Founded on the belief that education is core to rehabilitation.
Sound Justice Initiative’s seed capital was the volunteer time invested by Dr. Kerry Spooner, teaching college classes in the Riverhead and Yaphank jails, starting in 2021. She felt she needed to demonstrate the power of her approach before seeking funding. Today, Sound Justice has earned the respect of both private and government funding sources. Seeing that her students needed offender reentry services, and realizing that this work was eligible for opioid settlement funding, Kerry created a reentry program that served 200 people in 2025, far surpassing the size of her jail-college-course endeavors. It is notable that people in reentry do best if they have had some classes in jail.
Side by Side provided Kerry’s first grant in March of 2022, enabling her to hire a Spanish-speaking teacher. Since then, Side by Side has funded a series of capacity-building client records, a working capital loan to facilitate State reimbursement grants, a documentary film for public relations, and, most recently, an upgrade in compliance protocols.