Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the legal learning podcast. I’m your host Jolene. And with the legal learning center, I help prospective law students save $300,000 on law school to receive three money saving strategies today. Visit legal learning center.com forward slash money. Today’s guest is Diane Wells. Diane was prosecuted for a crime. She didn’t commit from that. She created a nonprofit that enables each of us to support the criminal justice system and the way we prefer if you’ve ever wanted to get involved in the criminal justice system. This is your episode.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hello, my name is Diane Wells and I’m the founder of supply justice. Supply justice is a criminal justice nonprofit that supports all of the roughly 3,200 criminal justice. Non-Profits in the United States.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Wow. There’s 3,200. That’s a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yes, there are you know, very, very small not very active non-profits to some of the most well-funded and known nonprofits and everything in between. So you know, not for me to say which niches and and purposes need to be made aware of, but I think that there are tremendous opportunities and, and various places throughout the country with all kinds of unique opportunities.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
All right. So how does supply justice help these nonprofits?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, the way that we help nonprofits are basically that a lot of people just don’t even know that they exist. So we want to be able to educate everybody that is interested in what the mission of that nonprofit is, and then supporting them doesn’t necessarily mean funding and all the funding is always appreciated, but it also is an opportunity to volunteer an opportunity to make a referral, an opportunity to use some kind of in kind type of service. You know, if you do social media, if you do marketing, if you have some tech savvy, whatever it might be, and you can add to their mission, you know, they are very, very grateful for that. And, you know, at this point in, in the world where we work virtually so well at this point, we, we did things that we didn’t think we could do and now, and now, you know, you have more and more opportunities. So there’s lots of ways to, to be able to engage, but we, we want to make them known and we also want to be able to provide all kinds of interesting things about the criminal justice system, so that people just get more educated in general about what’s going on and so that they can make better decisions on how to impact it.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
That’s wonderful. So, okay. So you help people learn about other nonprofits that help the criminal justice system. And I know I’ve been on your website and I know I’ve seen a lot of interesting artwork on there. Can you tell me about that?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Absolutely. Yeah. That’s an exciting aspect of the business at this time, because we’ve been very blessed with having some amazing artwork that has come to us from a lot of different places. We have quite a number of incarcerated artists that work with us. They tell us their stories how they learned art when it, how it makes them feel. And I could go on about that in a few minutes, if you like, but the artwork is amazing because you think about how somebody normally creates artwork. They would be in some kind of a special place with tools and, and you know, some inspiration they’re drawing from something they’re looking at into a beautiful piece of nature or a picture of someone, and these people might not have anything. And, and yet they’re creating amazing pieces as you can see on the website.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
So just to give you an example, there’s this one gentleman and he had basically no supplies at all. He took some cardboard from some boxes that he found in the prison kitchen. He took floor wax mustard, coffee, beans food coloring. And this is how he would draw his art. And I mean, it was just, to me, that’s just amazing that something could come of this and then, you know, the story and the way that he would write about who he was and what he was doing and the art, the way the art made them feel. It, it’s just it’s very humanizing when you think about what’s going on in, in prison, that they’re as resourceful as they are, and as talented as they are. And very few people really understand that until they see the art.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah. The artwork on the website was beautiful. And yeah, just a wide range of, you know, subject matter and yeah. Skill sets and, and just styles. And, and so what can we just download these art pieces or what do we do with these art pieces? How can we use these?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Well, it’s interesting right now, because we’re actually trying to optimize that as much as possible on behalf of the prisoners. And what we would like to do is we want to be able to whenever possible, compensate them for what they’ve done. Some of the artwork that we have. Actually at this point we can’t find the prisoner because they might not be in prison anymore. They might have passed. They might just not be able to be contacted for whatever reason nobody knows where they are, but for those that are still incarcerated, we’d like to be able to compensate them for what they’ve done. And so then they would get a percentage of, of a sale price. We get a small amount for operations, and then we donate a disproportional amount to the criminal justice, nonprofit that the customer who bought the piece wants us to donate to.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
