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Martina Kartman ’17 has been awarded a prestigious Soros Justice Fellowship by the Open Society Foundations. 

Working across the U.S., the fellows push for progress in the country’s approach to crime, develop effective responses to both interpersonal and police violence and challenge the ways in which the effects of incarceration can persist after release from prison. The fellows work with a wide range of communities, including those often overlooked in conversations about mass incarceration in the U.S., and undertake full-time criminal justice reform projects at the local, state and national levels.

“It is a huge honor to become a Soros Justice Fellow,” says Kartman. “I join an outstanding community of advocates who devote their lives to reducing the destructive impact of current criminal justice policies on the lives of individuals, families and communities in the United States.”

Beginning this September, Kartman will work at the Public Defender Association (PDA) and collaborate closely with the Center for Human Rights’ Rethinking Punishment Project and community members in Seattle-King County. At PDA, she will help provide opportunities for people in Washington State prisons and in the community to share stories, address healing and accountability and increase capacity to resolve conflict.

Kartman’s personal and professional experiences with the criminal legal system fuel her life-long commitment to support community-based responses to harm.

“We have the opportunity here, in Washington, to diminish the scope of the criminal legal system as a front-line approach to addressing violence while supporting the communities targeted by it to be healthier, safer and more self-determined,” says Kartman. “This is what I am most excited about- supporting the leadership of those impacted to restore power in our communities.”