Resources for Exonerees and Families
Wrongful convictions cause unimaginable harm and loss to the innocent who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned and to their families. All are robbed of years of freedom and time together, subjected to repeated and complex traumas, and face many obstacles to rebuilding their lives and recovering post-exoneration. Healing Justice provides opportunities for both individual and group peer support and healing to the exonerated and their families. In addition, we can assist with finding support services in the area where you live. Finally, we offer peer-created resources and recommendations, which you can find below. All of our programs and resources for exonerees and their families are for individuals who have been acknowledged to be factually innocent and have been legally exonerated.
Articles, Publications, and Reports
Guide
Peer to peer Resource guide
This unique and comprehensive peer-to-peer resource provides guidance and support to the exonerated in the days, weeks, months, and years following freedom from prison. In this resource, other exonerees reflect on their own experiences and challenges and offer recommendations. Also included are links to national and local resources. Our hope is that this collection will be useful to you as you navigate your own journey to rebuild and recover. We also hope you will recognize that you are not alone; many people have come before you and faced similar obstacles and emotions. This peer-led approach aims to help you in all ways you may need.
Additional Resources
Resource
National innocence network
The Innocence Network is an informal coalition of independent innocence organizations dedicated to combating wrongful convictions worldwide and reforming the criminal legal system. Most members of the Innocence Network provide legal representation to people who have been wrongfully convicted, though a few exclusively offer support to freed and exonerated people.
Resource
After innocence
After Innocence has already reached more than 800 exonerees across 46 states, and collaborating with nearly every innocence organization in the country to reach as many more exonerees as possible, whether they have been out of prison for days or decades.
Resource
Justis4Justus
The goal for J4J will always remain the same. To build a community of support for exonerees and to create an assistance network to help with the transition process. J4J procures in-kind donations from the general public to support exonerees as they transition back into society.
Resource
The sunny center
The Sunny Center Foundation is a non-profit organization that helps people who have suffered the injustice of wrongful conviction, giving them support after they have been exonerated and released from prison. Their mission expanded to helping families and others who’ve been affected by the injustice of wrongful conviction as well as extending their healing techniques to the general public.
Resource
Women’s Project, Center on wrongful conviction
The Center on Wrongful Convictions is dedicated to identifying and rectifying wrongful convictions and other serious miscarriages of justice. The CWC also houses some of the nation's leading legal experts on false confessions and police interrogations. Together with our partners around the globe, the CWC leverages its clients' real stories of injustice to seek criminal justice reform.