Who We Are
Osborne Association serves individuals, families, and communities affected by the criminal legal system.
What We Do
We address the impact of the criminal justice system on people, families, and communities, providing tools and resources people can use to work toward goals we all share:
- strong families and communities
- lives of meaning, contribution, and stability
- productive ways to use our talents and abilities
- conditions that support good health
How We Do It
We are on the ground in prisons, jails, and neighborhoods, offering healthy alternative pathways and using the tools of treatment, training, education, counseling, and community support. The stories and voices of the people we serve shape our advocacy for systemic change.
Why We Do It
We see how harm and legal systems destroy individuals, families and communities. We know that respect, accountability, and resources have the power to transform lives and to bend criminal legal systems towards justice, as defined by equity, inclusion, investment, and healing.
Our Mission
Osborne Association serves individuals, families, and communities affected by the criminal legal system. Through our programs, we offer opportunities for people to heal from and repair harm, restore their lives, and thrive. We challenge systems rooted in racism and retribution and fight for policies and practices that promote true safety, justice, and liberation.
Core Values
We honor everyone’s capacity to change.
We keep our word.
We celebrate our shared humanity.
We are unstoppable.
We are united in our pursuit of justice and equity.
Where We Work
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Our Commitment to Equity
As a community dedicated to justice and human liberation, Osborne welcomes and supports LGBTQIA people, those who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color, and those who have lived through the struggles we address.
Our History
In 1913, Thomas Mott Osborne, a former mayor turned reformer, entered Auburn Prison as “Tom Brown, Inmate 33,333X.” His undercover experience, later recounted in his book Within Prison Walls, sparked a lifelong commitment to transforming the prison system. Osborne’s leadership at Sing Sing and Portsmouth Naval Prison brought groundbreaking reforms that emphasized rehabilitation and self-governance for incarcerated people. His work laid the foundation for a new vision of justice.
In 1933, the Osborne Association was born from the merger of two organizations dedicated to continuing Osborne’s mission. Under the guidance of Austin H. MacCormick, a protégé of Osborne known as the “father of correctional education,” the Association pushed for education, rehabilitation, and humane conditions across the nation’s prisons. For nearly four decades, MacCormick led Osborne in exposing inhumane practices and advocating for meaningful change.
By the 1980s, Osborne began a new chapter. Elizabeth Gaynes took the helm of a small, two-person office, steering the organization toward innovative programs like Court Advocacy Services, which offered alternatives to incarceration, and FamilyWorks, the first fatherhood program in a state prison.
Throughout the decades, Osborne expanded its reach and impact. It established a headquarters in the Bronx, launched groundbreaking initiatives to support children of incarcerated parents, and grew its reentry services, including workforce development and social enterprise programs that provide jobs to those returning home. Osborne continued to lead the way with new advocacy centers and restorative justice programs, always focusing on healing, accountability, and systemic change.
