By Jennifer Pei, PBI Intern
In 2025, almost two million people were detained in either state or federal prisons across the United States. The criminal justice system cost approximately $182 billion across the federal, state, and local levels.
“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”1
The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a civil rights nonprofit organization based in Montgomery, Alabama. Founded in 1989, EJI serves communities that have been systemically marginalized due to poverty and racial injustices.
Its founder, bestselling author and public interest attorney, Bryan Stevenson, began EJI as part of his work as a lawyer in the South. As documented in his widely acclaimed book, Just Mercy, Stevenson’s efforts to fight injustice is a continuous force that gives life to EJI.
EJI’s mission is “ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.”
“Why do we want to kill all the broken people?”2
Fighting injustice in the world’s largest criminal justice complex requires both short term and long term solutions. EJI actively resists the current criminal justice system, calling for reform in both the legal system and prison institutions.
One of EJI’s many reformative initiatives involves improving the conditions of prisons across the United States. Currently, inmates are faced with violence, abuse, and lack access to proper health care within prison institutions. Meanwhile, corporations that own prisons thrive from the ever-increasing incarceration rates in the country, encouraging the expansion of the prison industry complex and inversely depleting the convicted of fundamental human rights.
EJI is dedicated to exposing the realities behind prison walls, calling investigations into and bringing legal action against those responsible. A victorious 2014 class action lawsuit filed by EJI resulted in a settlement that required St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama, to enforce new systems that would ensure the protection of inmates.
“…the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.”3
Additionally, the legal advocacy carried out by EJI rests on the core concept of pro bono. Through pro bono litigation work, EJI has been successful in overturning wrongful convictions and exonerating innocent individuals. EJI has represented clients in a myriad of Supreme Court cases, such as Hinton v. Alabama (2014), in which the EJI sought relief for Anthony Hinton. After hearing integral expert testimony provided by EJI, the Supreme Court ultimately granted relief to Mr. Hinton, who had been wrongfully convicted for two 1989 shootings.
Other featured work of EJI includes the landmark Supreme Court case, Miller v. Alabama (2012). Involving two teenagers who were sentenced to mandatory life-without-parole after homicide convictions, the Miller case made history as the Supreme Court deemed such sentencing for children under the age of 17 to be unconstitutional. EJI played an active role, arguing the sentencing of Evan Miller violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
EJI continues to spearhead pro bono representation in the state of Alabama, working in partnership with law firms and legal departments to take on cases challenging prison conditions and to assist incarcerated individuals seeking post-conviction relief.
For legal department and law firm representatives interested in getting involved in EJI’s pro bono work, consider attending the session “Partnering for Prison Justice” on March 5 at the PBI 2026 Annual Conference. This session will explore how legal professionals are working in partnership with EJI to seek reform to unjust prison conditions.
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