Patrice Amandla Sulton

is an attorney, advocate, teacher, and visionary leader devoted to changing how people think about who we punish, why we punish, and how we punish.

She is the founding executive director of DC Justice Lab, powering a movement to end community violence and state violence in our nation’s capital.

the new yorker

War On Cities

For nearly two decades, Washington, D.C., had been carefully revising its criminal code. It took a month to blow it all up.

Greater Washington
Urban League

Champion of Justice Award

Honoring outstanding leadership and lifelong dedication to protecting human rights - securing civil liberties to the highest principles.

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Washington lawyer

D.C. Bar Spotlight

Sulton’s roots in social justice and the law run deep.

the people issue

“Pick an issue involving the criminal legal system in D.C. and Patrice Sulton has been part of it.

The decade-long process of revising the city’s outdated criminal code? She helped run it. Police reform in the wake of George Floyd’s killing? She served on the Council-created committee coming up with possible answers. The debate over the future of the D.C. Jail? She helped write the report proposing steps forward. Sulton has spent close to two decades working on reform efforts in D.C., initially as an attorney in private practice before launching the nonprofit D.C. Justice Lab following the sweeping racial justice protests of 2020.

That history has made her one of the most trusted sources of bold ideas about how to change the system around the Wilson Building.”

—Alex Koma, Washington City Paper

in her own words

The Hill

Congress shares the blame for D.C.’s gun violence

The reality is that while D.C. doesn’t have gun stores, hunting grounds, firing ranges, gun shows or manufacturers, it grapples with a significant problem — bordering a commonwealth where guns are freely transferred with few regulations.

DC Line

Summer emergency bills aren’t the answer

1.6 billion dollars per year later, the District cannot continue to pretend that mass caging comes without cost.

World Justice Project

The Smartest Solutions

I came to appreciate that state violence takes many forms and that most rule of law initiatives focus, to some degree, on moving power from state actors to the people they govern.