After more than 24 years as Innocence Project New Orleans, and after much careful deliberation with our staff, board, clients, and allies, we are excited to announce our new name: Innocence & Justice Louisiana. Our new name and new brand reflect the full scope of the work we have been doing: we work across the state of Louisiana freeing people who are innocent and those who are in prison unjustly, supporting them in freedom.

We are proud to be an organization that represents those who should not be in prison, but being an “innocence project” did not tell the complete story of who those people are. When we intentionally expanded our work in 2019 to include unjustly punished people, we did so with the recognition that while being an innocent person in prison is a terrible injustice, it is not the only injustice of incarceration. As an organization born out of a capital defenders’ office, we have always condemned extreme punishment in Louisiana.  Even as we originally focused on representing innocent people in prison, the core of our work has always been about more than innocent people in prison.

You may wonder why we have emphasized the ampersand [&] in our new logo. The ampersand highlights the expansion of our work beyond innocence, and stands for the importance in our advocacy of being inclusive of all incarcerated people. It is a marker for the many people whom Louisiana has wrongfully incarcerated but whom we have freed (Dwight & Earl & Greg & Dennis…), and a reminder that there are more people in prison who deserve justice (& many more).

The word “ampersand” is significant too: it has as its root “per se,” meaning “by oneself.” It is closely related to the legal term “pro se” which refers to people advocating for themselves in court because they don’t have lawyers. With the ampersand we invoke those fighting for themselves and by themselves from prison. Innocence & Justice Louisiana was built to fill a gap for those to whom the law does not give lawyers. And our work has been shaped by the ultimate pro se warriors of Louisiana’s prisons, the Inmate Counsel Substitutes—the jailhouse lawyers.

We hope you enjoy exploring our new website. There you’ll find everything you need to know about Innocence & Justice Louisiana’s work and clients, including news articles and blog posts, a searchable client database, and pages dedicated to each area of our work: representing clients to freedom, supporting clients in re-entry, advocating for a fair criminal legal system, educating the next generation of lawyers, and increasing transparency in policing through our police misconduct database.  Our “Justice Issues” pages offer in-depth Louisiana-specific information on mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, excessive sentencing, and unjust incarceration of women. The website also outlines ways to engage with us and support our work and our clients.

Thank you for your support today, this year, and for the last 24 years. We are able to declare our new name and brand, after nearly a quarter century of work, because of the sustained support you have given us and our clients. We are proud to be Innocence & Justice Louisiana.