About Us

The Abolitionist Law Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, public interest law firm and community organizing project led by people who’ve been directly impacted by the criminal punishment system. 

We wield class action and impact litigation on behalf of people whose rights have been violated in jail and prison. We also engage in grassroots advocacy, research and public education, pressure campaigns, media outreach, and other strategic communications.

We use these tools to build a mass movement to dismantle the racist, classist mass incarceration system, and protect the rights and wellbeing of people who encounter the criminal punishment system in all its forms including policing, the courts, jails and prisons, and other forms of legal supervision.

We have offices in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and work mainly in Pennsylvania, the birthplace of solitary confinement and a state with some of the most extreme carceral practices in the nation.