JJ Velazquez

Criminal Legal Reform Activist

JJ Velazquez

Criminal Legal Reform Activist

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Biography

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez’s career as a criminal legal reform activist began in 1998, when he was wrongfully convicted as the shooter in the murder of a retired police officer. He spent almost 24 years in NYS maximum security prisons assisting, educating, and mentoring incarcerated people and their families.

While incarcerated, he earned two degrees in behavioral science and became a certified paralegal. He was considered a “one-man innocent project," helping other wrongfully convicted individuals obtain freedom. JJ was an elected liaison between the prison population and administration, while working to help others obtain their college degrees in his capacity as a program assistant at Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison. As a leading light at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, he organized a delegation of leaders, and implemented several positive programs including CHOICES, which has served hundreds of children impacted by crime and incarceration.

The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice follows Dan Slepian on years of prison visits, court hearings, and street reporting that led to a series of powerful Dateline episodes and eventually to freedom for four other men and to an especially deep and lasting friendship with one of them, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez. From his cell in Sing Sing, JJ aided Slepian in his investigations until his own release in 2021 after decades in prison.

He provides media platforms with valuable context and rare insight. These insights are fueled by personal experiences that helped him accumulate a deep and diverse knowledge base of criminogenic behavior, mass incarceration, and wrongful convictions. Decades of unjust imprisonment have led to valuable lessons about life, humanity, and survival.

JJ now serves his community locally as the Co-founder and Executive Director of Voices from Within based in New York, and nationally as the Program Director at the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice.

Speaker Videos

New York judge exonerates man wrongfully convicted of murder

The Never-Ending Impact of Incarceration

Jon-Adrian 'JJ' Velazquez, Criminal Legal Reform

Incarcerated man’s decades-long journey to freedom chronicled in NBC News podcast

How a prisoner's letter led to a 20-year search for the truth

The C.H.O.I.C.E.S Connection | Jon-Adrian Velazquez | TEDxSingSing

Joe Biden and JJ Velazquez Discuss Criminal Legal Reform

See Fewer Videos

Speech Topics

Building Bridges in Unlikely Places: A Friendship Forged Through Adversity

This talk centers on Dan Slepian’s relationship with JJ Velazquez, a man wrongfully convicted, how their bond evolved over two decades, and how JJ led Dan to several other innocent men that Dan did stories about. It’s a story about building trust, understanding, and a lasting friendship in the most unlikely of places—inside the walls of Sing Sing.

An Evening with JJ

JJ specializes in storytelling, which stems from his passion to turn trauma into triumph and inspire others to convert obstacles into opportunities. He moderates panels, facilitates workshops, and gives talks designed to educate, motivate, and incite meaningful change. JJ’s messages are heartfelt and filled with empathy. He believes that everyone has the potential to achieve greatness. By tapping into their inner strengths and passions, individuals can overcome obstacles and achieve their dreams. With JJ’s guidance, people are empowered to take action and live their best lives.

Testimonials

“Dateline producer Slepian debuts with a riveting account of his crusade to free six wrongfully convicted men from New York State’s Sing Sing prison… Slepian tells his subjects’ stories with rigor and compassion, and persuasively argues that America’s justice system is “designed to easily imprison the innocent” in the name of closing cases quickly. This is difficult to shake.”

- Publishers Weekly

“A gripping, highly effective true-crime synthesis… an excellent addition to the body of work documenting a pervasive societal injustice.”

- Kirkus, Starred Review

“I’ve said many times that every wrongful conviction deserves its own book. I’ve read a hundred of them and, as fascinating as they are, I thought I had reached the point of being shock-proof. But The Sing Sing Files stopped me cold. It’s an unforgettable account of one man’s uphill journey to free the innocent and expose many of the serious problems in our criminal justice system. It should be read by every rookie cop, brand new prosecutor, and first year law student. And it should be read by you. Hold on!”

- John Grisham, #1 New York Times bestselling author, lawyer, and former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives

“A remarkable, moving account about the lives of people who have been too easily discarded, forgotten, and condemned. These compelling narratives help us understand why we should do better when it comes to punishment and justice in America.”

- Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy

“Slepian’s a master storyteller with a passion for his subject. This is a page turner with stories that will open your mind and heart, and might even change your life the way they changed his.”

- John F. Hollway, Executive Director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at Penn Law

“Dan Slepian has written a book that is as informative as it is enraging. In these gripping case studies of innocent men wrongfully convicted, you learn how and why the truth often does not prevail in the American justice system. You also get a glimpse of the strength of the human spirit and of heroic efforts to right these wrongs. The stories are inspiring and so is the author. He has spent a career ‘given the buried voice sound,’ as one incarcerated man put it. This volume is on full blast with this tour-de-force. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about criminal justice, mass incarceration, or humanity.”

- Rachel Barkow, author of Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration and Professor at NYU, School of Law

“This passionate, gripping, and moving chronicle of a skeptical journalist’s twenty year journey investigating injustice leads him, remarkably, to six innocent men, close friends, and a nuanced understanding of the humanity, resilience, and limitless potential of those we imprison, guilty or innocent. Dan Slepian’s engrossing insider’s narrative lays bare the infuriating incapacity and willful blindness of New York prosecutors, police, defense lawyers, and judges to recognize and correct wrongful convictions. The Sing Sing Files is a vitally important book that inspires hope that we can and will do better.”

- Barry Scheck, Co-Founder and Special Counsel, the Innocence Project

“While recounting his heroic efforts to free six wrongfully convicted men, Dan Slepian uncovers the tremendous obstacles to truth and justice that plague our criminal legal system. He shows that the problems are both systemic and personal, as institutions and actors protect their own reputations rather than fix the egregious mistakes and wrongdoings that have ruined the lives of countless people and their families. The Sing Sing Files should inspire readers to create a new generation of leaders who will genuinely pursue justice.”

- Marc Howard, Director of the Prisons and Justice Initiative at Georgetown University

“…I am grateful to Slepian for bearing witness, but I am also shocked and enraged by the story he tells. I would—as I know he would—trade this Olympian effort for one in which thousands of others activate to fight not just for the innocent, but for all the souls who are unnecessarily ground down by what we call the criminal justice system. For those who yearn to be part of this army, this is required reading.”

- Nicholas Turner, President and Director of the Vera Institute of Justice