Mission / Purpose

When Greg Bright and Earl Truvia were freed after 27 1/2 years in prison for a crime they did not commit, they were left on the sidewalk with $10 checks from the State of Louisiana, and garbage bags full of their legal paperwork. Earl was literally shoeless.

IPNO began an Exoneree Advocacy Program to provide direct support to the wrongfully convicted through their transition to life in the free world, and bring the voices of these exonerees to a wider audience, positioning them as advocates for policy reform on both local and regional levels.

The program was a response to the tragedies that abound amongst the region's wrongfully convicted population, many of whom have foundered when confronted with the realities of long-awaited freedom. As one said: "The challenge of transition is even harder than the challenge of overcoming a wrongful conviction."

IPNO's Exoneree Advocacy Program supports and is working in partnership with the fledgling exoneree-run re-entry program, Resurrection After Exoneration (RAE), the first exoneree led re-entry organization in the country. 

RAE works to transform the experience of the exonerated and returning long-term prisoners, to create social leaders where there is currently a cycle of recidivism, desperation and poverty. They have recently completed renovations on a transitional housing facility that can house up to 3 exonerees. The home is the first of its kind. There are also plans for a business that would sustain the home and provide the exonerees with leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

RAE's exonerees regularly participate in individual and group counseling, educational opportunities, and receive financial, literacy, and computer literacy training.  RAE also provides public speaking and performance training for exonerees who want to use the story of their wrongful conviction to ask for increased accountability of the criminal justice system for its' mistakes and reform of the practices that cause innocent people to be convicted. Information on RAE's spoken word performance, Voices of Innocences, can be found here. 

For more information about RAE, contact Ora Nitkin-Kaner at oran@ip-no.org.