So therefore everybody wins is, and that’s always what I’ve wanted is whatever we were doing. I didn’t want downside to it. So if we can appreciate good artwork and be able to help out all the parties involved, I thought that was a home run for me. So I just kept trying to figure this out until this is where we landed. Now a lot of the artwork that the original artwork is not on sale at this point, only because we’re trying to work with a curator right now on the pricing and on the best way to optimize the, this this collection that we have. So for each piece that’s there right now, we’re just say coming soon, because it will be available at some point, but we we’re still working through the details on that. We also do have prints though, that are available. The prints are, as the name says, is prints from some of the original artwork that people have, have done for us. So that’s available right now and there’s some digital law sayings that are on there that, that also can be purchased. But the original artwork is, is probably the, the biggest draw because that I think has the most fascination and yes, it is. It’s gorgeous. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (07:08):
It is. Okay. So the print, so if I buy a print, a portion goes to the person who drew it, the artist a portion goes to supply justice, and then I can pick from those 3,200 non-profits that you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah. Yes. Now just the key to that is that we have not kind of let the cat out of the box. Is that a saying, in terms of welcoming you know, huge numbers of criminal justice, non-profits only because what we’re doing is saying, Hey, we want to give you money and they’d say, Hey, yeah, we’ll take that. And so we want through a referral system for people to say, Hey, I want to support X, Y, Z, criminal justice, nonprofit. And so then they get involved. They don’t have to just accept who’s there because the people that are there right now have come to us and asked us to be a nonprofit partner with them. But one of the campaigns that we’ll be doing in the near future is asking people to actually do their own research or say, Hey, I want to support this particular nonprofit. And, you know, that’s the kind of experience that we want people to have. We actually want them to go out and say, I want this part of the criminal justice system to be better. Who does that kind of work? And I want to recommend them. So it’s nice for them to get involved.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah. There are so many different aspects to this criminal justice system. I mean, there’s so many different angles from where we could work towards improving our system. That it’s great that we don’t have to just pick one angle. We can pick whatever angle we like. That’s a great idea.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well, thank you. I mean, I really just wanted people to not make necessarily kind of one-off donations and not really think about, again, we know what they’re doing. I I’d rather have them be very thoughtful about making some kind of regular effort. I mean, certainly it can be funding because that might be the highest and best use of somebody’s resources is to fund. But also, you know, remotely, you can provide so many different things and you can provide services if you will volunteer referral whatever, before, during, and after somebody is incarcerated, you know, you think about it, how can we change things so that the laws are more fair and some people that currently go to prison for something that is ridiculous for them to go to prison for, how can we change that? So that’s a before, you know, category. And then I was just talking to a prisoner the last day or so, who has grievance problems that every time he makes a grievance, he gets put into solitary confinement, you know?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And there are, there are people that focus on just creating a better life for the prisoner while they’re in prison. And then there are nonprofits as well that also are about reentering the community and how do they reenter the community so that they can really be, you know as seamless as possible coming back into society where they, depending on how long they’ve been gone, they don’t know, they don’t know what a cell phone is, or they’ve got to get a driver’s license, or where are they going to live or all of these other things. And so a re-entry aspect, you know, is, is the afterward. So, you know, who do you want to help and why what’s compelling to that one individual about, you know, making a difference. That’s, that’s really where we’re coming from.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah. I think a lot of law students are pre-loss students. They really consider this whole before aspect, right? Like I’m going to help them avoid going to jail or going to jail for so long and that kind of thing. And, and a little bit during just, but more with respect to appeals and so forth, but not really all these little intricate pieces of yeah. What is their life like while they are in the jail and what’s it going to be like when they come out? And I think they could even earlier on in their legal career while they’re still college students help out on all aspects. And honestly, if they learn stuff like the tail end before they even get into the legal aspect of the beginning stages, it could help them be better criminal attorneys later down the road.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Absolutely. Yeah. There’s, there’s there’s so much learning that we all need to do. And I agree with that and, you know, education while in prison is something that a lot of people try to accomplish and sometimes state by state, it’s very, very different, but can you imagine, you know, getting your education while you’re in prison so that when you come out, you know, you are able to do things that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. I mean, there definitely are opportunities to be able to work with those programs. It’s some of them are our partners now, you know, to get scholarships or things of this nature while they’re in prison. