[6][7][13][14] She believes that the abolition of police and the prison industrial complex will help support the safety of transgender people, and she identifies as an abolitionist.

[17][18] In 1997, Johnson moved from her hometown, Tampa, Florida, to San Francisco in order to be mentored by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a transgender rights activist, prison abolitionist, and former director of the TGI Justice Project.

[7] When she initially came to San Francisco, Johnson faced houselessness[17] and stayed in a shelter,[6] but she still closely worked under Miss Major's leadership.

Contemporarily, the non-profit describes itself as "a group of transgender, gender variant and intersex people–inside and outside of prisons, jails and detention centers–creating a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom.”[10] They focus on many facets of transgender issues, such as law and policy, human rights, imprisonment, police violence, racism, poverty, and societal pressures and stigma.

[6][24] Johnson initiated TGI Justice Project's re-entry program that helps transgender and gender-variant people re-enter society immediately after being released from prison in order to prevent recidivism.

"[25] The TGI Justice Project's re-entry program aims to support transgender and gender-variant people re-enter society from incarceration through providing housing, food, money, and access to mental and physical health care services[25] for sixty to ninety days after their release date.

[14] Johnson works with community members to arrange picking up recently-released people from their former incarceration facilities and bringing them to temporary housing in hotels or motels.

The program also pays current members a salary of at least $25 an hour[25] to financially support their re-entry to society, as Johnson claims that "Reentry must come with a paycheck.

"[22] Because of this, Janetta Johnson has had TGI Justice Project put a greater focus on crisis case management[16] and general community care for transgender people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[26] Johnson noted that there was an increase in donations to the TGI Justice Project after the uprising about the murder of George Floyd that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[13] The organization was formed in response to the murder of Taja Gabrielle de Jesus, a trans woman of color who resided in San Francisco.

TAJA's Coalition aims to create safety for trans women and gender-non-conforming individuals through increasing their access to education and housing.

[27] Brian Basinger, the Executive Director of Q Foundation, a non-profit that centers around houseless people living with HIV/AIDS in the Tenderloin, filed a declaration against Group i's plans.

Basinger gathered support from the St. James Infirmary, a health clinic for people who do sex work, where Aria Sa'id served as Program Director.

[28] Cross-dressing was illegal at the time due to anti-masquerading laws,[29] which was the basis for a lot of police brutality and harassment of transgender women.

[33] It is a law that allows transgender people to petition the superior court to change their name and gender marker while incarcerated in California, which Johnson says makes re-entry into society easier.