Truth & Reconciliation Guaranteed Income Program
The Truth & Reconciliation Guaranteed Income Program was launched in December 2023 by the ACLU of Louisiana in partnership with the Fund for Guaranteed Income (F4GI) to compensate 12 survivors of police violence and harassment in Jefferson and Caddo Parishes who never received restitution through the courts. Participants, drawn from ACLU-LA's Justice Lab litigation and storytelling initiative, received $1,000 monthly for 12 months plus a $5,000 final payment, alongside free mental health counseling and expungement services. The program is funded not by government or traditional philanthropy but by a $1 million commitment from Buck and Gracie Close, descendants of a South Carolina slave-trading family, framed explicitly as reparations rather than charity. F4GI administered payments and co-authored the program's research and final evaluation report.
Reparations, Police Violence, Police Misconduct, Justice-Impacted, Reparative Justice, Racial Justice, Louisiana, Black Louisianans
Headquarters
- Organization Name
- ACLU of Louisiana
- City
- New Orleans
- State / Province
- Louisiana
- Country
- United States
Contact
- Website
- https://www.laaclu.org/
- Social media links
Status & Funding
- Organization status
- Active
- Program status
- Inactive
- Application status
- Timed
- Number of recipients
- 12
- Funding type
- Philanthropic
Benefits
- Currency Type
- Fiat
- Currency
- USD
- Total Amount
- 17,000 USD
- Avg. Per Month
- 1,416.67 USD
- Payment frequency
- Monthly
- How long the program lasts
- 12 months
- Distribution Type
- Direct deposit to bank account, PayPal, Re-loadable debit card, Venmo
- Benefit details
Participants received $1,000 in unrestricted cash per month for 12 months plus a $5,000 lump-sum final payment, totaling $17,000 per participant ($204,000 disbursed across the cohort). Payments were administered by F4GI via its multi-option cash transfer platform. Beyond cash, participants received wraparound trauma-informed mental health counseling (via We Help NOLA) and legal/expungement support (via the Justice and Accountability Center of Louisiana), which resulted in the expungement of all 12 participants' records. Participants were also compensated $50 per survey completed as part of the program's research component.
Eligibility
Overview
- Eligibility details
Eligibility was limited to 12-15 people who had engaged with the ACLU of Louisiana's Justice Lab: Putting Racist Policing on Trial initiative in Jefferson and Caddo Parishes, either as former clients whose police-misconduct cases were no longer active and who received no settlement money, or as storyteller volunteers whose cases ACLU could not litigate due to Louisiana's one-year statute of limitations or other legal technicalities. There was no income, asset, or other means-tested eligibility criterion; selection was based entirely on documented experience of police violence/harassment and prior engagement with Justice Lab. All 12 participants who enrolled were Black, reflecting the demographics of the underlying case pool, though race was not stated as a formal screening criterion.
Geography
- US states covered
- Louisiana
- Countries covered
- United States
- Counties covered
- Jefferson Parish, Caddo Parish
- Residency of Target Geography
- Yes
Participation
- Research / data sharing
- Required
- Research / participation requirements
Program co-managed by ACLU of Louisiana and the Fund for Guaranteed Income (F4GI), with a final evaluation report ('The Cost of Freedom') authored by Nika Soon-Shiong, Eli Berck-Rauch, Micah Moody, and Jeremy Mann, published June 19, 2025. Data collection included baseline and endline surveys, monthly surveys (99% response rate across 13 surveys), focus groups, and recorded interviews conducted with informed consent; participants were compensated $50 per survey. A six-month interim report was also published prior to the final report.
Application Process
- How to apply
Not an open/public application process. Participation was limited to individuals already engaged with the ACLU of Louisiana's Justice Lab as former litigation clients or storyteller volunteers in Jefferson and Caddo Parishes; the program describes a 'low-lift' enrollment that could be completed in a few minutes from participants' phones.
- Selection process
Participants were selected from the pool of ACLU-LA Justice Lab clients and storytellers in Jefferson and Caddo Parishes whose police-misconduct cases were closed without settlement money, or whose cases could not be pursued due to Louisiana's one-year statute of limitations or other legal technicalities.
