Top 10 Most Influential DEI Projects in the World. 

In 2022, RBIJ also hosted the first annual American Workforce and Justice Summit in Atlanta, bringing together 150+ business leaders, campaign organization leaders, and justice experts to discuss how and why companies create justice-system change. That same year, RBIJ also launched the Workforce & Justice Alliance, a dedicated coalition of businesses committed to justice reform and improving economic opportunity for individuals touched by the justice system.   

To date, RBIJ has engaged more than 500 companies to help create a justice system that works for everyone, and provide people with the fair chances they deserve. RBIJ has supported campaigns in 20 states across nearly a dozen policy areas, including Clean Slate, bail reform, expanding access to occupational licenses, ending JLWOP sentencing, and death penalty abolition. Our inclusive hiring efforts have also continued to grow, with Unlock Potential and second chance programming now operating in Georgia, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. 

We look forward to working with you to use your voice and drive meaningful, necessary change.

Our principles.

 
 

These 10 principles guide our work. 

  1. Access to fair and equal justice is a fundamental and unequivocal right.

  2. Everyone is entitled to respect and dignity in systems of criminal justice.

  3. Racism, or any other form of discrimination, has no place in systems of criminal justice.

  4. Systems must not criminalize poverty, and socioeconomic circumstances should not determine access to justice.

  5. Children are society’s most vulnerable, and must be protected as such in any system of justice.

  6. Every sentence must leave room for redemption, and every system must assume people can change. 

  7. Criminal justice systems must prioritize public safety, making victims whole, and reducing recidivism. 

  8. Excessively punitive and carceral sentences do not protect communities or deter violence.

  9. Systems of criminal justice must be designed to rehabilitate and support people in their efforts to rejoin society. 

  10. Systems of criminal justice should not act as an obstacle to entering the workforce: no one should lose the right to earn a livelihood as a result of their own former incarceration or the incarceration of their family members.

Our Racial Justice + Equity Action Plan.

 

At the heart of the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice’s (RBIJ) work are our values of racial justice and equity. We are committed to becoming an anti-racist organization that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion for our staff, interns, board and advisory council members, consultants, and partners.

We also acknowledge the ways that legal structures and systems have been used to harm Black and Brown communities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere across the globe.