About us

SDC was born in 2020 out of a desire to use our privilege as Stanford students to support abolitionist organizations and changemakers. We work on various projects, such as creating policy memos and conducting data analyses for our abolitionist advocacy partners to further their missions. We engage in campus organizing, invite prominent abolitionists to come speak with us, discuss books and articles, counter carceral and dehumanizing narratives through journalism, courtwatch, and more. Most of our work happens in support of community partners embedded in abolitionist struggles for real people in the real world. SDC organizes our projects around the skills we each bring to the table as activists. We have researchers, organizers, data scientists, artists, proto-lawyers, and lots of people in between. We are devoted to educating ourselves about the harms of the criminal legal system. We are actively building community at Stanford centered around a desire for decarceration and a hope for a future absent of systems of oppression. If you are a Stanford student, we encourage you to attend one of our meetings. If you are part of an organization that wants our support with policy analysis or research, send us a message at our contact page. If you are here to engage with our work, enjoy your stay and don’t hesitate to reach out.