There is power in lived experience at PJI. Kittrell Decator, one of PJI’s newest team members, knows that firsthand. He served nearly 25 years in prison, where the days felt endless and the weight of confinement was constant. Each day, he walked to the prison law library, a rare refuge, and studied legal texts to make sense of a flawed legal system. His studies were not just for himself; he pursued knowledge for the men around him whose voices had been overlooked and whose futures were just as uncertain. Appeal after appeal, the possibility of returning home slipped further from reach. Still, he kept reading and kept fighting. In 2020, with the help of The Holloway Project, a legal advocacy program founded by Judge John Gleeson that fights unjust sentences, Decator regained his freedom. “Since my release, I have lived a purposeful life every day,” he said. Since joining PJI, Decator has brought that perspective to the Prison Scholars Program at the D.C. jail, helping students pursu...