U.S. Department
of Justice
Access to Justice Prize
The Access to Justice Prize was a year-long competition to promote innovative solutions to address the access to justice crisis. The Prize focused on solutions that impact rural communities.
Meet the Winners
The Office for Access to Justice is pleased to announce five Access to Justice Prize Winners who will receive $15,000 each to advance their project. This year’s Access to Justice Prize focuses on closing the rural justice gap, recognizing that rural communities face unique and significant barriers to justice. Access to justice is a critical component of a fair and efficient society, and the Office for Access to Justice is proud to uplift the incredible work of the Prize-winning organizations described below, representing innovative solutions to address the justice gap and promote access to justice for all.
The 12th Judicial District of Colorado Access to Justice Commitee: Creating a “Lawmobile”
In the rural San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado, there is no effective public transportation, and many residents live far from the courthouses. Rural residents face many barriers to accessing courts and their self-help resources for many reasons, including a lack of reliable transportation, childcare, or time-off from work; difficulty traveling due to disabilities; and a lack of computers, reliable internet, printer, or tech literacy.
To address these barriers, the Access to Justice Committee of Colorado’s12th Judicial District is creating a “Lawmobile,” outfitted with internet access and mobile printing. Volunteers will drive this vehicle to remote locations to assist residents with their legal and administrative concerns in domestic relations, housing, probate, guardianship, small claims, and civil cases through accessing self-help resources and connecting them to services from community partners. This project will increase the reach and effectiveness of free or low-cost assistance to rural residents and reduce barriers to the courts.
People Living in Recovery: Supporting Reentry Through Forensic Peer Mentorship in Rural Georgia
Rural counties in Georgia often lack transportation infrastructure, mental health services, and peer-based recovery programs. Unlike urban centers, where individuals exiting jail may have access to housing support, outpatient treatment, or community-based job readiness programs, many people in Georgia’s Franklin and Morgan Counties return to environments with few formal supports. This increases the risk of relapse, homelessness, and recidivism.
People Living in Recovery plans to place Certified Forensic Peer Mentors inside rural Georgia jails to reduce recidivism and expand access to justice. Peer mentors—trained individuals with lived experience of incarceration and recovery—will offer guidance, accountability, and empathy. This peer-led, trauma-informed model will support individuals during incarceration and reentry, linking them to housing, treatment, and employment. The initiative uses proven tools and partnerships to deliver measurable, sustainable impact in underserved communities. This project will create new opportunities for connection, healing, and long-term reintegration, effectively bridging the rural justice gap.
South Dakota Bar Foundation: Strengthening Rural Attorney Mentorship and Law Practice
In rural South Dakota, there is a declining number of practicing attorneys, leaving access to justice out of reach for many citizens. The vast topography of the state divides communities into population hubs and isolates smaller communities. There is no coordinated public transportation system across the state, and many citizens in rural communities must travel more than 100 miles one way to reach an attorney. Numerous communities lack adequate housing and childcare, particularly on South Dakota’s nine reservations. A lack of transportation and housing for both attorneys and clients and a shrinking number of practicing attorneys in the state make rural legal practice a daunting task. Many organizations also report that attorneys face a lack of mentorship in rural areas.
To address the mentoring needs of rural attorneys and to help retain attorneys, the South Dakota Bar Foundation proposes to implement the Project Rural Practice Hub, a virtual mentorship and training platform designed to recruit, retain, and support rural attorneys. The project proposes to connect legal experts with rural practitioners for education, technical assistance, and community-building. Expanding beyond a traditional one-way knowledge sharing system, this Hub will enable rural attorneys to co-learn from specialists, collaborate with other rural practice attorneys, and contribute insights from their on-the-ground experiences.
Florida Department of Corrections: Deploying Mobile Probation/Reentry Units
Traditional probation services often face significant obstacles when attempting to reach and effectively engage individuals transitioning from incarceration. These challenges stem from logistical barriers, such as the lack of convenient transportation options and the geographical dispersion of individuals under supervision. Additionally, the delivery of support services is often fragmented, resulting in disjointed efforts that fail to comprehensively address the diverse needs of individuals reentering society.
To address these obstacles that are particularly acute in rural areas, Florida Community Corrections, a division of the Florida Department of Corrections, plans to deploy Mobile Probation Units and Mobile Reentry Units, bringing probation and reentry services directly to underserved rural communities. These portable units will be equipped with resources aimed at increasing reporting and reducing recidivism, including substance use services, legal aid, mental health counseling, job training and social services. This innovative proposal plans to achieve its objectives by acquiring or retrofitting a large vehicle equipped with office space, technology and resources. The mobile unit will allow more individuals to comply with probation-related activities and receive essential services in areas where individuals currently face geographic barriers.
