UnCommon Law
Justice Done Differently
UnCommon Law
EIN: 46-1538094
Mission
UnCommon Law supports people navigating California's discretionary parole process through trauma-informed legal representation, mental health counseling, legislative and policy advocacy, and in-prison programming led by those who have been through the process themselves. UnCommon Law is at the forefront of changing public narratives about people serving lengthy prison sentences for violent crime. We are the leading advocate in California for broad and radical change to the discretionary parole process, leveraging multiple program areas and strategies to bring more people home from life sentences and reshape a landscape that impacts tens of thousands of people in California’s prisons.
Ruling year
2015
Executive Director
Keith Wattley
Main address
318 Harrison Street Suite 103
OAKLAND, CA 94607 USA
EIN
46-1538094
Legal services
Prison alternatives
Prisoners' rights
Population served
Incarcerated people
NTEE code
Legal Services (I80)
IRS subsection
501(c)(3) Public Charity
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
Tax forms
Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Today, there are over 200,000 people serving life sentences in prison in the United States; 1 out of every 7 incarcerated people. Recent criminal justice reforms have focused on non-violent, non-serious offenses; but 76% of California's prison population (and over half of the total United States prison population) is made up of people convicted of serious or violent crimes. Most are Black or Brown, many are elderly, and the vast majority experienced significant trauma or violence before harming others. In California, the only pathway out of prison for the 35,000 people serving life is a system called "discretionary parole" which - like every other aspect of our criminal justice system - is plagued racial and other biases.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Direct Legal Services
Our attorneys, advocates and therapists provide people serving long-term or life prison sentences with a unique, healing-centered blend of legal and therapeutic parole advocacy. We work with clients to help them understand how past traumatic experiences contributed to their actions in harming others, and to develop new, healthier thinking patterns and coping skills. We directly represent clients in their parole hearings, provide resources to thousands across the state, and train law students and lawyers to improve the overall quality of parole representation.
To date, 99% of our released clients have remained out of prison. The vast majority are employed, housed, and report high levels of mental wellbeing. The majority of our clients also report increasing their additional in-prison programming while working with UnCommon Law staff, and nearly half are pursuing or intend to pursue higher education upon release.
Policy And Advocacy Work
Our organization is unique in our advocacy for the rights of people who have been convicted of violent crimes; our deep knowledge of the field of parole is unparalleled, and our direct service model has allowed us to develop strong relationships in legal, legislative and system-impacted communities. We are now utilizing our expertise and status in the field to affect systems-level change through policy interventions.
Through collaborative strategies that include litigation, public education, legislative and other advocacy, we aim to establish a new approach to reducing long term sentencing that emphasizes healing, relevant programs, and a stronger presumption in favor of release, all with more meaningful and robust judicial oversight.
Through our public messaging work, we aim to humanize people sentenced to life in prison, increase sympathy for this population, and public support for trauma-informed responses to violence.
Home After Harm Pilot Program
UnCommon Law’s Home After Harm program arms incarcerated people and their communities to be their own best advocates. Home After Harm is an innovative legal/therapeutic community model designed and led by formerly and currently incarcerated people. It represents a major culture shift in the prisons implementing it. Home After Harm participants work together to prepare for parole hearings, share resources, and heal from past trauma; the program also explicitly trains participants to serve as mentors for others navigating the parole process. If scaled statewide, this pilot program could ultimately make UnCommon Law’s innovative legal advocacy model available to all those eligible for parole. At the same time, it can provide meaningful, trauma-informed and sustainable employment available to people who are formerly and currently incarcerated.
Where we work
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of overall donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
UnCommon Law is transforming the criminal justice system in California by providing genuine support for people to heal after causing harm, and by advocating for fairer pathways home from prison for those who have served decades behind bars.
Life sentences do not account for a person’s capacity for transformation and rehabilitation, it’s important to note that people released from life sentences for violent crimes are among the least likely to return to prison. Unfortunately, our country’s reliance on life and long-term sentencing has left thousands of low-risk people trapped behind bars with few avenues for relief. Parole outcomes in California vary widely on the basis of identity factors with no correlation to public safety risk; Black parole candidates are less likely to be granted parole than their white counterparts (even when controlling for things like disciplinary history) and parole candidates who can’t afford a private attorney are half as likely to be granted parole as those who can.