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Wow. So how can somebody who is just like an average person, whether they’re working at, you know, or in college or something like that, how can they find these opportunities help the criminal justice system?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Well, they can contact me at this point. So Diane, D I a N E at supply justice is my email. And I’m you know, we are building out this program. So we are still in not really pure startup phase, but we’re getting to a pivotal point here where there are key opportunities for people to, to become a part of what we’re doing. And depending on, you know, their criteria, I want it to, it has to be a win-win depending on how much time they have or what their skillset is or what they want to do. You know, we can figure out how they will fit in. Right now, for example, we have a program that we’re working with this summer for a spokesperson to be at the law schools and the spokesperson then would just get information from us about what’s going on, you know, what’s the latest and what’s going on.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
So these would be new criminal justice nonprofits. This would be new technology. We just got a new app. So supply justice has an app on iOS and Google play. So these are just things that we want to be able to tell people, you know, just try us out, you know, take a look at this. We’re constantly looking for feedback. So the spokesperson situation is, is such that, you know, you kind of are the face of supply justice at the law school that you’re at. And so you can just push these notifications out there. There’s a video messaging, there’s podcasts, there’s, you know, pieces of the artwork that we have. And so you can get some of the latest artwork that’s coming in. You can be able to see what that is and what we’re doing with it. We’re going to be doing some auctions.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
We’re going to be sharing the stories of the artisans that are coming in. So we want your feedback on this. You know, it’s all about making a difference with the people that want to make a difference. So, so, you know, we’re like the repository for that. We’re trying to bring all this information together, and then as we get more and more feedback, we’ll refine what it is that we’re doing. So we’ll become more the master of that. But in the meantime, everybody gets to choose how they want to get involved and we will help them make that selection.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
That’s great because I know a lot of law schools do have a criminal law club, you know, students who are interested in this type of work and having some, you know, some guidance, a nonprofit that actually gives them on the spot information and just a little bit something different to talk about and to look into and to help out with, you know, rather than just their traditional path, but actually here’s some, you know, actual people who are incarcerated making artwork and how can we help this person, or how can we help all of them and in a different way than we normally do in our criminal law clubs at law schools. I think that’s a really great idea. And yeah, I really encourage any law students go ahead and reach out to Diane because yeah. Make your criminal law club better than the other ones. That sounds amazing.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Well, thank you. I mean, w some of what we do and we’ll be doing we are actually going to some of the prisons. I volunteered at a couple of prisons over this time, as well. Of course, COVID has kind of shut us down for the time being, but, you know, we are going to be making a docu-series, for example, we’re going to be going into the prisons that are doing the artwork and talking to some of them and, and really understanding, you know, how do they become an artist and what, what, what drives them and, you know, learning a little bit about the trauma and, and what they might’ve gone through to get to the point that they’re in prison. And they’re, they’re dealing with all of this and artwork is so it just transcends so much of all the issues that might be going on both in their world and in our world.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Because when you look at a beautiful piece of artwork, you’re, you just can’t help, but to be drawn into it, that this is really an amazing piece of work. And regardless of who did it, you have an appreciation for that. So yeah, we’re just going to be, you know, offering the artwork and, and shows and videos and, and lots of different things. And as we discover more and more about what people really want to see, we’ll be doing more of that because, you know, we listened to what what everybody is saying out there. And we’re very innovative. You know, if I can do something, I will, I will be very persistent to make sure that whatever somebody wants, if I can get it, I will get it. So it’s, it’s fascinating. Yeah. Your website
