PJLC to Lead Joint Strategy Meetings on Alternatives
to Gang Policing

The Peace and Justice Law Center (PJLC) is leading a series of joint strategy meetings to advance alternatives to punitive youth and gang policing by aligning two statewide coalitions with closely overlapping missions and membership. Together, the coalitions include roughly 40 organizations across California working to reduce reliance on incarceration and challenge criminal legal approaches that harm young people and communities of color.

Many of these organizations have long worked on similar issues in parallel. The joint strategy process is designed to reduce duplication, strengthen coordination, and leverage collective strengths at a moment when backlash against criminal legal system reform is gaining momentum and threatening recent victories. Rather than forming a new organization, the effort creates a shared planning space where existing partners can align priorities and act together.

The immediate goal of the alignment is to develop a collective strategy and launch a first joint project that both advances substantive reform and strengthens the coalition’s ability to work together over time. Participants are focused on defending hard-won gains while building the capacity to respond quickly and collectively as new political and legal threats emerge.

The aligned coalition brings together organizations engaged in litigation, policy advocacy, research, narrative change, and direct community support. By coordinating across these areas, the coalition aims to increase impact, avoid fragmented campaigns, and ensure that legal and policy work is grounded in community needs and organizing.

PJLC’s role includes convening and facilitating the meetings, providing legal and strategic analysis, and helping translate shared priorities into coordinated campaigns and projects. This work complements PJLC’s litigation and policy advocacy by helping ensure that reforms are not only won, but defended and implemented through sustained collective action.

PJLC will continue to support the coalition as it develops and carries out its first joint project, with the longer-term goal of building durable statewide infrastructure to protect and advance youth and community justice reforms.