5 Shocking Ways 'All Of Us Or None' (AOUON) Is Changing Criminal Justice In 2025
The phrase "All of Us or None" (AOUON) represents one of the most powerful and effective grassroots movements in modern American civil rights history, a force dedicated to restoring the human and civil rights of formerly and currently incarcerated people and their families. As of late 2025, the organization continues its high-impact work, pushing for systemic change in areas from employment to voting rights, ensuring that a past conviction does not equate to a lifetime of punishment.
This movement is not run by politicians or high-paid lobbyists; it is led by the very people who have been directly impacted by the nation's prison system. Their work is fundamentally about tackling the pervasive discrimination—often called "purgatory penalties"—that prevents successful reentry and drives high rates of recidivism. The AOUON philosophy is simple yet radical: full restoration of rights for all, or none of us achieve true justice.
The Foundational Profile of All of Us or None (AOUON)
All of Us or None is a national organizing movement and a crucial project of the Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC). It was founded to create a powerful political voice for people with past convictions, their families, and their allies.
- Founding Context: AOUON was established out of a necessity to challenge discriminatory policies and practices that create permanent second-class citizenship for millions of Americans with conviction histories.
- Core Mission: To organize formerly and currently incarcerated people and their families to fight for the full restoration of their human and civil rights.
- Organizational Structure: It operates as a grassroots, membership-based organization, ensuring that the movement is led by those who have lived experience with incarceration.
- Key Figures: While a collective movement, figures like Dorsey Nunn and Linda Evans have been instrumental in leading and shaping AOUON’s strategy, with Evans often considered the godmother of the organizing effort.
- Recent Activity (2025): The movement remains active on a national scale, participating in events like the Racial Justice Conference and local initiatives such as the Georgia Reentry Awareness Month events, continually pushing campaigns to "Abolish Bondage Collectively."
1. The 'Ban the Box' Campaign: A Policy Earthquake
The single most recognized and successful campaign spearheaded by All of Us or None is "Ban the Box." This movement did not just seek to change a few local rules; it aimed to fundamentally re-engineer the hiring process across the entire country.
The Origin and Impact of Ban the Box
The "Ban the Box" campaign, which AOUON coined and launched in 2004, targets the question on job applications that asks about an applicant’s criminal history. The box, when checked, often results in immediate screening out of qualified candidates, regardless of the nature or age of the offense.
The goal is simple: remove the question from the initial application phase. This allows applicants with past convictions to be judged on their qualifications, skills, and experience first. The criminal background check is then moved to a later stage of the hiring process, typically after a conditional offer of employment has been made.
The success of this grassroots organizing has been phenomenal. As of 2025, the policy has been adopted by:
- Over 37 states, including major economic centers.
- More than 150 cities and counties, including New York City, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis.
- The federal government for its own hiring practices.
This victory has been a game-changer for millions of formerly incarcerated people, significantly reducing employment discrimination and providing a tangible pathway to successful reintegration into society. It stands as a testament to the power of a political movement led by those with lived experience.
2. Fighting Purgatory Penalties and Systemic Discrimination
While "Ban the Box" focuses on employment, AOUON’s broader fight is against the entire system of "purgatory penalties." These are the hundreds of legal restrictions that continue to punish people long after they have served their time, creating massive barriers to essential needs like housing, education, and voting.
The Battle for Full Civil Rights
A conviction history results in widespread discrimination that impacts every aspect of a person’s life. AOUON and its allies focus on several key areas of criminal justice reform:
- Housing Discrimination: Advocating for "Fair Chance Housing" policies to prevent landlords and public housing authorities from automatically denying tenancy based on a conviction history.
- Voting Rights: Fighting for the full restoration of voting rights for all people with past felony convictions, recognizing that disenfranchisement is a form of civic death that undermines democratic participation.
- Education Access: Working to remove barriers, such as the denial of federal student aid, that prevent formerly incarcerated individuals from accessing higher education and vocational programs, which are proven tools for reducing recidivism.
The movement's core philosophy is that true public safety is achieved through successful reentry, not through perpetual punishment. By tackling these systemic issues, AOUON is building a powerful political movement that demands human and civil rights for all.
3. Building Topical Authority and Political Power from the Ground Up
AOUON’s strategy relies heavily on grassroots organizing, which means building power through local chapters and ensuring that the voices of those most affected—the members—are the ones setting the agenda. This is a key differentiator from traditional advocacy groups.
The Power of Lived Experience
The organization’s strength is its ability to mobilize and connect people who have been locked up, those who are currently incarcerated, and their families. They use a powerful tool, the All of Us or None Newspaper, to link these communities, share stories, and coordinate action, making sure that their stories matter and are heard by policymakers.
This approach has been critical in generating a deep bench of LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords and entities that define the modern reentry conversation:
- Reentry Programs: Advocating for effective, peer-led services and support programs.
- Systemic Racism: Directly addressing how punitive policies disproportionately affect African American and Latino applicants, perpetuating cycles of poverty and incarceration.
- Policy Change: Focusing on legislative victories that create lasting structural shifts, rather than just service delivery.
- Abolish Bondage Collectively: A current campaign that speaks to the need to end all forms of modern-day servitude and economic exploitation within the justice system.
By centering the political education and leadership development of formerly incarcerated people, AOUON is not just asking for change; it is building the political infrastructure to *enforce* change. Their work ensures that the fight for civil rights is truly inclusive, operating under the principle that if we don't fight for all of us, then the justice we seek will be for none.
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