On any given day, thousands of children in foster care across the country are administered psychotropic medications to address mental health and behavioral issues. Some of these children receive combinations of two, three, or more such medications at a time, often in elevated dosages. Some, like Joe, are even placed on antipsychotics, which led him to say, “I feel like I have knives in my eyes.” 

The Just Earth Fund, inspired by the urgency of our time, builds on our 25 years of successful grantmaking and brings new energy, hope, and funds to communities demanding justice.

Although acutely suffering mental instability, I never lost the ability to discern what was just. I strongly believed an injustice was occurring that directly and negatively impacted the entirety of my life and those of countless others. I also believed that so long as these things went unchallenged myself and others would continue to suffer. Not only did I want to change what happens within the prisons, I also wanted to raise public awareness of mental illness in relation to solitary confinement – the criminalization of mental illness within the prison walls.