Jon Eldan: Helping Those Who Were Wrongly Imprisoned

After graduating from law school in his early 30s, Jon Eldan worked as a lawyer in a San Francisco firm. He also volunteered to help people who had been imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit — a choice that he says affected him intensely.

“I was deeply moved by the horrifying reality that there are people across the country who are innocent of the crimes they’re imprisoned for, and that we do so little for them after release,” Eldan says. That led him to give up corporate law and launch After Innocence, a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide every person in the U.S. who was released after wrongful imprisonment with reliable support and assistance as they rebuild their lives.

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His inspiration for the organization was sparked in 2004 when Eldan saw a documentary called After Innocence. The film features seven exonerees as they face steep challenges upon reentering society after being released from wrongful imprisonment while dealing with the lingering trauma of what happened to them. He also met an exoneree at a fundraiser that same year.

“There’s something uniquely traumatic about being accused and convicted of a crime you did not commit and then enduring years, and in many cases decades, of imprisonment,” says Eldan, who is now 54. 

What he started as a pilot project gradually evolved into After Innocence, officially launched in 2015, with Eldan as its founder and executive director. Eldan uses the National Registry of Exonerations — an accessible database of people who have been exonerated — now more than 3,500 — to identify potential clients. He also gets referrals from law clinics and nonprofits that help exonerate innocent people.

While working with exonerees, Eldan quickly learned how they lost relationships and life opportunities during incarceration, and that the support and resources that many people assumed were available to exonerees upon release — including practical reentry assistance and financial compensation from the state — simply weren’t. He decided to find out what help exonerees most urgently need as they rebuild their lives. At the time, “there wasn’t any organization focused on postrelease support for the entire exoneree population,” Eldan says.

After Innocence, based in Oakland, California, reaches out to exonerees across the country. It helps them get a photo ID, birth certificate, Social Security card, and cell phone, and navigate the often complicated road to obtaining and making good use of health care and social services in their communities, as well as legal assistance. The nonprofit’s team of 12, including lawyers, social workers and program managers, also helps exonerees get mental health treatment — including for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, dental care, financial counseling and legal services.