The opposite of mass incarceration looks like a system that acknowledges and addresses trauma as a key precipitating factor in violent crime, provides genuine support for people to heal after experiencing or causing harm, and provides a fair, objective pathway for people to come home safely. With leadership from people who are/were incarcerated for violent crimes, as well as those who have experienced violence themselves, UnCommon Law is transforming the criminal justice reform landscape in California. We are fighting for a world in which no human being - even one who has committed significant harm - is perceived as disposable; a world in which people who survive and cause harm are empowered to heal and build safer communities.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our team leverages three main strategies: direct legal support, community power building, and catalyzing broad systems change.
DIRECT LEGAL SUPPORT
Our legal team provides trauma-informed legal support and direct representation to incarcerated people serving life sentences, as well as written consultations to people we are unable to represent directly. Each year, thousands of people also access and benefit from our one-of-a-kind parole resources, and receive written or phone support from our office. We also hold legal workshops inside California prisons each year to expand the reach and impact of our top-notch legal services beyond our existing caseload.
COMMUNITY POWER BUILDING
We empower and support system-impacted advocates to shift the balance of power into the hands of people with lived experiences of incarceration. People with lived experience must be empowered with the resources and support to lead this work, transform these systems, and build better ones. Our “Home After Harm” in-prison program focuses on creating therapeutic, mutual support spaces in which incarcerated participants can collectively prepare for their parole hearings. While in the program, participants work through a trauma-informed curriculum created and facilitated by formerly incarcerated people. The program helps participants shift their focus inwards, away from the survivalist demands of daily prison life, and begin to work on understanding the (oftentimes traumatic) factors that led to their commitment offense, how to best articulate their stories of personal transformation to the board, and foster stronger positive relationships both in and out of prison.
SYSTEMS CHANGE
Our team is fighting to reshape the public narrative around people convicted of serious and violent crimes, and build a groundswell of support for abolishing discretionary parole in California and beyond. In order to establish a state and national environment in which parole reform is not just possible but demanded, we need to inject parole issues into popular discourse about criminal justice reform. We believe the most direct pathway to empathy is proximity; this means educating the public and legislators on the role of trauma in cycles of violent crime while humanizing people serving life sentences. Through these efforts with key decision makers like legislators and the Governor - as well as the public - we are building support for, and momentum around, parole reform. By elevating alternatives to the dominant, fear-based narratives about people who commit crimes like murder, we are increasing public understanding of why violence happens, how to meet the needs of people who have committed and experienced violence, and ultimately, how to keep us all safer.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Our legal team has a track record of successfully litigating against the parole board. Past litigation has resulted in court orders creating an appeal process for psychological evaluations, requiring timely parole hearings and access to critical documents, and other changes to make the parole process more fair. Our past litigation has affected everyone appearing before the parole board, and our current litigation continues to improve the rights of all those eligible for parole hearings in California. With victories all the way up to the California Supreme Court, our team is driven by a bold legal strategy and an enduring commitment to fight for our clients’ freedom at every available level of the legal system.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
We don't actively use collected feedback
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
Financial documents
Download audited financialsRevenue vs. expenses: breakdown
Liquidity in 2022 info
5.10
Months of cash in 2022 info
9.3
Fringe rate in 2022 info
20%
Funding sources info
Assets & liabilities info
Financial data
UnCommon Law
Balance sheetFiscal Year: Jan 01 - Dec 31
The balance sheet gives a snapshot of the financial health of an organization at a particular point in time. An organization's total assets should generally exceed its total liabilities, or it cannot survive long, but the types of assets and liabilities must also be considered. For instance, an organization's current assets (cash, receivables, securities, etc.) should be sufficient to cover its current liabilities (payables, deferred revenue, current year loan, and note payments). Otherwise, the organization may face solvency problems. On the other hand, an organization whose cash and equivalents greatly exceed its current liabilities might not be putting its money to best use.
Fiscal Year: Jan 01 - Dec 31
This snapshot of UnCommon Law’s financial trends applies Nonprofit Finance Fund® analysis to data hosted by GuideStar. While it highlights the data that matter most, remember that context is key – numbers only tell part of any story.
