Johnny Perez

Johnny Perez draws on the wisdom of thirteen years of direct involvement with the criminal justice system in his work as the Director of the U.S. Prisons Program for the National Religious  Campaign Against Torture, an interfaith membership organization comprised of 325 religious  organizations working to end U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading  treatment.

After three years in solitary confinement, he now leads a national movement to end the practice in coalition with the Unlock the Box Campaign. In addition to The Appeal, he serves on the Boards of Directors for the Juvenile  Law Center and the Urban Justice Center, both non-profit public interest law firms advocating  for the rights, dignity, equity and opportunities of underserved populations. His commentary has been published by The New York Times, The Fordham Law  Journal, Ebony Magazine, the Daily News, the Washington Post, and USA Today, where he was  recently nominated as a USA Today 2020 Leader of Change.