Progressive Prison Project
Innocent Spouse & Children Project
Greenwich, Connecticut
Big Time: American Justice Summit,
JustLeadershipUSA & TEDx SingSing
New York
By Jeff Grant
The stars are aligning for the advancement of criminal justice in this country. It is not surprising that the light seems to be shining on New York, and spreading out to the rest of the country. Here in neighboring Connecticut, we not only are not only doing significant criminal justice work of our own, we are also honored to be involved and included in these New York milestones.
On Monday, Nov. 10th, Andrew Kaplan and I attended the American Justice Summit at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Babz Rawls Ivy, Andrew and I are the Online Editors for the important new book, The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked The American Dream. We met up with Connecticut criminal justice leaders, Vivien Blackford and Kumar Viswanathan, who are the Chair & Exec. Director, respectively, of the Phoenix Association. The Summit was glorious - it was not only led by of some of the most notable and influential voices in criminal justice today, it was a gathering of the tribe; a place where our community came together to breathe the same air and know that we are not alone in our noble cause. You can watch the entire Summit on YouTube here.
JustLeadershipUSA’s benefit and launch was held on Weds. evening, Nov. 12th at the Tribeca Rooftop in New York City. Lynn and I had a blast - lots of photos below! It was hosted by its Founder/President Glenn E. Martin (who did an outstanding job speaking at the American Justice Summit), and was chaired by Piper Kerman of Orange is the New Black. Our ministry, the Progressive Prison Project/Innocent Spouse & Children Project was selected to have its work highlighted among fifteen Leaders in Criminal Justice at the JustLeadershipUSA event. We are humbled and honored.
"I believe that the launching of JustLeadershipUSA will be viewed, one day, by historians and advocates alike as a true game changer: the moment in the emerging movement when formerly incarcerated people finally had a chance to be heard, to organize, and to influence policy in major ways — even though many of them still lacked the right to vote." - Michelle Alexander, Author, The New Jim Crow
TEDx SingSing will be a landmark in New York and American criminal justice history. Dec. 3, 2014. We are grateful to Sean Pica, Exec. Director of Hudson Link, for inviting us to attend TEDx Sing Sing and bear witness to this groundbreaking event! Check out the speakers here. Counting days till this one.
Here are some photos from our big time this past week. - Jeff
with American Justice Summit panelist, John Wetzel.
with Andrew Kaplan.
P.S. Big Thanks to Community Partners in Action,
Hartford, CT, and Family ReEntry, Bridgeport, CT,
for your support this week! - Jeff
________
jg3074@columbia.edu
(o) +1203.769.1096
(m) +1203.339.5887
(o) +1203.769.1096
(m) +1203.339.5887
Lynn Springer, Advocate, Innocent Spouses & Children
lspringer@prisonist.org
(m) +1203.536.5508
George Bresnan, Advocate, Ex-Pats
gbresnan@prisonist.org
Michael Karaffa, Advocate, Disabilities
mkaraffa@prisonist.org
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Comments from Social Media:
Non-Profit Executive Director | Energizing Speaker | Author | Strategist
I can still remember taking a delegation from Japan through our
dedicated drug prison in Illinois when asked by the interpreter, who
pays for this program? When i explained that it was not only very
effective in reducing recidivism and paid for by grants, donations, and
State funding he just shook his head. He responded this will never work
in Japan as they view prison as punishment not a place to help them
improve their lives. Over 90% of all those in our prisons will be
released some day. If nothing is done, they will just recommit a crime
and return.
Jerry Porricelli
Tom Dudley
Personal & Corp Development
Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time - Steve Uzell. It is such a common myth that we can do more than one thing at the same time, people think it is something they ought to do. It's a recipe for disaster.
President/Owner at R Club Productions "88 Keys to Freedom"
I will be at the Sing Sing event I am a music coordinator for Road Recovery's music program there, Hope to meet you
Pastor at Harvest New Life Church
On behalf of Harvest New Life Church we like to extend an open invitation to those of you who like to join us on tonight @ 7 PM We're going to be in the book of PHILEMON
Dear organizations,
ReplyDeleteThe REAL Act was introduced in May 2015 by Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Maryland) to ensure state and federal prisoners will be once again eligible for Pell grants. Forty-four congressional co-sponsors had signed on as of July 31. It also is backed by numerous organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Correctional Education Association, Drug Policy Alliance and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33767-higher-education-is-a-key-to-decarceration-let-s-pass-the-real-act
Noted in the Higher Education Is a Key to Decarceration: Let's Pass the REAL Act, has anyone has data of inmate participations’? If so can you please provide data to attached email? peers2200@gmail.com
Thank you for your time and forthcoming responses.
Christopher Glenn