We are all criminals. Take a moment and really think about it. Maybe there was the time you got behind the wheel, even though you’d had too much to drink. Maybe it was a “prank” you did with friends in highschool, that you’ve essentially forgotten or think of now as just adolescent hijinks, that would have resulted in arrest and charges had you been caught. 

Emily Baxter, the founder of We Are All Criminals (WAAC) contends that while one in four have a criminal record, four in four have criminal histories.  She wants all of us to think back over the encyclopedia of our experiences and reflect on choices we may have made to break the law but weren’t caught. Most likely, we were protected by privilege, allowed to learn and grow from our bad decision and move on with life essentially unscathed. The name is intended to make those with criminal histories feel a sting of discomfort.

Emily’s hope is that by getting people to reflect on their criminal histories, they will have greater empathy for those with criminal records and no longer see them as just “criminals,” “cons,” “felons” or worse. But rather as humans who made a bad choice or felt they had no choice, got caught and now have records. She wants those with records to not be defined by what they did.

Emily is a collector of stories. At WAAC, she collects stories from those with criminal records and those with criminal histories. Those stories are shared on the WAAC website using sparse but powerful words and imagery, along with a lot of other important information meant to get us thinking and talking about “crime, privilege, punishment and second chances.” People wanting to share their story find her through word of mouth or seek her out when she is speaking at community events. It is no wonder so many want to share their story with her. Emily is kind, laughs easily and is a great listener, which makes her easy to talk to. People with criminal histories are often curious about what the charge would have been, what they would have been sentenced to and how their lives would be different had they been caught. Emily believes it’s cathartic for them to share something that they’ve kept secret sometimes for a very long time.  Perhaps it’s no surprise that people who share their criminal histories with her are often affluent and white.

The two biggest factors that determine whether someone has a record versus a history are race and poverty. On top of that, people with records may have untreated or undertreated mental illness and addiction issues. They often live in marginalized communities where a disproportionate number of people have been touched by the criminal justice system. All of this makes it easy for someone to get tagged with the “criminal” label long before any crime may take place.

Emily started as a public defender, which she loved, working for the Regional Native Public Defense Corporation. It was a steep learning curve, and she learned a lot, including how to dress for court, how to craft a legal argument, cross examine a cop, negotiate with a prosecutor and how not to cry in front of a jury. She also learned a lot about her own privilege. Emily worked hard to provide her clients with a rigorous defense, but it was demoralizing to see how Native Americans were overrepresented in the system and how judges and prosecutors treated her clients as if they were going to keep cycling through the criminal justice system, even when there was a positive outcome to the cases.

Emily moved on to policy work, so she could change the laws and statutes that negatively impacted people with criminal records. But she learned that just because you change policies, doesn’t mean you change hearts and minds. Laws had changed, but things weren’t getting better for people with criminal records, especially when it came to finding housing or a job. Very few people would rent to or hire someone with a criminal record, even though the law said otherwise.

It was out of this hard space that WAAC was born. She is inspired and humbled by the community of people she works with, many of whom are formerly incarcerated. They are working to stare down the maw of mass incarceration that is predicated on stripping away the humanity of those incarcerated. Emily celebrated with many others the recent restoration of voting rights to people convicted of felonies who are not incacerated. She also is endlessly grateful to the people who feel safe enough to trust her with their stories.

As she does this work, Emily figures her hope is somewhere between Emily Dickinson’s “Hope” is the thing with feathers and organizer, educator and abolitionist Mariame Kaba's belief that hope is a discipline. Hope is ever giving and never ending, it is fuel, and a protector as Emily works with others to fight to change forces that seem unchangeable and so embedded.

Learn More

Please visit the WAAC website to read and hear stories of those with criminal histories and those with records. You can also hear from people who experience the ripple effects of incarceration and people working to reform the criminal justice system. 

Oh, and you can also make a tax deductible donation to support the work.