Veterans Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Arizona Law: Expanding Outreach to Rural and Tribal Veterans
Many veterans live in poverty and remote areas without access to legal services. Involvement in the justice system and lack of sufficient income to secure legal counsel are exacerbated by a lack of resources in rural areas. Residents in Arizona’s small towns and rural communities experience a “legal desert” in which they cannot connect with legal professionals.
The Veterans Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law proposes to expand its Rural and Tribal Veterans Outreach Project to effectively connect veterans living in rural communities with legal services. The project includes a multi-pronged approach that focuses on (1) veterans treatment courts, (2) administrative and appellate advocacy, (3) intake and referral on other areas of law, and (4) community outreach. The clinic’s outreach project will create localized legal assistance guides and disseminate them in rural communities. The project will also build strong partnerships and referral streams with legal experts in areas where federal, Tribal, and state law intersect and provide technical assistance in rural and Tribal communities to create problem-solving courts. Through this multi-prong approach, the project will help close the justice gap for rural veterans.
Overview
July 10, 2025 Update: The Access to Justice Prize competition, as announced on January 7, 2025, has been modified. The Prize competition is condensed and will no longer include Phase 2 or the Grant Prize submission stage. The Department of Justice will select the Prize winners based on the applications received by the March 31, 2025 submission date. Each winner will receive $15,000 to advance their project delivering innovative solutions to close the rural justice gap. Winners will be announced by July 25, 2025.
The Office for Access to Justice is pleased to announce the Access to Justice Prize, a prize competition to advance the innovative solutions that are urgently needed to address the widespread justice gap and increase access to justice for all. The Access to Justice Prize seeks to support leaders on the front lines of the access to justice crisis to develop these strategic solutions. Your innovative ideas are likely to be the most effective because of your visibility into specific barriers and gaps, your connection to impacted communities, and your understanding of available resources and tools.
In line with this purpose, the Access to Justice Prize invites community-based and non-profit organizations; academic institutions; and local, state, tribal and territorial governments—including courts, public defender offices, and prosecutorial agencies—to submit proposals for an innovative idea to expand access to justice. The Access to Justice Prize competition has a one-year prize cycle, from January to December, with two judging rounds. At the first round, a number of finalists will be selected and awarded a finalist prize of $5,000. The finalists will further develop their submission during a six-month Refinement Phase and will then compete in a final round judging competition—the Access to Justice Prize Showcase—for the grand prize of $50,000.
The Access to Justice Prize invites applicants to submit an innovative idea to expand access to justice within a rural jurisdiction and/or community. An innovative idea that would “expand access to justice” means an idea that expands access, accelerates innovation, or safeguards the integrity of civil or criminal legal systems. This could include ideas that would seek to improve legal systems, processes, interactions or outcomes, or to better solve justice problems within rural areas or for rural communities.
Closing the Rural Justice Gap
The Access to Justice Prize focuses on closing the justice gap across rural America, continuing the ongoing work of the Office for Access to Justice to engage with and support rural communities in closing the justice gap.
Access to justice barriers are often exacerbated for rural Americans, and the unique and complex hurdles for people living in rural areas—long travel times, limited internet access, lack of attorneys, and more—are too often overlooked. When compared with their urban counterparts, rural Americans are more likely to have household incomes below the federal poverty line and they are more likely to face civil legal problems. In 2022, the Legal Services Corporation found that 77% of rural low-income households experienced at least one civil legal problem in the previous year, and 40% experienced at least five. Yet these households are even less likely to find the assistance needed to navigate these issues: Rural low-income Americans do not receive any or enough legal help for 94% of the substantial civil legal problems they encountered.
Similar challenges are found in the criminal justice systems in rural areas. Rural jurisdictions frequently rely on part-time judges and prosecutors as well as contract indigent defense counsel, which can result in ethical conflicts and diminished access to the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Small budgets and limited access to forensic and social services mean that criminal practitioners in rural areas may lack paralegal, investigative, and expert support that is routinely provided in urban jurisdictions. Studies demonstrate that recruitment and retention challenges are increasing for criminal justice careers in rural areas, including for prosecutors, public defenders and law enforcement.
Problems facing rural courts are increasing and are complex, including rapidly rising caseloads, delay, uneven workloads among judges, and lack of fiscal resources. Virtual hearings have expanded access in many areas, but do not always account for unique barriers in rural jurisdictions, including lack of necessary hardware, costs to litigants, or unreliable internet or phone service.
Solutions to the rural access to justice crisis must begin with rural communities themselves. Those who live and work in rural areas, and organizations that serve them, are best situated to recognize both the needs and the strengths of their local community, and to develop creative and impactful approaches to harness existing resources and respond to challenges effectively.
How to Enter & Find More Information
The proposal submission period for the Access to Justice Prize closed on March 31, 2025. For questions, email JusticePrize@usdoj.gov.