Jon-Adrian Velazquez
“Staying true to the terms of my clemency, I continue the work I started inside on the outside. I now help programs surrounding justice by bridging communications with departments of corrections, community partners, and incarcerated populations”
After receiving clemency in 2021 following more than twenty years in prison for a crime I did not commit, I have seized every opportunity to learn, lead, support, and give, which earned me a trip to the White House to discuss criminal legal reform with President Biden, where I received a public apology from the President on behalf of society for my wrongful conviction. Staying true to the terms of my clemency, I continue the work I started inside on the outside. I now help programs surrounding justice by bridging communications with departments of corrections, community partners, and incarcerated populations to achieve ambitious mutual goals in justice policy and reform. Some of the organizations I’m currently working with are A Second U Foundation, the Center for Justice at Columbia University, the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice, Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, and Voices From Within.