ABOUT JJ4JUSTICE

JON-ADRIAN "JJ" VELAZQUEZ'S career as an activist for legal reform began in 1998, when he was wrongfully convicted as the shooter in the murder of a retired police officer. He spent almost 24 years in NYS maximum security prisons assisting, educating, and mentoring incarcerated people and their families. 

While incarcerated,  he earned two degrees in behavioral science and became a certified paralegal. He was considered a “one-man innocent project,“ helping other wrongfully convicted individuals obtain freedom. JJ was an elected liaison between the prison population and administration, while working to help others obtain their college degrees in his capacity as a program assistant at Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison. As a leading light at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, he organized a delegation of leaders, and implemented several positive programs including CHOICES, which has served hundreds of children impacted by crime and incarceration. 

JJ’s advocacy expanded through projects like the Pulitzer Prize Finalist podcast “Letters from Sing Sing,” the book The Sing Sing Files, and the MSNBC docuseries The Sing Sing Chronicles. His role in the A24 film Sing Sing further amplified his voice on wrongful convictions.

After a 27-year battle with the legal system, JJ was exonerated on September 30, 2024, in Manhattan Supreme Court, marking one of the most impactful cases in U.S. history. His multifaceted efforts continue to drive meaningful change and amplify the voices of the marginalized.  JJ now serves his community locally as the Co-founder and Executive Director of Voices from Within based in New York, and nationally as the Program Director at the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice.