The Open Philanthropy Project awarded a grant of $125,000 to the Workers Center for Racial Justice to support its work on prosecutorial accountability in Chicago. This grant falls within Open Philanthropy's work on criminal justice reform.
The Workers Center for Racial Justice is a grassroots organization that works on advocacy, leadership development and voter engagement, among other things, to help promote a fair and inclusive society. It plans to use this grant to a) support local organizing to work with Cook County State’s Attorney (SA) Kim Foxx to ensure that her policies are ensuring the safety of Cook County communities without overly relying on jail and prison incarceration, and b) build these groups’ capacity to relate to SA Foxx in a productive way. Possible activities include town hall meetings, prayer vigils, and quarterly meetings with SA Foxx to determine whether she is meeting the groups’ standards for community accountability and reduced use of harsh criminal justice sanctions. Open Philanthropy believes that holding SA Foxx accountable is important to the long-term success of the strategy of prosecutorial accountability.