865-297-3203
COMMUNITY DEFENSE OF EAST TENNESSEE
P.O. Box 1742 Knoxville, TN 37901.
ABOUT US
Community Defense of East Tennessee, (CDET), is grassroots, community-based organization focused on the education, liberation, support, and empowerment of people while fighting injustices, for equity, social and restorative change. While our work is primarily in Eastern Tennessee we are building nationally and internationally with our refugee community to build partners and impact their loved ones' circumstances because an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.
MISSION
Community Defense of East Tennessee is a grassroots, community-based organization dedicated to ending mass incarceration. Together with families, we are committed to fostering education, liberation, support, and empowerment, while actively confronting injustices and advocating for equity, social change, and restoration. Our central goal is to dismantle the prison pipeline and shift our communities away from punitive models that prioritize punishment, towards more compassionate approaches that prioritize healing individuals and communities alike. We strive to create systems that facilitate restoration, healing, and transformation. Through comprehensive education, support, and community training in various facets of social justice, we believe we can break the perpetual cycle of harm within our community.
IMPACT
We have uncompromised shared values and principles. We track our impact with “time-saved” (as opposed to “time-served,”), which is the total amount of time that an individual is not behind bars. Organizationally, we have reduced community members' time caged by more than 223 years! In 2020Working with the community and the public defenders office we have Decreased our local jail population by 40%
GET IN TOUCH
Community Defense of East Tennessee, Inc. is a TN nonprofit corporation operating through a fiscal sponsorship with Players Philanthropy Fund, a Maryland charitable trust recognized by IRS as a tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (Federal Tax ID: 27-6601178). Contributions to Community Defense of East Tennessee are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.