Criminal Justice Reform

As a 1.5 generation immigrant from Cambodia with lots of traumas and fears, acculturating to this society was hard. At the age of 18, I was a father of two and convicted of a robbery with no one physically harmed and sentenced to 49 years.

While incarcerated, I learned and understood my history. After 23 years I won my freedom through the parole board and now I'm honored to join ALC as the Kuri Kuchiyama Fellow, and now as a community advocate.

Sarah Lee is the Community Advocate for the Criminal Justice Reform program. Her work focuses on developing immigrant rights, criminal justice, and sanctuary policy educational resources, advocating for the passage of pro-immigrant and criminal justice reform policies at the local and state level, and working alongside local coalitions such as San Francisco Immigrant Legal & Education Network (SFILEN) and FREE SF.

For the past seven years Sarah has been a community organizer working with college students, faith communities, and immigrant rights organizations focusing on anti-racism work through trainings, coalition building, and advocacy. Prior to joining Advancing Justice – ALC, Sarah was on staff with Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity uplifting and humanizing narratives of immigrant communities whose lives have been impacted by incarceration, leading deportation defense campaigns, and building the leadership of faith community members in the Bay Area. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Public Health and minor in Education.