Power to the People: Holistic Revolution to End Mass Incarceration through Participatory Defense

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Participatory defense is a community organizing model that aims to empower people facing charges and their families to transform the landscape of power in the courtroom. Participatory Defense is guided by three principles:

FAMILY and COMMUNITY STRENGTH can play a pivotal role in stopping and reducing incarceration for a loved one and a community.
Families and communities can be even more powerful when taking the role of ORGANIZER AND AGENT OF CHANGE, rather than service recipient.
By working on individual cases, communities can BUILD THE MOVEMENT of directly impacted peoples to hold the actors of the court accountable, make systemic change, and ultimately end mass incarceration.

This workshop will focus on how communities can build partnerships with public defender offices that can lead to systemic impact well beyond individual cases. Participating in cases and being able to "look under the hood" of the courts shows where community power can also be flexed to change policies and bring loved ones home, whether that be wrongful charging practices, mandatory sentences or even ensuring that public defenders are given the budgetary resources to do what the community needs them to do. In a slight pivot of perspective of who can be the systems changers and what they can do -- the millions who face prison or jail and their communities, those waiting in line at court everyday -- could shift from being fodder of the criminal justice system, to those fated to bring the era of mass incarceration to its rightful end.

Participants will learn tools to empower community members to understand the court process and effect change in case outcomes.
Participants will learn how to utilize court watching as a powerful tool for community members to observe faults in the criminal legal system that leads to campaigns to reform.
Participants will learn how partnerships between community members and public defenders can transform the outcome of cases and directly work towards undoing the impacts of mass incarceration.
Participants will learn how to empower community members to disrupt the status quo and become the agents for change.

Mitchelle Woodson, Esq.

Executive Director, Managing Attorney

Think Dignity

Mitchelle Woodson joined the Think Dignity staff in 2017. As the Executive Director, Mitchelle oversees the daily management of Think Dignity’s operations, including the Transitional Storage Center, Mobile Operations of Dignity and legal department. As the Managing Attorney, Mitchelle oversees the Homeless Youth Legal and Advocacy Project, the 8 Legal and Referral Advocacy Clinics and the Know Your Rights campaign that aims to empower individuals with knowledge of their legal rights. Mitchelle’s passion for advocating for San Diego’s homeless community has led to the growth and notoriety of TD as the premier organization for legal representation and advocacy. Her expertise and knowledge is highly sought after as she has presented at Yale Law School’s Rebellious Lawyering Conference, National Legal Aid and Defenders Association’s Annual Conference and the Coalition for Juvenile Justice on the issues of homelessness and poverty law. Mitchelle has also received recognition for her advocacy efforts as the recipient of the 2019 Molina Community Champion Award, Rise San Diego’s 2020 Anthony M. Medina’s People’s Champion Award, San Diego County’s 2021 Community Inspiration Award, Business for Good’s 2022 Housing and Homelessness Hero Award, and Alliance San Diego’s 2023 inaugural Leo Carrillo Change Agent award. Mitchelle is a founding member of FREE-SD, which utilizes the approach of participatory defense, a community organizing model that aims to empower people facing charges and their families to transform the landscape of power in the courtroom; and the DeDe McClure Community Bail Fund, a grassroots organization committed to educating and empowering community members to fight against the devastating effects of the cash bail system and supporting those who have been victimized by it. Mitchelle received her Juris Doctor from Thomas Jefferson School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of California San Diego.

Askari Abdul-Muntaqim, n/a

Post Conviction Organizer

Pillars of the Community

Askari Abdul-Muntaqim was born John C. Thompson came to Los Angeles California from New Jersey and almost immediately joined a street gang. At the age of 14 Askari went to the California Youth Authority were he served out a sentence and was released at 20. While in the Youth Authority Askari earned an A.A. degree from the University of LaVerne. He then paroled and enrolled at UCLA where he completed his junior year. At the conclusion of his junior year Askari was sentenced to the California Department of Corrections with a 6 year sentence, he served four years of that sentence. Askari was paroled in 1995 and not three months later Askari was arrested and would soon be sentenced to 31 years and 8 months in the California Department of Corrections. While in custody Askari began to engage the legal process as a “Jailhouse lawyer” working on civil litigation and post conviction cases. He also engaged in a program named “Reflecting Shakespeare” from The Old Globe theater as a participant while inside. Upon paroling Askari obtained certification as a paralegal, became and Teaching Artist with The Old Globe, returning to prisons to teach Shakespeare. He is now the Post-Conviction Organizer with Pillars of the Community, a San Diego based non-profit organization, and a volunteer chaplain in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Additionally Askari is the first student to be enrolled as law student with the Law Office Study Program offered at the Pillars of the Community under the direction of his supervising attorney Mitchelle Woodson.