Faith in Action for February: Prison Policy Reform Now!

Faith in Action for February: PRISON POLICY REFORM NOW!

From the current Website of The US Attorney’s Office of Massachusetts:

Nine to 10 million more people cycle through America’s local jails each year. Roughly 40% of former federal prisoners – and nationwide more than 60% of former state prisoners – are rearrested or have their supervision revoked within three years after their release, at great cost to American taxpayers and often for technical or minor violations of the terms of their release.

Let’s work with other UU churches to stop this terrible waste of human potential!!!

Our 50-50 donation February 16 will be going to EPOCA (Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement), a local organization in Worcester that works on policy issues that support successful transitioning for people re-entering society after incarceration. 

Why EPOCA?

EPOCA’s mission:  Working together to create resources and opportunities for those who have paid their debt to society.

EPOCA believes social change is best led by people most affected, in this case, people who have experienced first-hand the injustice and failure of our current “criminal justice” system, incarceration, and re-entry policies.  Their primary focus is on policy change and leadership training, including recent EPOCA-sponsored changes in CORI reporting laws (allows for sealing of records so that people can obtain reasonable work and housing) and changes in mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug-related offenses.  Current targets include efforts to redirect public funding away from building new prisons and toward building practical and effective job and housing support for people re-entering society from prisons. 

Other up-coming opportunities to get involved with this effort:

• Saturday, February 8, 10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Arlington

Taking Action to End Mass Incarceration:  An Organizing Workshop

630 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington, MA  (Arlington Center)

This workshop will help you build practical skills for bringing your congregation and community into the Jobs Not Jails Campaign and the broader movement against mass incarceration.  Jobs Not Jails is a statewide coalition that intends to stop the proposed spending of $2 billion of taxpayer money to build new prison cells and redirect those funds to our communities.  We are collecting signatures on petitions and planning a rally on the Boston Common on April 26.  The suggested donation for lunch will be $10, but don’t stay away if that is a difficulty.  Parking is across Massachusetts Avenue in municipal lots.  This event is sponsored by UU Mass Action and the Mass Incarceration Working Group of First Parish Arlington.

 Please pre-register by emailing end-mass-incarceration@firstparish.info. 

•  Contact Kate O’Dell to ride-share. (508 792 9661 or odellkk@gmail.com

AND:

• April 26, 2014 State House Rally:  JOBS NOT JAILS

Jobs NOT Jails is the newest EPOCA campaign. If current criminal justice policies are not changed dramatically, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will spend $2 billion to build 10,000 new prison units by 2020. Our state has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world - on par with French Guiana and Belarus. There are so few resources, and so many barriers to successful re-entry, that most prisoners released from DYS, county jails, and prison are incarcerated again within 3 years – at a recidivism rate over 60%.  In addition to destroying lives, families, and neighborhoods, prison expansion is crowding out funding for every state service that serves to lift people up. EPOCA is working to effect policy to transition tax dollars to community building, by providing jobs and training as a concrete alternative to poverty, hopelessness and crime.

EPOCA and its allies are building a grassroots groundswell against more prison spending and for reforms that will make such spending unnecessary.   Actions for change include: (1) freezing prison construction, (2) passing wide-ranging criminal justice reforms, (3) re-directing savings into a jobs program targeting low-income, high-crime neighborhoods.  The rally in April is an opportunity to present a Jobs Not Jails petition of 50,000 signatures.