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Elizabeth Gaynes
The Osborne Association
Elizabeth Gaynes: is Executive Director of the Osborne Association, a 75-year old nonprofit organization dedicated to serving those affected by incarceration and to developing effective approaches for strengthening families and communities, preventing crime and reducing reliance on incarceration. Under her leadership over the last 25 years, Osborne has grown from a two-person staff to one of the largest multi-service criminal justice organizations in the country, operating in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Beacon NY, and 16 New York State prisons and Rikers Island Jail.
Osborne offers family services, job training and placement, prison and reentry services, prevention and treatment programs, and alternatives to incarceration. Osborne’s first program, the Bureau of Vocational Placement, has been finding employment for people leaving prison since the 1930s. A member of the Board of Directors of Family and Corrections Network and of the Advisory Board of the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College, Liz Gaynes, who practiced law in criminal defense and prison legal services prior to coming to Osborne, is a nationally recognized expert on the impact of incarceration and reentry on children and families.
She is the author of “Reentry: Helping Former Prisoners Return to Communities”, a guide published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (2006). In 2004, together with her daughter, Emani Davis, she was the first American ever nominated for the prestigious international World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, for their work defending the rights of children with parents in prison. She is the recipient of the 2000 Jessie Ball duPont Fund Award, the foundation’s highest honor for leadership, and the 2003 Martin Luther King Drum Major for Justice Award, Center for Law and Justice (SUNY Albany). She is Chair of the Board of Directors of OPEN Children, an Ethiopia-based children’s charity.
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