Who We Are

The Redemption Project of Washington (RPW) is a collaboration between the Washington Defender Association (WDA) and the Seattle Clemency Project (SCP) that provides holistic advocacy support in trial-level post-conviction cases. This project was supported by public and private foundation grants. Read the funding acknowledgment here.

Our organizations work together to support defenders working on resentencing cases with technical assistance and reentry planning. It is vital that Washington build a new Second Look pathways infrastructure to support defenders and ensure the people who have borne the brunt of mass incarceration are given a meaningful review and have the necessary resources to transition back into the community.

The project is named after the Redemption Project, a behavioral health program that SCP’s Reentry Program Director Anthony Powers co-founded in 2009 during his incarceration in the Washington State Department of Corrections. Anthony believed it was possible to create a better environment in prison, hence the Redemption Project’s philosophy of “change the conversation, change the population.” The program has a proven track record of reducing violence in the prison system by helping incarcerated individuals reflect on their actions and forge a better future through conversation, intervention, and mutuality. RPW shares this collaborative approach and hopes to empower advocates, community members, and the incarcerated population to work together to transform the Second Look landscape in Washington.