Open Society-U.S.’s Soros Justice Fellowships fund outstanding individuals to undertake projects that advance reform, spur debate, and catalyze change on a range of issues facing the U.S. criminal justice system.
Donor Name: Open Society Foundations
State: All States
County: All Counties
U.S. Territories: U.S. Virgin Islands, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam
Type of Grant: Fellowship
Deadline: 01/31/2023
Size of the Grant: $140,000
Grant Duration: 18 months
Details:
The Soros Justice Fellowships support outstanding individuals— including lawyers, advocates, grassroots organizers, writers, print and broadcast journalists, artists, filmmakers, and other individuals with distinctive voices—to undertake full-time projects that engage and inform, spur debate and conversation, change policy or practice, and catalyze change around the U.S. criminal legal system at the local, state, and national levels.
There are two fellowship tracks: Track I, which is for people at the earlier stages of their careers and who demonstrate the potential to develop into leaders and important voices in their respective fields; and Track II, which is for more experienced individuals with a proven record of achievement and expertise. Track I comes with a grant of $100,000 over 18 months and Track II comes with a grant of $140,000 over 18 months (grants for both tracks are prorated for 12-month projects).
Through the Soros Justice Fellowships and our partner fellowships within Open Society-U.S.—the Soros Equality Fellowship and the Leadership in Government Fellowship—the Open Society Foundations aim to provide a network of leaders with the resources to effectively address injustice and inequality, and the space to imagine a more just and equitable future.
Project Focus
The Soros Justice Fellowships will consider projects that focus on any aspect of the U.S. criminal legal system—which they broadly see as a set of institutions and actors (law enforcement, courts, prosecutors, and corrections) and a related set of policies, practices, narratives, and orientations that exert coercive control over individuals and communities in this country. This includes, but is not limited to, projects that seek to:
- reduce the number of people who are incarcerated or under correctional control;
- challenge the extremely long prison terms that have become the accepted norm as a response to serious and violent crimes;
- end the punishment and harsh treatment of youth who come into
- conflict with the law; promote police accountability; contest prosecutors’ orientation toward harsh charging and
sentencing practices; - expose the increased merger of the criminal legal and
- immigration enforcement apparatuses;
- undo the “perpertual punishments” facing people with criminal
- records; and
- foster health-informed responses to drug use.
Grant Amounts
Individuals can apply for one of two fellowship grants, depending on the applicant’s level of experience. Track I comes with an grant of n$100,000 over 18 months, and Track II comes with a grant of $140,000 over 18 months (grants for both tracks are prorated for 12- month projects).
Eligibility Criteria
All projects must, at a minimum, relate to one or more of the following U.S. criminal justice reform goals: reducing the number of people who are incarcerated or under correctional control, challenging extreme punishment, and promoting fairness and accountability in our systems of justice.
They strongly encourage applications for projects that demonstrate a clear understanding of the intersection of criminal justice issues with the particular needs of low-income communities, Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities, immigrants, LGBTQ people, women and children, and those otherwise disproportionately affected by harsh criminal justice policies, as well as applications for projects that cut across various criminal justice fields and related sectors, such as education, health and mental health, housing, and employment.
They especially welcome applications from individuals directly affected by, or with significant direct personal experience with, the policies, practices, and systems their projects seek to address (e.g., applicants who have themselves been incarcerated, applicants who have a family member or loved one who has been incarcerated and whose fellowship project emerges from that experience, or applicants who are survivors of violence or crime).
For more information, visit Soros Justice Fellowships.