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Really does bring home that, you know, there’s people on the other end of this artwork that, you know, they have a story, every story is different. And, you know, I was reading some of the stories on your website and they’re just you know, some of them are so eloquently written. It’s, it’s just, you know, just well-spoken people that some of them are educated. You know, it’s just, yeah, it’s just a wide variety of stories. And I think that sometimes when we’re not involved in the criminal justice system, and when we, we just, we’re on our own little planet over here, you know, we don’t think about the people behind the story. We don’t think about who these people are in jail. We just think, okay, well, they, you know, broke a law. So th th they deserve to be there, or, you know, they just kind of that more generic, which may apply to some people, but certainly doesn’t apply to everyone there. And, and that’s not even going into the rehabilitation of some of them and how, whatever they did was maybe a mistake or maybe something that was, you know, is no longer part of them or all the different things. Again, everyone’s got their own story. And I think that artwork, and with the little like story that they attach, it really humanizes them and makes you see everyone’s got a different story to share.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I think that’s so true. And I think that it’s very compelling, too. I will say, first of all, a high percentage of people that are in prison get out. And so if you want to have people in the community that are going to take care of themselves and add value to the community, then you have to treat them, you know, in some sort of standard and baseline of humanity that I’m not sure is really, you know, going on out there. I’m not here to judge, but I do know firsthand about some situations that I think, you know, most people would find that unacceptable. One of the first stories that I ever received though it really did break my heart a bit. I mean, this man is, had, had done some terrible things. There’s no doubt. I know he had trauma in his early childhood and I’m sure that that was a huge contribution towards it.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Nonetheless, he did some horrible things and he realizes it and he still has some mental illness that he admits to. But he said in the story, in a story that he was writing to me, as he was describing the, the picture that he had drawn, he said, I know that I’ll never be free, but I know when I draw this artwork, that it’s good enough that the artwork can be free. So at least a piece of me is out in the real world. And he said, hopefully it’ll hang, you know, in someone’s living room or office or something for years to come. And it will bring joy that I’ll never be able to know. And it was really, it’s just a very bittersweet sediment, but it’s very real, you know, that’s the way he feels. And that’s probably pretty accurate too. That’s
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Very deep, a lot deeper than I think a lot of us can reach. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Well, and see, they have time to just focus on who they are and what they’ve done and what the world is when they’re sitting in prison for these protracted periods of time. And so, you know, good or bad, they, they draw conclusions and hopefully they draw conclusions that are very introspective and, you know, that pours over into the work that they’re doing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah. I really I’d love to going through the artwork that was on your website. I can’t wait to see more of it because really each piece had its own merits and just something special about it. And yeah, it was all of it was good quality. It’s just so impressive. And like you said, they don’t always have the tools to make the same piece that, you know, you and I could go to an art store and make, and let me just clarify. I can’t make anything, but that’s all we
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Can joke. I have, I have zero talent. I know nothing.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yes. But these were beautiful. There was one on your website. I think it was called canoe. And it was just like a new point towards like a sunset or sunrise. And it was just so pretty and it was very simplistic, but I loved it. It was just, I think, in the simplicity of it. Very peaceful.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It’s been amazing to to look at all of it because for some reason I, whether I just, I do read some of the stories that go with it and some of them don’t have any stories, but nonetheless there’s, it, it draws me in and it, somehow I come up with who I think has drawn it and what they might’ve been feeling, I could be incredibly wrong, but at least it stirs me, I guess, is the feeling that I have as much as anything that it really it’s much more than artwork is what I walk away from. And I’ve never felt that way before. And you know, if you looked at, I’ve got a room, that’s just the gallery where I’ve got 500 pieces of artwork basically. And on the wall is one called Ebony girl. And Ebony girl is 15 pieces of paper that I had to take together to make one big, huge picture and it’s charcoaled.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
And so each piece had a piece of tissue paper and had arrows as to how to assemble it. It was just fascinating. I mean, can you imagine a draw on that and 15 different pieces of paper in prison and then having the wherewithal to tell somebody how to assemble it. And now it’s, it’s hanging up on the wall right now. And so she’s who I look at everyday is Ebony girl with a very sad, but just deep hurt is what it feels like, you know, in her eyes. I feel like I know that she’s, she’s been through some things and yet she’s still holding her head high, I guess. That’s just the way I look at it is no matter what’s happened to somebody, they, they still have, you know, certain qualities that they hold in high regard and they need to build on them as they rebuild their life, you know?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Yeah. Yeah. It’s beautiful
