This isn't a charity that discovered a problem. This is a response — built by people who lived inside the failure and refused to stay silent.
There was no moment we decided to start a nonprofit. There was a moment we stopped pretending that what we were seeing was okay.
Housing that exploited sobriety. Treatment that punished vulnerability. Courts that called coercion "help." Systems that processed human beings like paperwork and called it care.
Recovery Justice Network Initiative exists because the systems that were supposed to support recovery were — in too many cases — actively harming the people inside them. And the people being harmed had no organized voice fighting back.
Now they do.
Documented patterns of exploitation across housing, treatment, and courts — the data no one wanted to collect.
People who had lived it came forward. Stories emerged. The pattern became undeniable and the silence became unacceptable.
RJNI formally organized — not to be a service provider, but to be an advocate, a watchdog, and an amplifier.
We are growing. Every report filed. Every story published. Every policy challenged. The work is not finished.
We believe in radical transparency. Know exactly what you're getting when you come to us — and exactly what we cannot provide.
We will name what is happening, even when it is uncomfortable, unflattering to powerful institutions, or inconvenient for funders. The truth does not negotiate.
Every decision we make — what we publish, who we partner with, how we receive funding — is filtered through one question: does this serve the people inside the system, or does it serve the system itself?
Individual bad actors matter. But we do not stop there. We follow the policy, the contract, the funding stream — and we hold the structure accountable, not just the people who operate within it.
Our board resolutions are public. Our conflict of interest policy is available to anyone who asks. We do not operate in the shadows we expose others for hiding in.
Recovery built on force is not recovery. It is control with better branding. We oppose any system — court, clinical, residential — that substitutes coercion for care.
Race, class, gender, and geography shape who the system harms most and who it protects most. We do not separate addiction justice from the larger struggle for human rights.
We structure ourselves the way we demand others structure themselves: transparently, with written policies that we actually follow.
Board members and staff are prohibited from participating in decisions where personal or financial interests could compromise RJNI's mission. Full written policy available on request.
RJNI is governed by an independent board operating under formal resolutions. Board decisions are documented and our structure is designed to prevent mission drift and capture by industry interests.
We cooperate with government agencies, legal advocacy organizations, and journalists — but we do not take direction from any entity that has a financial stake in the systems we critique.
Our board roster is maintained in our governance documents. Contact us for current board composition and meeting minutes.
Request Board InfoRJNI works with survivors, legal advocates, housing experts, and policy researchers. Our advisors are people with lived expertise — not industry consultants.
Get InvolvedQuestions about governance, partnerships, media inquiries, or how to collaborate? Reach out directly. We respond to every message.
Contact UsIf you've been wronged by the system — or you know someone who has — your story is the evidence that changes policy. File a report. Share a story. Stay loud.