Soffiyah Elijah
{{Short description|American lawyer, professor, author and social justice activist}}
Jill Soffiyah Elijah is an American lawyer, author and social justice activist.
Education
Elijah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, Michigan.{{cite web |title=The League - Jill Soffiyah Elijah Alumni Spotlight |url=http://theleagueonline.org/ASjelijah.php |website=theleagueonline.org}}{{cite web |last1=Karlin |first1=Rick |title=Capital Profile: J. Soffiyah Elijah |url=https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Capital-Profile-J-Soffiyah-Elijah-3343252.php |website=Times Union |date=20 February 2012}}
Career
Following law school, she worked as a supervising attorney at the Neighborhood Defender Service in Harlem, New York, and in the juvenile rights division of the New York Legal Aide Society.{{cite web |title=Soffiyah Elijah |url=https://www.centerforthehumanities.org/programming/participants/soffiyah-elijah |website=The Center for the Humanities}} Beginning in 1992, she taught in the defender clinic at CUNY School of Law. She was a clinical faculty member and the director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard University.{{cite book |last1=Esquivel |first1=Adolfo Perez |title=Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners |date=September 2008 |publisher=PM Press |isbn=978-1-60486-149-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y0YXvh_iXIEC&dq=soffiyah+elijah&pg=PA778 |language=en}}
Elijah was the first black director of the Correctional Association of New York, a position she held for five years.{{cite web |last1=McMahon |first1=Lisa |title=Niagara University's Transformative Visions Presidential Series Discusses Criminal Justice, Policing, and Prisons |url=https://news.niagara.edu/news/show/niagara-universitys-transformative-visions-presidential-series-discusses-criminal-justice-policing-and-prisons-1-2378 |website=news.niagara.edu}} At the Correctional Association, she worked with the Marshall Project to prosecute several guards Attica Prison for brutality against inmates.{{cite web |last1=Tatusian |first1=Alex |title=Happy Birthday to The Marshall Project |url=https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/11/15/happy-birthday-to-the-marshall-project |website=The Marshall Project |date=15 November 2019}}{{cite web
|title=Finalist: Tom Robbins of The Marshall Project and Michael Schwirtz and Michael Winerip of The New York Times |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/tom-robbins-marshall-project-and-michael-schwirtz-and-michael-winerip
|website=www.pulitzer.org |language=en}} In 2016 she founded the Alliance of Families for Justice, an American organization that advocates for those with family members in prison.{{cite web |title=New Yorker of the Week: Soffiyah Elijah |url=https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/nyer-of-the-week/2020/01/06/soffiyah-elijah-alliance-of-families-for-justice |website=www.ny1.com |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Gorce |first1=Tammy La |title=How a Leader in Criminal Justice Reform Spends Her Sundays |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/23/nyregion/criminal-justice-nyc-Soffiyah-Elijah.html |website=The New York Times |date=23 April 2021}} As a lawyer she has represented Marilyn Buck and Sundiata Acoli in court.{{cite book |last1=Sullivan |first1=Bobby |title=Revolutionary Threads: Rastafari, Social Justice, and Cooperative Economics |date=4 December 2018 |publisher=Akashic Books |isbn=978-1-61775-697-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ptFfDwAAQBAJ&dq=soffiyah+elijah&pg=PT104 |language=en}}
In 2018 she was honored with the Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award.{{cite journal|date=April 30, 2018|pages=1|url=https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/john-brown-celebration-at-the-farmstead|journal=Adirondack Explorer|title=John Brown celebration at the farmstead|first=Michael|last=Virtanen}}
As an author she has written opinion pieces for the New York Daily News,{{cite web |last1=Elijah |first1=Soffiyah |title='No new jails' means same old jails |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-no-new-jails-means-same-old-jails-20191011-vzrdmxt7sfgtteigcfhg33fm4i-story.html |website=nydailynews.com|date=11 October 2019 }} The Hill,{{cite web |last1=Charles |first1=J. B. |title=Honoring mothers on both sides of the bars on Mother's Day |url=https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/crime/333287-honoring-mothers-on-both-sides-of-the-bars-on-mothers-day |website=TheHill |language=en |date=14 May 2017}} Democracy Now!, and the New York Times.{{cite web |title=Opinion {{!}} The Horror at the Attica Prison |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/opinion/the-horror-at-the-attica-prison.html |website=The New York Times |date=3 March 2015}}{{cite web |title=New York Ordered to Vaccinate Incarcerated People; Will Gov. Sign Bill Curbing Solitary Confinement? |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2021/3/31/new_york_vaccines_incarcerated_people |website=Democracy Now! |language=en}}
References
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Date of birth missing (living people)
Category:American women lawyers
Category:Harvard University faculty
Category:CUNY School of Law faculty
Category:Cornell University alumni
Category:Wayne State University Law School alumni