February 13, 2024

Grace Without Justice isn’t Justice

Written by Office of Alumni Affairs Intern Michael O’Hearn

Arienne "Ari" Jones, believes crime happens because society fails people. The Senior Program Manager at the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions (AFCS) and Fulbright ExchangeAlumni says the legal system creates harsher sentences than are necessary, which she’s on a mission to change.

ajones_headshot.jpg

Arienne Jones photo, courtesy of Arienne Jones.
Ari has worked towards justice reform for her whole career —and has even written two laws to curb excessive jail times. But she doesn’t think her work should be seen as a revolution in the legal system in the United States.

“I don't want anyone to look at what I did, and say, ‘Wow, that was really progressive.’ I want them to say we can do more than this,” Ari said. “I want for what I did to be just a stepping stone on the way to a radically more equitable society or a radically more gracious and grace-filled society.”

Civic Justice Roots in International Exchange

Ari’s reform work started even before her career in civic justice. When she was a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at a secondary institution in Comunidad de Madrid, she co-taught Global Classrooms and headed a school-wide project on the American Civil Rights Movement.

“Through teaching and learning with my students in Global Classrooms, I really started to more deeply appreciate the intersection of history, mutual understanding, and the work that I wanted to do in my then-future career,” Ari said. “That knowledge has helped me in the first part of my career by strengthening my ability to see the law through a more nuanced, less binary lens.”

In Ari’s post-exchange life, her passion for civic justice has taken her to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago, Illinois, where she served as a Senior Policy Advisor, and now to her present work as the Senior Program Manager for Justice and Equity at AFCS.

“From [my] work [at the Cook County State’s Attorney Office], I just learned that I want people to be free. I cannot stress enough how much crimes are really more often than not the result of something awful that's happened in your life leading up to that moment,” Ari said.

Ari stressed that some people, often people of color, suffer from inequalities in the prison system. In her work, she sets out to address and reform these disparities through housing and employment initiatives. Her biggest accomplishment, she said, was in investigating housing and employment discrimination at the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, resulting in mandatory housing discrimination awareness classes for the property managers found guilty of discrimination.

At the Aspen Institute, she is still focused on social justice, but has shifted her tactics by tackling the problem with educating the youth. Her current project will create a space and platform for young people impacted by injustice.

“Youth have an absolute voice and an absolute vision for the world they want and so to be at this organization that centers that voice, particularly when those voices tend to come from youth of color and particularly Black youth is really powerful,” Ari said.

To learn more about Ari’s pursuit of social justice, don’t miss the recent MentorTalks episode featuring her and Dr. Brian MacHarg: https://lnkd.in/eUXvEgAM.