Our Founding Story

ALIJ was created by a coalition of attorneys, social workers, and investigators who dedicate their careers to protecting the rights of the accused. Collectively, our founders have represented tens of thousands of people within the local criminal legal system. The coalition came together to create ALIJ because they shared a common desire for equity and justice, and believed that they could draw on their unique experiences to help improve and transform the local criminal legal system.

The members of that diverse coalition came from different socio-economic backgrounds, cultures, and races. They had worked in a wide array of fields and included former prosecutors and public defenders, former probation officers and federal law enforcement agents, and former judicial law clerks and law professors. They had experience working for governments, non-profits, and Pittsburgh’s leading civil law firms. They were small business owners who proudly serve as community leaders on nonprofit and school boards. This initiative originated from their shared commitment to serve their clients, their families, and the greater Allegheny County community by helping to shape and improve the criminal justice system.

Why We Care

On the frontlines representing the accused, we see firsthand the criminal legal system's inequities and injustices. We've watched too many families ripped apart when a father, son, mother, or daughter is shipped off to prison. We've seen too many young lives senselessly ruined by a felony conviction. Far too many of those young people are Black and poor.

When most people think of a criminal case, their concern and sympathy lies with crime victims. That's absolutely a valid concern, but it's also only part of the equation. Most criminal cases don't have an identifiable victim. And the truth is that in many criminal cases, it is the accused who suffers most. It is the accused who suffers the lifelong consequences of a conviction that will—among other permanent penalties—forever limit their ability to land a job that enables them to provide for their family. 

The collateral consequences of a criminal conviction have a ripple effect that spreads beyond the convicted person. When a person is convicted of a felony offense, that also has a life-long negative impact on their husband, wife, or partner, their son and daughter, and their brother and sister. When a young defendant is stripped away from their community and shipped off to prison, that also devastates their mother and father and grandmother and grandfather. The normalization of the practice of labeling too many young men and women as felons also negatively impacts the broader community.

At the local level, we've seen a lack of leadership when it comes to identifying and fixing the criminal legal system's flaws. Defense attorneys as a group shoulder some of the responsibility for that failure. Going forward, we believe that any serious effort to improve the criminal legal system must take into account the perspective of the accused and the attorneys who represent them. We intend to fill this void and serve as a leading voice for smart and empathetic criminal legal transformation. 

Why we are unique

Our organization is different from other organizations, advocacy groups, and stakeholders who perform work related to the local criminal legal system. First and foremost, we are independent. We are not beholden to county government and political leaders, which means that we have the ability to speak candidly about important issues impacting the administration of criminal justice. Second, our people work in the trenches of the criminal legal system and see and feel the system’s inequities firsthand. Simply put, we understand what works and what areas need improvement. And we are motivated to be a leading voice for positive change.