Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020. In this tribute, RBIJ Chief Executive Celia Ouellette reflects on the departure of an icon - her immeasurable achievements, the lessons she left us with, and her advice for carrying on.

In this month’s Justice Champion spotlight, RBIJ are highlighting our partner Cisco’s work delivering digital education in our prisons and providing incarcerated people with the skills they need to rebuild their lives on release.

In this month’s Justice Champion spotlight, RBIJ are highlighting the brilliant work of our partner The Body Shop, and their success providing meaningful second chances to those looking to return to the workforce.

For our inaugural “Spotlight”, celebrating the amazing work of justice engaged businesses, we profiled Televerde and its Chief Social Responsibility Officer Michele Cirocco. Televerde is a B2B demand generation company that employs and trains incarcerated women, whilst at the same time generating billions for its customers. Michelle leads these efforts with first hand experience, having started working for Televerde as an incarcerated women herself.

Leaders from the business and legal communities have co-signed an open letter to Justice Secretary Robert Buckland MP to release medically vulnerable and nonviolent offenders at risk of COVID-19 in prisons and jails. 

Be it through advocacy, justice focused-initiatives, or hiring, corporations can be instruments of change. And change cannot come fast enough.

In the United States, Black men are nearly six times as likely to be incarcerated as White men. Black people use drugs at exactly the same rate as White people, yet they are 10 times more likely to be arrested for drug offenses. People of color account for 37 percent of the US population, yet they make up 67 percent of the total US prison population. Punishments are harsher, too — federally imposed sentences for Black men are 19 percent longer than for White men for similar crimes.

The Conservative landslide has caused grave concern in the British criminal justice community. Over the past 18 months Home Secretary Priti Patel has doubled down on the party’s “tough on crime” reputation, promising to make criminals “feel terror”. This accompanies proposals for tougher sentencing, greater police stop-and-search powers, and an end to early release.