J Vasquez

During the “superpredator” hysteria, J was transferred to adult court at just 16 years old. He was sentenced to 31 years to life and repeatedly told he would never get out of prison. In spite of these challenges, J earned six associate degrees with honors, two certificates in Alcohol & Drug Studies, co-founded a peer mentoring program for incarcerated young people, created curriculum for two dozen self-help workshops, and volunteered as a staff writer for the prison newsletter. The Parole Board finally released J after serving 25 years. Upon his return, J worked two part-time jobs to put himself through school and became a first-gen college student. In 2021, J graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sociology and minor in Criminal Justice Studies from San Francisco State University and was selected as the hood recipient for the College of Health & Social Sciences. J is an alumni of the FICPFM Organizing Fellowship, Willie L. Brown Jr. Fellowship, and George Jackson Organizing School.

Through grassroots organizing and statewide coalition campaigns, J’s work has contributed to many changes in State law, including eliminating endless youth probation terms, eliminating restitution fines for children, establishing a process to decertify police officers who commit serious misconduct, creating a statewide pilot program for community-based alternatives to police involvement regarding emergency responses for non-criminal situations, protecting Miranda rights for children, ensuring due process for people receiving aggravated prison terms, and restoring voting rights for 50,000 Californians on parole. J also worked on State legislation to protect children from receiving juvenile adjudication strikes, end incarcerated involuntary servitude, restore visiting as a right for incarcerated people, increase resources for community-based juvenile justice crime prevention programs, and abolish CDCR collusion with ICE.

J is a participatory defense trainer where he helps organizations build organizing capacity to support families of incarcerated persons to bring their loved ones home and transform the landscape of power in the legal system. He is also a subject-matter expert in the field of California prison conditions, gangs, rehabilitation, and the Board of Parole Hearings process, and has lent his expertise in several court cases.