Since its founding, Fortune has taken a powerful leadership role as an advocate for the rights and fair treatment of people with criminal records and for fair criminal justice policies.  In 1971, Fortune’s founder, David Rothenberg, and two of its formerly incarcerated leaders – Kenny Jackson and Mel Rivers – were asked by prisoners at Attica Correctional Facility to join the observers present in the yard during the Attica Rebellion.

More recently, The Fortune Society’s David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy (DRCPP) has advocated with other local advocates on a wide variety of projects and campaigns:

• help pass Rockefeller Drug Law Reform,
• strengthen anti-discrimination laws for job seekers with criminal records,
• expand funding for Alternatives to Incarceration across New York State,
• advocate for housing access, and
• ensure that people leaving jail and prison have early access to Medicaid for health care needs

Learn more about how you can join Fortune as an advocate, and work to remove counterproductive barriers facing people with criminal records.

To learn more about Fortune’s work as a member of the NYS ATI/Reentry Coalition, click here.