Rev. Avalon Betts-Gaston

CRS Board Chair, Project Manager for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry & Justice

Avalon Betts-Gaston is a Chicago native, non-licensed attorney, ordained minister and passionate advocate to dismantle, change and build a legal system focused on human justice and harm reduction, not just punishment. Avalon made her public debut as an advocate at a young age when she convinced her fellow Congressional pages to protest apartheid outside of the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. This passion against various societal injustices continued throughout her life and was extra-charged and focused on the criminal legal system after she was wrongfully convicted in 2015 and sentenced to serve a 57-month federal prison sentence. As a believer in Christ, Avalon is also committed to using this experience to educate the Church and public writ large about the criminal legal system. These efforts have the two-fold goal of dispelling the myths perpetuated by the criminal legal system and empowering the public and especially the Church to be on the front lines of ushering in the much-needed changes to create an anti-racist, anti-classist system focused solely on human justice and harm reduction. 

Avalon received her bachelor’s degree from DePaul University and her J.D. from John Marshall Law School in Chicago. She currently serves as our Board Chair and leader of the Restoring Rights Committee. Avalon also supports McCormick Theological Seminary’s Solidarity Building Initiative as a Community Advisor, is on the Advisory Board for the National Council of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, and volunteers with anti-carceral system advocacy groups locally, statewide and nationally. Avalon is currently the Project Manager for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry & Justice, convened by the Safer Foundation.