PJLC Director Shares Personal Story at Legends Event

At the Orange County Economic Justice Initiative’s Legends event, the Peace and Justice Law Center’s Executive Director shared an emotional account of the human cost of the criminal legal system and the contradictions faced by lawyers working to challenge it.

The story focused on a pivotal moment in PJLC’s gang injunction litigation. Gang injunctions are civil court orders that impose lifelong restrictions on people without a criminal conviction. While working on a case affecting hundreds of community members, the Executive Director learned that a client had taken his own life rather than face a lengthy prison sentence that would have forced him back into a prison gang. He had worked for years to leave that life behind.

That loss was followed almost immediately by a message from another client, a close friend from the same neighborhood. In a text message, the second client described having stabilized his life, remained employed, and watched his two daughters grow up. He thanked PJLC for helping make that possible.

Placing these two moments side by side, the story illustrated a central reality of PJLC’s work. Even when people successfully leave gangs, secure employment, and build family stability, the criminal legal system remains ready to disrupt that progress. Court involvement, incarceration, and surveillance can undo years of effort in an instant.

The Legends event was created to help funders and community members understand why economic justice work matters in practice, not just in principle. The presentation emphasized that these outcomes are predictable and recurring, not isolated tragedies, and that preventing them requires sustained investment and collective responsibility.

The event was filmed and is now publicly available as part of the Orange County Economic Justice Initiative’s Community Voices series.

Watch and learn more:

• Orange County Economic Justice Initiative – Community Voices: https://oceconomicjustice.org/community-voices/

• Event video recording: https://youtu.be/DOImxU4McPQ