What began as a celebratory reception Wednesday night became a moment of reflection as attorneys, donors, judges, and community partners gathered for the Virgin Islands Justice Initiative’s Champions of Advocacy reception — not just to mark the organization’s growth, but to hear directly how its work is affecting lives in the territory.
The organization formally launched on St. Thomas in June 2022, and the event highlighted how quickly it has become embedded in the local legal and civic landscape. Executive Director Casey Payton opened the program by recognizing judges, legislators, founding board members, volunteers, donors, and her own family — emphasizing the collective effort behind the organization’s work.
Payton outlined the Justice Initiative’s expansion and the less visible work that supports it, from volunteer attorneys leading “Know Your Rights” trainings in public school classrooms to longtime legal professionals quietly drafting expungement petitions. She described 2025 as a pivotal year, marked by the organization’s first local and federal government funding, bridge support from the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, and new grants that allowed the “Know Your Rights” program to expand beyond St. Thomas and St. John to St. Croix.
The organization also reached a settlement in its first class-action prison case and began representing nonprofit organizations involved in litigation related to the St. Croix refinery’s former owners.
Much of the evening focused on the “Clean Slate” program, the organization’s first initiative, launched in 2023. Payton explained that in the Virgin Islands, even an arrest that does not result in a conviction can remain on a person’s record indefinitely unless it is formally expunged through the courts. Through the “Clean Slate” program, VIJI provides free legal representation, gathers records from the Virgin Islands Police Department and the courts, files petitions, and seeks court orders that remove those records from local databases and the FBI’s national system.
Payton also announced the organization reached a milestone: its 50th successful expungement, with more than 75 additional cases currently in progress. Each expungement, she noted, represents an individual whose ability to secure employment, housing, or educational opportunities may no longer be limited by a past record.
To illustrate that impact, Payton invited a program participant to speak. The woman, who spoke anonymously, described years of being denied opportunities despite being qualified and employed as a nurse, solely because of a past mistake that continued to appear on background checks. She spoke about the strain the record placed on her family and the difficulty of explaining to her children why advancement remained out of reach.
She told the audience that having her record expunged changed that trajectory — removing legal barriers that had followed her for years and allowing her to pursue new opportunities. She credited Payton and the Justice Initiative with guiding her through a process she said she could not have navigated alone.
Her remarks brought the evening back to the individual impact behind the organization’s work and as the reception wrapped up, the focus remained on that core mission: providing access to legal relief that many Virgin Islanders are entitled to by law but would otherwise never obtain. For the Justice Initiative, the night served as both a reflection on its progress since 2022 and a reminder of why the work continues.
