David Mills, a Managing Director at Fortress and a Professor of the Practice of Law and Senior Lecturer at Stanford Law School, founded the Stanford Three Strikes Project, the only legal organization in the country devoted to representing individuals serving life imprisonment under California’s “Three Strikes” law. The law disproportionately affects minority populations, as well as mentally ill and physically disabled defendants, who have been given life sentences for minor offenses. Since its founding in 2012, the Three Strikes Project has helped reduce sentences for nonviolent crimes, contributed to the early release of thousands of prisoners serving life sentences for minor offenses, improved public safety and saved hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Fortress and Fortress employees are proud to support David Mills, who also serves as co-chair of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and his mission through contributions to these and other projects intended to combat systemic racism. We do this out of recognition that we need to inspire more action rather than just discussion to effect real and lasting change.