Who We Are

BAR NONE by DeSign is a grassroots-minded, nonprofit organization encouraging Black men, women, and children of Afrikan descent– the highest target, most criminalized, and over incarcerated group of people– who are currently and formerly incarcerated, their families, and those impacted by the criminal legal system, tools to move from struggling to sustainability to thriving while working together to eliminate recidivism and dismantle the prison industrial complex and design a just, ethical, and equitable criminal legal system.

What

We Do

(PROGRAMS)

EDUCATION:

Our Education element has many levels to it as it serves to prevent children from entering the prison system, intervening in the juvenile injustice system, making the school to prison pipeline obsolete, fighting to ensure that a quality, ethical, just, equitable, education is available to all youth and adults.

We believe in literacy and know that it is impossible to do anything if you cannot read or write. In order to be an effective and successful entrepreneurial servant leader, being literate is vital.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

CONNECTIONS:

We honor and hold dear our partnerships with other organizations and agencies whose missions and visions align with ours. They are critical to our work in this movement and appreciate that we are able to support one another.

Community-driven Justice:

Community involvement is imperative to any movement. Understanding that when the whole of the community is equipped with the necessary to effectively organize in numerous forms is the win!
* Education (Holistic and Political)
* The Process and Purpose of Black Policy (interpretation, understanding, writing, advocacy, lobbying, passing, voting)
* Putting the Neighbor back in Neighborhood
* Exonerations
* Free All Political Prisoners Initiative
EQUIP-EDUCATE-EXECUTE= TOGETHER
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What we do matters because children are supposed to matter most. Those same little people will be responsible for our way of life sooner than we think. Right now we have the opportunity to be on the side of humanity and guide them and humility because we love them. ~ Tuere Burns, Executive Director, BAR NONE by DeSign

HITTIN’ YOU WITH THE HOT FACTS

The United States is 24th in the industrial world in reading and writing comprehension
The state of Louisiana locks up children as young as ten years old
In Orleans Parish, all of those children are Black
In Orleans Parish it is difficult to get accurate literacy numbers because there is no operating school system; charter management organizations operating school at full autonomy
Most children are incarcerated in Orleans Parish via crimes committed on the streets that are a direct result of school pushout
There is a larger police presence at schools than there are school counselors, social workers, child psychologists and/or psychiatrists (please be advised that this doesn’t include MHP visits and/or placements)
Children are repeatedly traumatized and criminalized by the new adaptive school culture that focuses more on disciple that child development, levels and different variations of understanding do to race, culture, and socioeconomic backgrounds
Children are not able to focus do to horrible lunches and prison culture that refuses to allow them to communicate above a whisper, if at all

Our children are failing by DeSign and we, the people have a responsibility to them, long before they have a responsibility to anything. And until we exhaust everything, Black people will continue to be *mass incarcerated and an active part of the prison industrial complex.

#TIMESERVED CAMPAIGNS

Coming Home Initiative

Socializing back into the world is extremely difficult for people who are formerly incarcerated.

Getting off to a healthy start can feel like a set up for failure, and those released on parole or “paper” as we say, which is a whole other form of imprisonment (that we are addressing) which include unreasonable fees that have to be paid for one thing or another and they can’t afford to do so.

We provide a Coming Home Care Package with basic, new necessities of things that we would purchase for ourselves. Everything from soap to under garments are brand new and of quality. We also assist with qualifying identification and transportation assistance so the process from transition to transformative is a reality.

Homes Initiative

Seeks to provide individual homes (whether apartments or houses) to people who are formerly incarcerated and/or their families at no cost to them; while they successfully focus on socializing into the world with our full support and attention.

Righting/Writing Our Wrongs Commission

Righting/Writing Our Wrongs Commission addresses the holistic, monstrous and on-going trauma that has impacted Black people specifically, at the hands of the prison industrial complex, via the criminal legal system that is based in racism.

A task force made up of predominantly Black college students who are interested in Human Rights Transformation to take on cases of where we, BAR NONE by DeSign, along with the people, designed the definition and controls the narrative for “Wrongfully Convicted.”

Expungements are a critical piece for people who have been impacted by incarceration. It can make a difference between whether they move from struggling to sustainability to thriving or remain struggling, impoverished, or even back in jail/prison. Most of those people are Black.

*Why Black students? Because it has been long said that Black students don’t volunteer or they don’t volunteer enough. The fact is that they can’t afford to. Most are working their way through school and some even helping at home. Your donations to this project will allow us to provide them with a stipend so they can serve with us learning how to do what they love.

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Black Philanthropy is the New Social Justice and BAR NONE by DeSign is moving into the foundation lane to ensure that those who are dedicated to the ending recidivism, dismantling the prison industrial complex and justly redesigning the criminal legal system, regardless of name, who they’re connected to, politics and money are easily and equitably funded so that they may continue their heart work.

#BNbD believes that “everybody knows somebody that knows somebody that incarcerated.”

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120 years of incarceration in that picture; (l-r): Michael Miller, BNBd Tribe Member, total of 15; Desmond Lewis, BNbD Youth Program Coordinator, total of 27; Reggie Johnson, BNbD Outreach Coordinator, total of 28/8 flat for a crime he didn’t commit; and finally, imagine doing 50 years flat during Jim and Jane Crow South for a crime you didn’t commit? Imagine being a child at the time and coming home an elder? His name is August “Gerttown Williams. Please sign his and Reggie Johnson’s petitions on our site asking DA Jason Williams to reopen their cases and Governor John Bel Edwards to exonerate them. Our #heartwork is your #heartwork and us, together, makes this a doable, just reality.

LEGACY: In the Fight for Our Freedom Fighters

–Photo By Gus Bennett

Political Prisoners are people who are incarcerated for their political beliefs and/or actions. People like members of the Black Panther Party have been incarcerated for years because they exercised their rights under the law to ensure that Black people were recognized and treated like human beings. Some have been incarcerated for as long as 60 years in the most horrible of conditions, sick and far away from family and other loved ones. They are all our elders! It is now our responsibility to fight for their freedom the way they lawfully fought for us to enjoy some of the freedoms we do today!

View Incarcerated Political Prisoners

Testimonials

“I heard about BAR NONE through a childhood friend. They invited me to attend an event and I did. I think this program is amazing! Art is one of the best forms of expression. It is very therapeutic, especially for those who are incarcerated. I was moved by what I witnessed and accepted the invitation to become a board member.”

Danielle Metz, Formerly Incarcerated; only woman to be Granted Clemency By President Barack Obama

“My experience with BAR NONE has been helpful because it gave me a chance to build as an artist and work with other kids who were in situations similar to those I had been in previously. While working with BAR NONE, I began preparing for my next project, “Audible”, the inspiration from which came from New Orleans/Summertime energy. I’m also working on an EP to released once the proper groundwork has been laid for my musical career.”