Business
ATTORNEY + ADVOCATE: GINA CLAYTON JOHNSON
The BREATHE Act is a modern-day civil rights bill that answers the call to defund the police, end mass incarceration, establish alternative, evidence-based safety interventions, and repair the harm done to Black and Brown communities.The organization focuses on formerly and currently incarcerated women, transgender women, and gender non-conforming people.
By KiKi Monifa | Impact Alameda
Gina Clayton- Johnson is the founder of the Oakland- based Essie Justice Group (EJG), which she founded in 2014 and named after her great grandmother. She sits on the policy table of the Movement for Black Lives and is the visionary architect behind the BREATHE Act.
The BREATHE Act is a modern-day civil rights bill that answers the call to defund the police, end mass incarceration, establish alternative, evidence-based safety interventions, and repair the harm done to Black and Brown communities.The organization focuses on formerly and currently incarcerated women, transgender women, and gender non-conforming people.
Clayton-Johnson has served more than a decade advocating for communities of color. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Southern California, was a youth organizer for the NAACP, and graduated from Harvard Law School. During her first year at Harvard, a loved one was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Clayton-Johnson set on the path of advocacy for women in prison and their families.