Created in partnership with
Business model indicators
| Profitability info | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted surplus (deficit) before depreciation | $59,509 | $338,439 | $1,164,443 | -$63,855 | $240,464 |
| As % of expenses | 13.4% | 51.7% | 96.3% | -2.5% | 8.1% |
| Unrestricted surplus (deficit) after depreciation | $59,509 | $338,439 | $1,164,443 | -$63,855 | $238,756 |
| As % of expenses | 13.4% | 51.7% | 96.3% | -2.5% | 8.0% |
| Revenue composition info | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue (unrestricted & restricted) | $543,339 | $1,335,634 | $3,657,943 | $2,145,290 | $4,072,621 |
| Total revenue, % change over prior year | 70.0% | 145.8% | 173.9% | -41.4% | 89.8% |
| Program services revenue | 17.6% | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Membership dues | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Investment income | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Government grants | 0.0% | 0.0% | 10.6% | 46.6% | 47.1% |
| All other grants and contributions | 82.4% | 97.9% | 89.4% | 52.9% | 52.7% |
| Other revenue | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.5% | 0.3% |
| Expense composition info | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses before depreciation | $444,585 | $654,845 | $1,208,670 | $2,557,809 | $2,976,560 |
| Total expenses, % change over prior year | 22.1% | 47.3% | 84.6% | 111.6% | 16.4% |
| Personnel | 67.1% | 73.5% | 80.7% | 81.1% | 77.0% |
| Professional fees | 1.9% | 6.7% | 3.8% | 8.3% | 6.8% |
| Occupancy | 6.6% | 6.1% | 4.5% | 2.0% | 4.2% |
| Interest | 0.0% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Pass-through | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| All other expenses | 24.4% | 13.3% | 10.9% | 8.5% | 11.9% |
| Full cost components (estimated) info | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses (after depreciation) | $444,585 | $654,845 | $1,208,670 | $2,557,809 | $2,978,268 |
| One month of savings | $37,049 | $54,570 | $100,723 | $213,151 | $248,047 |
| Debt principal payment | $0 | $0 | $21,600 | $14,400 | $14,400 |
| Fixed asset additions | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $10,248 |
| Total full costs (estimated) | $481,634 | $709,415 | $1,330,993 | $2,785,360 | $3,250,963 |
Capital structure indicators
| Liquidity info | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Months of cash | 2.1 | 9.5 | 23.4 | 7.7 | 9.3 |
| Months of cash and investments | 2.1 | 9.5 | 23.4 | 7.7 | 9.3 |
| Months of estimated liquid unrestricted net assets | 3.1 | 8.4 | 16.1 | 7.3 | 7.2 |
| Balance sheet composition info | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | $76,247 | $521,069 | $2,355,291 | $1,638,416 | $2,295,739 |
| Investments | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Receivables | $37,550 | $354,753 | $1,614,830 | $1,285,503 | $1,801,430 |
| Gross land, buildings, equipment (LBE) | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $10,248 |
| Accumulated depreciation (as a % of LBE) | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 16.7% |
| Liabilities (as a % of assets) | 0.0% | 11.5% | 18.9% | 5.3% | 10.3% |
| Unrestricted net assets | $114,397 | $457,336 | $1,621,779 | $1,557,924 | $1,796,680 |
| Temporarily restricted net assets | $0 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Permanently restricted net assets | $0 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Total restricted net assets | $0 | $330,000 | $1,614,830 | $1,266,166 | $2,121,763 |
| Total net assets | $114,397 | $787,336 | $3,236,609 | $2,824,090 | $3,918,443 |
Key data checks
| Key data checks info | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material data errors | No | No | No | No | No |
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Documents
Executive Director
Keith Wattley
Keith Wattley (he/him), Founder and Executive Director, received his B.A. in Psychology from Indiana University and his J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law. He has been advocating for the rights of people in prison and on parole for more than 20 years. Prior to launching UnCommon Law in 2006, Keith was a staff attorney at the Prison Law Office, a nonprofit law firm in Berkeley. At UnCommon Law, he has focused on helping people transform their lives and demonstrate to the parole board that they can safely be released from their life sentences. He has also engaged in impact litigation and individual cases involving unlawful prison and parole conditions, and he has trained hundreds of lawyers, law students and others in advocating for the rights of incarcerated people, and his work has been recognized by the Obama Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation.
Number of employees
Source: IRS Form 990
UnCommon Law
Officers, directors, trustees, and key employeesSOURCE: IRS Form 990
Compensation data
There are no highest paid employees recorded for this organization.
UnCommon Law
Board of directorsas of 03/01/2024
Board of directors data
Carletha Sterling
Paul Petrequin
Ernest Hammond III
Rachel Marshall
Eddy Zheng
Satch Slavin
Rob Eber
Erin Scott
Kwame Marfo
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/17/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
Contractors
Fiscal year endingGuideStar Pro Reports
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