Tools Against Criminalization: Community of Practice

Tools Against Criminalization: Community of Practice is a series of events for people who organize practical support for communities impacted by racial profiling, police violence, poverty-related punishment, or other forms of criminalization—or for people who want to get started.

In your work as a counsellor, people who come to you regularly receive yellow letters, court summons, or fines? Do you know people in your community who repeatedly face problems with police and the justice system and want to change that? Are you organizing against homelessness, racism, police violence, or the deportation regime and want to include concrete support against punishment as part of your political work? Or are you looking for allies, structures, resources, or groups in your area to get involved?

Whether you are already organized and supporting impacted communities, or taking your first steps: if you want to work toward a world without mass criminalization, control, and punishment, and are looking for ways to support people around you in solidarity, this series is for you.

We want to create a space for exchange where experiences, strategies, and resources can be shared—from financial support to legal defense and solidarity in court. Because there are few existing structures in some parts of the country, the meetings are also open to individuals who want to accompany people in their communities or even build their own support structures. The goal is to learn from each other, share practical knowledge, and work together so that communities facing criminalization do not have to navigate the criminal system alone.

Justice Collective is organizing three online events with short inputs to discuss strategies and possible alliances for defense, support, and exposing everyday police violence and the injustice of criminalization:

#1 Building a Courtwatch: How Can We Build Solidarity in Every City?

Criminal trials are often invisible to people who are not directly affected, even though they are a central site of everyday punishment. Courtwatching means observing, documenting, and accompanying impacted people in solidarity to change this. We share our experiences from different forms of courtwatching—as activism, research, self-organized initiatives, or with resources—and provide a practical checklist for starting your own group.

Input: Justice Collective, Courtwatch Berlin

When: April 21, 18:30 (online, registration via email)

#2 Know Your Rights: From Police Contact to Sentencing

What happens from the first police encounter to the verdict and what rights do people have when they’ve been accused of a crime? We provide an accessible introduction to the criminal system, share practical tips, and present concrete legal materials, including information on penalties, consequences for residency, and racist police violence. Together, we will discuss how knowledge of rights can empower communities, and how non-lawyers can support people navigating the system.

Input: Justice Collective + KOP (requested)

When: June, 18:30 (online, registration via email)

#3 Defense & Mutual Aid: Alliances with Lawyers and Counsellors

How can we support people in criminal proceedings without reducing it to individual acts of charity? We present models for solidarity-based defense and discuss collaboration with lawyers and organizations with other resources. The focus is on how we can think and organize mutual aid politically—and how realistic political organizing is under conditions where impacted communities often have limited capacity. We want to exchange with everyone who understands support not as charity, but as collective practice.

Input: Justice Collective + Solidarische Verteidiger*innen (requested)

When: August, 18:30 (online, registration via email)

You can register for individual events or the full series. Please send an email to info@justice-collective with the subject line “Tools against Criminalization.”

At a time when policing is intensifying, sentences are expanding, and racialized and other marginalized communities are increasingly criminalized, it is more urgent than ever to strengthen our networks and develop new forms of solidarity-based support. We hope that this series will lead to long-term connections that we can build on together—to provide concrete support for impacted communities and collectively respond to these developments in solidarity.