The Remedy Project
New York, NY
In the American prison system, a culture of inhumane and extralegal punishment has become the norm and persists at the hands of unchecked staff. There is only one official avenue for recourse against the abusive wiles of prison administrations, the Administrative Remedy Process. Though rarely used, and even more rarely effective due to the dangerous power dynamics within prisons, this process allows an incarcerated citizen to file a grievance about their inhumane treatment and requires staff to address the complaint.
The Remedy Project seeks to harness the power of the Administrative Remedy process from the outside to defend people on the inside. Founded in 2019 by David, a returning citizen who mastered the administrative remedy during his ten-year term in federal prison, and Anna, a student at Barnard College, the The Remedy Project’s mission is to train and embolden college students to combat human rights violations in American prisons. To accomplish this goal, student members of TRP are trained by returning citizens in the art of filing administrative remedies on behalf of incarcerated citizens. The Remedy Project expects its student members to harness their privilege and education for the purpose of holding the American prison staff accountable, demanding a departure from the violent and punitive nature of prison administrations, combating injustice, and restoring humanity in an inhumane system.