Sashi James

Sashi James is the Co-Director of Families for Justice as Healing and Director of Reimagining Communities at The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. As the daughter of formerly incarcerated parents, she understands the trauma endured when a parent is separated from their child because of incarceration. This experience inspired her to focus on creating what different looks like by organizing directly impacted people to imagine and implement a world without jails, prisons, and police through the Reimagining Communities infrastructure. She launched the first basic income guaranteed program led by formerly incarcerated women to support currently incarcerated women. She advocates for the use of clemency on the state and federal level, and worked on The National Council’s 100 Women 100 Days campaign to encourage the immediate release of women who are elderly, survived and punished, and long timers. She also led a clemency tour displaying quilts with the names of state and federal women currently eligible for clemency. Sashi mobilizes college campuses to engage with communities impacted by incarceration and oversees a partnership with the Women’s Bar association to train attorneys and coordinate representation for clemency petitions. Her most important role is as the mother of Katori Rae James, and she is the daughter of Jon and Andrea James.