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Now. Okay. So we have a natural even shared, what is this website?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yes, ma’am so supply justice as I mentioned, the name of the company that is the name of the website. So just www supply justice.com. And we, as I said before, we do have an app that you can download as well as supply justice in iOS and Google play. Please do that because we really want to spread the word. We want to be the go-to place, where you can learn about all these non-profits that deserve your attention. And you know, they do tremendous work. And I, I hate to think that so much of their time and effort is spent trying to get resources. If we can figure out a better way to do it for them, you know, that they can just do their mission instead of keep looking for resources. That would be fabulous. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I think a lot of times the best way to get help us kind of from that ground up. And when we’ve got this resource here between, you know, my podcast and the students listening and their eagerness to get involved and to get going on this criminal justice, you know career. And now it seems like there’s a nice, easier way for them to do that. They don’t have to wait for that legal internship. They don’t have to, or if they have that legal internship, which often happens, and then they discover this isn’t exactly right. This isn’t what I thought I was getting involved in. When I said I wanted to do criminal law and what they really want. It was maybe something more like this reentry help or other things. And so now there is this way where it’s like, okay, let’s yes, spread the wealth. There’s a lot of things we can do. Let’s put the right people in the right places.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Oh, absolutely. And you know, one of the things that I always like is for us to feel like we’ve got a win, win, win situation. I think being able to put a that you helped to, to, I won’t say launch cause we’ve launched, but develop and scale a criminal justice. Nonprofit is a very formidable thing to be able to put on your resume, to and distinguishes you as you take a look at, you know, potential employers for you to be able to say that, you know, that’s a big part of what’s going on in our world at this point is that we all rise to a higher purpose. And I think that potential firms that you might be working with when they see that, you know, that resonates with them in a way that I don’t think has, has really been a very prominent in the past.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
And now that’s bubbling up where, you know, when you can show that that’s who you are, that’s part of, of your whole being is, is to, you know, you work and you play and so forth, but, but you have this overarching higher purpose that drives you as well. And it seamlessly kind of worked into your life. That’s compelling. And people, people notice that, you know, employers notice that, that, that if that’s who you are that’s going to get you through the good times and the bad times, because you will be driven in a way that it’s not about money. It’s not about fame. It’s not about a lot of other things. It’s about our interdependence and your humanity, and to serve something that, like I said, as much bigger than who you are. And that, that just feels good. You know, it just feels right. Yeah. I
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Am so excited because I see, I do see just like you said, a lot of opportunity for students to really have more of a hands-on approach. And again, it all comes back full circle. It will help them as well, you know, on their resume, on their career path. And again, even if they don’t go into the criminal justice system as part of their career to have a hands on type of internship work experience, that always is just helpful for any type of resume, any type of career path, but what a neat experience too. Yeah. Beyond that ground floor and really help hands-on. So, yeah. I’m so glad that you’re out there making this happen. Diane, and I’m so excited to share this with the students. Okay. So I want to make sure we got this clear. So the website supply justice.com and your email was again, Diane, D
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I a N e@supplyjustice.com, or you can send it to info. I N F o@supplyjustice.com. Just tell me who you are, tell me your strengths, which you want to do, how you want to plug in. And I will be delighted to be able to talk to you about what that looks like. And, you know, I don’t want this to overwhelm you, but I, you know, whatever you’re interested in, we can find a place for, for your for the skillset that you have. You know, that’d be terrific.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
That’s great. All right. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Thank you. I really appreciate it. Take care.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Before we get into my top takeaways, a quick word from our sponsor. Juno, if you have to take out student loans, check in with Juno. First, Juno can often offer law students one to 2% lower interest rates than the federal government and with no origination fees and oftentimes cash back as well. Visit advisor.legal learning center.com for slash Juno. For more information, my top takeaways from our chat with Diane, there are opportunities to help prisoners from before, during or after their prison stay. Diane can help you find those opportunities. If that’s something you’re interested in, number two, you can become a liaison at your law school and make your crim law group better than most. And number three, if you want unique artwork, check out her website, that’s it. For this episode, all the tips and links will be in the show notes. A full transcript will be available@legallearningcenter.com forward slash supply justice. And if you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and share it with some friends that just helps us help more people.
