JusticeText

Solution Pitch

The Problem

Our justice system is being inundated by the 3.3 trillion hours of video captured everyday worldwide from surveillance cameras and body-worn cameras. While video evidence is involved in over 80 percent of criminal cases, this crucial data can easily go overlooked without the tools to analyze it.

Our nation’s 15,000 public defenders serve over 5.6 million low-income individuals every year. A 2015 Bureau of Justice Statistics study reveals over 80 percent of felony defendants in the largest counties rely on publicly financed attorneys. Unfortunately, public defenders are obligated to assume responsibility for far more clients than they can be reasonably expected to protect. This crisis is further exacerbated by the lack of technology designed for public defense, especially as digital surveillance transforms the very nature of the modern justice system.

A staggering 93 percent of public defenders in Virginia reported difficulty in finding time to review all the footage for their cases. The longer it takes for lawyers to review the data, the longer everyday citizens spend detained in our nation’s jails. 

The Solution

JusticeText is an audiovisual evidence management platform that strengthens the ability of public defenders to extract critical information from digital discovery. Our product ultimately reduces the amount of time low-income criminal defendants spend in jail and improves the quality of the defense they receive in trial.

JusticeText’s web-based evidence management software employs automated speech recognition algorithms to automatically generate interactive transcripts of audiovisual evidence. Attorneys use the software to take time stamped notes, create video clips, and catalog their digital discovery. This also identifies keywords that may be of interest to criminal defense lawyers, including references to crimes, medical conditions, and legal terminology. JusticeText equips public defenders with the tools needed to identify instances of racial profiling, coercive interrogation tactics, and other violations of their clients’ rights.

Market Opportunity

The annual revenue opportunity for indigent defense providers is $30 million, and JusticeText aims to attain 20 percent of this market within the next 2 years.

JusticeText simultaneously plans to leverage demand in the market for private attorneys, which has an annual revenue opportunity of $100+ million.

Organization Highlights

• Won The GM Prize and The HP Prize for Advancing Digital Equity at Solve Challenge Finals

• Featured in Google, Forbes, Abajournal, and more.

• Selected as a recipient of Google for 2021 Startups’ Black Founders Fund

• Selected as an official Affinity Partner for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)

• Team Lead Devshi Mehrotrahas been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur, Westly Prize finalist, and Camelback Fellow.
  

Partnership Goals

JusticeText seeks:

• Connections to criminal-justice stakeholders such as public defenders, criminal defense attorneys, progressive district attorneys, and criminal justice funders.

• Media Exposure.

• Connections to criminal justice reform advocates, civic technologists who advocate for public-interest work, and professors or technologists to assist with NLP applications and incorporate JusticeText.

• Connections to digital marketing agencies and PR firms to help execute on our go-to-market.

• Connections to experienced founders with experience in scaling for-profit B2B or B2G ventures

• Data consulting to measure and evaluate impact.

• Connections to Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) experts.