Southern Center for Human Rights
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"Up" is the number of experts who agree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in the
field. "Down" is the number of experts who disagree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in field.
Headquarters Location: Atlanta, GA
Founded: 1976
Mission: The Southern Center for Human Rights provides legal representation to people facing the death penalty, challenges human rights violations in prisons and jails, seeks through litigation and advocacy to improve legal representation for poor people accused of crimes, and advocates for criminal justice system reforms on behalf of those affected by the system in the Southern United States.
Tags:
legal representation, death penalty, litigation, advocacy, policy reform, publish reports & articles
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Sara Totonchi.
Sara Totonchi joined Southern Center for Human Rights in 2001 as the Public Policy Director and became the Executive Director in January, 2010. She represents SCHR at the Georgia General Assembly on a full range of criminal justice and public safety issues. Sara has led coalition efforts and legislative advocacy for criminal justice reform with concerned citizens including family members…
See full bio.
Financial Data
Charity Navigator Rating:
(profile)
(profile)
Overhead Ratio:
19.96%
Total Revenue:
$1,464,456
From the Nonprofit
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Oct 21, 2011 |
In the past year, SCHR has made significant strides in criminal justice policy reform in both Georgia and Alabama, celebrated several victories through litigation settlements and reducing individual application of the death penalty, and brought new cases on behalf of…
Read More.
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Contact Info
Address:
83 Poplar St NW
Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
Twitter:
Story:
Too often, prison administrators tolerate high levels of violence of their facilities, excusing it as an inevitable consequence of life in prison. That was the case at Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto, Georgia. For years, Arrendale was a violent and troubled institution. Dangerously understaffed, the facility housed the youngest and most vulnerable prisoners, including children sentenced in adult court. Rapes, stabbings, chokings, and beatings with locks, broomsticks, trash cans and other objects left many of these young people with severe head injuries, lacerations, bruises, broken teeth and other physical injuries as well as severe psychological trauma.
The violence at Arrendale resulted in the death of Wayne Boatwright, Jr. The 18-year old youth was raped and strangled to death in February 2004. He had written to his grandmother desperately asking her to intervene with prison officials because of his fear of being raped. His grandmother and father contacted prison officials asking that he be protected. It was to no avail. In the six months following Wayne’s death, the Southern Center documented over fifty further violent incidents, including rapes, stabbings, and beatings by officers.
The Southern Center for Human Rights and King & Spalding LLP brought the unconstitutional conditions at Arrendale to the attention of the federal court. Courageous family members of the young men at Arrendale spoke out at a legislative hearing on the troubled prison. Under pressure from the court and the Legislature, the Department of Corrections closed Arrendale, moved the men to other facilities, and created a special unit for vulnerable people under age 21. (Arrendale was later re-opened as a women’s facility).
Expert Reviews of Southern Center for Human Rights
Evidence of Impact Summary:
The Southern Center for Human Rights is praised highly by experts as one of the most influential non-profits in the nation working to improve prison conditions, provide adequate legal representation to indigent defendants, and reduce the use of capital punishment as a response to crime.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
According to experts, SCHR’s main strengths are its top-notch leadership and staff and its holistic approach to addressing criminal justice issues such as minority representation and legal assistance in death penalty cases.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
The main areas in which the SCHR can improve are in their outreach to communities across the United States and in their pay and retention of staff members. Experts have also mentioned that the group could improve by engaging in more collaborative efforts with grassroots groups.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Strong National Leader in Legal Representation and Advocacy |
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As the nation's foremost advocate for the rights of prisoners and, more broadly, poor persons enmeshed in the criminal justice system, it sets a leadership standard for other organizations. Through cutting-edge advocacy and litigation, SCHR drives system reform as well as bringing justice to individuals facing incarceration and, especially, capital charges. | ||
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After the ACLU National Prison Project, the Southern Center for Human Rights is the most important criminal justice organization in the country. They have exceptional leadership and staff, and important mission, critically important work. | ||
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The SCHR has been a forceful voice for justice in the death penalty area since I began practicing law in 1983. I can only think of the old commercial and paraphrase: When SCHR talks, people listen. | ||
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The SCHR is the leading organization addressing issues of race and class injustice in the criminal justice system in the South, where the problems are perhaps most acute. It has a tremendous track record in fighting capital punishment, supporting increased funding for indigent defense, and challenging practices that reinforce race and class inequities. | ||
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The Southern Center has a nationwide impact on the standards of capital representation and on adequate funding for indigent defense. | ||
Effective Litigation |
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SCHR focuses on enormously important issues, is a leader in the field, and successfully identifies and litigates issues that will have a broad impact. | ||
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SCHR has a long, honorable history of litigating prison conditions in the south and of representing poor people in capital cases. Their work attacking the inadequacies in indigent defense in capital cases has been extraordinary and groundbreaking. | ||
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The center has conducted high impact litigation around prison healthcare provisions in Alabama, fine payment procedures in Georgia, and method of execution in Alabama. | ||
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The Southern Center for Human Rights has been effective in reducing the number of people sentenced to death in Georgia, Alabama, and other southern states. They have won reversals of death sentences in these cases and have raised the standard of practice for capital defense attorneys in these states through training, consultation, and leading by example. This group has also helped improve prison and jail conditions, as well as access to the right to counsel, through impact litigation. | ||
High-Quality Legal Representation |
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SCHR provides incredible representation in cases that have a national impact, helping to shape legal strategies across the nation. | ||
Strong Advocacy Programs |
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The SCHR has been a central agency in highlighting disparities in race in criminal justice issues and influencing community voices and local organizations in the work. | ||
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This non-profit has been very successful in improving the lives of disadvantaged and voiceless people throughout the south for thirty years. By legislative advocacy and filing lawsuits, the Center has ended unfair practices such as jailing people because of their poverty, illegally banishing sex offenders from communities, executing people without lawyers, segregating HIV prisoners in prison, and forcing prisoners to live in unsanitary and dangerous prisons all over Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. | ||
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This organization stands on the forefront, often alone, on issues of indigent defense, prison conditions, and the death penalty. | ||
Skilled in Litigation and Advocacy |
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The Southern Center has provided top notch litigation and advocacy on the leading criminal justice issues of the day. | ||
Talented and Inspiring Staff |
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The Southern Center for Human Rights has been the pre-eminent national organization working on bringing fairness and adequacy to legal representation in the areas of conditions of confinement, death penalty cases, racial discrimination in jury selection, and other issues. Several attorneys and advocates received their training on these issues while interning with or being employed at the Southern Center early in their careers, These individuals have gone on to establish their own non-profits organizations working on these issues, especially in the South. Southern Center staff have also gone on to develop training programs for attorneys at some of the most prestigious law schools in the country. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Unwavering Commitment to Justice |
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Its commitment to social and racial justice are an inspiration to other organizations and individuals. | ||
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This organization has a long history of fighting for an unpopular cause. While founder, Stephen Bright, is not always popular, he is always respected. | ||
Great Leadership and Staff |
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SCHR has strong leadership and dedicated staff. | ||
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Leadership and staff have always been and continue to be a great strength. | ||
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Its strengths are its leadership and staff. | ||
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SCHR has been brilliantly run by Steve Bright for many years. He has chosen his staff wisely, and now there are many community leaders working for SCHR. Their name is deceptive - the Southern Center has spoken profoundly about many conditions of injustice in all areas of the country. | ||
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Steve Bright, its former director, is a godsend to the abolitionist community and to the cause of social justice in criminal justice. There is no better advocate in the country. He has inspired dozens of highly talented law students from the nation's best law schools to follow him in his work, often through internships or fellowships with SCHR. It is a seedbed for progressive lawyering in the criminal justice field. | ||
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Leadership and staff are committed, talented, and have more successes than anyone could possibly have predicted. | ||
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The organization has tremendous leadership with the ongoing involvement of Stephen Bright and a deep staff of talented and committed litigators. An additional strength is that its brand name is synonymous with excellence in this field, which in turn allows it to spread best practices in a manner trusted by other players. | ||
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Its strengths are the leadership of the organization in the field, the quality of their litigation work, and their training of new attorneys. | ||
Effective Multi-Faceted Approach |
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They are multi-channel: they provide legal representation, produce research and reports, and engage in policy advocacy. Whereas other organizations specialize in one niche, they work across silos to achieve lasting change. They also have brilliant leadership in their former Executive Director, Steve Bright, who has stayed involved. | ||
Strong National Leader |
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The Southern Center is the national leader in challenging inadequate legal representation especially in death penalty cases and in fighting discrimination in the criminal justice system, especially in areas of jury selection and disproportionate minority representation at all levels of the juvenile and criminal justice systems. | ||
Positive Work Environment |
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The Center is very good at maximizing their talent and financial capacity and provides a healthy and supportive work environment that fosters longevity in a difficult and stressful career. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
More Attention to Staff Well-Being |
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They have some difficulty retaining staff because of perhaps overly high expectations. | ||
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They could use on-site leadership and training and give better pay for employees. | ||
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I'm not sure how the staff at the Southern Center would feel about this, but staff there have worked for years with minimal financial resources and really minimal compensation. They have been able to overcome these limitations with dedication and commitment to their issues, but additional funding could likely allow expansion of their work. | ||
Less Focus on Money |
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Well, they have a lot of money. But they care more about money than about criminal justice, particularly the capital defendants they abandoned for more popular causes. | ||
Stronger National Presence |
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SCHR's work is centered in Georgia but needs to expand to other states. Larger staff and branch offices would help greatly. | ||
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They could do more to promote their work nationally. | ||
More Collaboration with Local Organizations |
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In their local work, they could be better coordinated with the grassroots organizations that are also working on those issues. Their policy work is not buoyed by grassroots organizing. | ||
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They have only moderate success of ensuring that their young lawyers stay in this field. I’m not sure why that is. They could also probably make more inroads within Georgia to get more local buy-in for the reforms they advocate. They could do more legislative advocacy. They do the last two things but could do more. | ||
Increase Scope |
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The quality of their work is without parallel. The only suggestion I can think to make is that they somehow be able to do more of it. | ||
Greater Access to Resources and Funding |
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First, funding is always tenuous and staff is underpaid, especially given that this is a nonstop and tremendously stressful job. Second, as a result, turnover can be high, and expertise is lost. | ||
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SCHR could be improved with a larger staff and capacity to take on more cases and training. It appears that the organization could also use a more reliable and consistent funding sources. | ||
Focus More on Litigation |
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They could place a greater emphasis on capital litigation. | ||
Continuity of Leadership |
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Since Bright stepped down as the head of SCHR they have missed his prestige. Fortunately, he is still active with the organization. They definitely need to develop a voice for the next generation. | ||
Leadership
Sara Totonchi
Executive Director
Executive Director
From the Nonprofit
|
Oct 21, 2011 |
In the past year, SCHR has made significant strides in criminal justice policy reform in both Georgia and Alabama, celebrated several victories through litigation settlements and reducing individual application of the death penalty, and brought new cases on behalf of people challenging illegal criminal justice practices. With your support, SCHR will be able to continue to carry out difficult, high-impact campaigns that challenge the misuse of the criminal justice system in the South. Some recent highlights and SCHR victories include:
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