JustLeadershipUSA, By Glenn E. Martin - Guest Blogger

Progressive Prison Project 

Innocent Spouse & Children Project 

Greenwich, Connecticut

JustLeadershipUSA

By Glenn E. Martin - Guest Blogger

JustLeadershipUSA's big launch and benefit is
 coming up on Weds., Nov. 12th in NYC.
  We asked our friend Glenn E. Martin - 
its leader and visionary - if he would 
contribute something special to prisonist.org.  
He did not disappoint.  - Jeff

Recently, I was invited to serve as a member of NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Reentry and Reintegration Council.  I was both humbled and troubled at once:  I was humbled because as a man whose youthful past includes serving six years in a New York State correctional facility, I recognize how fortunate I am to simultaneously lead JustLeadershipUSA (www.justleadershipusa.org), serve on a number of non-profit Boards, wear various other leadership hats and speak as a member of several different communities. I was troubled because so many formerly incarcerated people—in fact the vast majority—has never had the opportunity to develop their potential.  The creation and launch of JustLeadershipUSA is my attempt to end that pattern of alienation and oppression now.

For me, exiting prison in 2000 was a rebirth.  I wanted to be great.  I knew I was developing a distinct voice that if fully realized, would become resounding enough to make a difference.  But where was my platform?  And even if such a proverbial platform existed, how would it develop?  So began my journey.

Much of what I’ve accomplished thus far can be attributed to the compassion and generosity of my friends, family and colleagues, self-education, leadership training, sound mentoring and exposure to opportunity.  Periods of reflection have allowed me to be both appreciative of my achievements and critical of the many barriers that have surfaced along the way.

JustLeadershipUSA is the culmination of such reflection. We are dedicated to cutting the US prison population in half by 2030 while reducing crime. JustLeaderhipUSA empowers people most affected by incarceration to drive policy reform.  To realize our vision and achieve our goals, we develop and support formerly incarcerated leaders, build and sustain an engaged national membership and rive policy advocacy efforts on the federal, state and local levels.  The idea that communities and individuals impacted by incarceration and our criminal justice system will now have a formal space dedicated to tapping their potential to become leaders in reform efforts brings me hope that we will finally achieve deep, sustainable change in our criminal justice system.

I carefully considered the principles that must guide such an organization. JustLeadershipUSA has learned a great deal from the vast criminal justice institutes, think tanks and social service programs that currently exist.  However, it also dares to put new and authentic drivers in the seat of the reform locomotive.  It is time for those closest to the problem to rise up and lead us all down the path out of our problems.  No community wants, or needs, true reform to occur more than the ones directly impacted by a failed criminal justice system.  Why, then, are we not seeking their advice about what needs to change, where we can improve, and what strategies do we need to implement to actually see such change?

50 years after Dr. Martin Luther King’s "I Have A Dream" speech, America has gradually expanded the definition of justice and civil rights. Led by King's vision, and the sweat of many other social engineers, many groups that were once disenfranchised and ignored now have a place behind the podium. One's sexual orientation, gender identification, ethnicity, or immigration status does not automatically preclude one from playing a significant role in one's destiny.

Yet 50 years after that emblazoned speech, many continue to selectively downplay the fact that King—the Reverend...the Doctor...the peacemaker—was also, at various points in his life, a man behind bars.  He was exposed to the brutality of prison life and relegated to a number, with no regard for his name or stature.  It was behind bars that he wrote the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” where he stated the following:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."

JustLeadershipUSA is not an expansion, but a recognition of King's vision of a nation composed of equally empowered citizens.  Our incarceration system was built on the flawed thinking that "lock 'em up and throw away the key" would solve all of our public safety problems.  But as King insightfully highlighted, we are all patches in this quilt called America, woven together by both our victories and our injustices.  Repositioning the patches of the millions of Americans impacted by the criminal justice system is JustLeadershipUSA's "call to action," and an important step toward his dream being realized.

I acknowledge that my success is also tied to my failures; that I am invited to circles largely because to many of my colleagues I represent an “exception,” rather than the rule.  But my life is dedicated to changing what we have accepted as the “norm.”  JustLeadershipUSA seeks to provide a space for those for whom society has no room; time for those for whom we have no time; a voice for those whose cries have been muffled and muted.  JustLeadershipUSA aims to serve as a vehicle for millions who aim for the same rights and opportunities as their fellow Americans: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We can no longer incarcerate millions of human beings without examining ourselves and the cultural, societal and public policies that created the mass incarceration complex in the United States. Nor can we continue to claim to be the land of opportunity while implementing policies to ensure that opportunity eludes so many.    It is time for all to dare to create sustainable change in how we define and administer justice in America.  To that end, we look forward to working with you and hope you will join us by clicking here to join our membership.  United Purpose, United Voice, United Power.  #halfby2030  @glennEmartin

GLENN E. MARTIN is the Founder and Chief Risk Taker of JustLeadershipUSA. (JLUSA). Glenn is a national leader and criminal justice reform advocate who spent six years in New York State prisons. Prior to founding JLUSA, Glenn served for seven years as Vice President of Development and Public Affairs at The Fortune Society and six years as Co-Director of the National HIRE Network at the Legal Action Center.

Glenn is Co-Founder of the Education from the Inside Out Coalition, a 2014 Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellow, a 2012 America’s Leaders of Change National Urban Fellow, and a member of the governing boards of the College and Community Fellowship, Prisoners’ Legal Services, the Petey Greene Program, the Reset Foundation, the New York Foundation, and California Partnership for Safe Communities.

Glenn also serves on the advisory board of the Vera Institute’s Public Health and Mass Incarceration Initiative, the National Network for Safe Communities and the Executive Session on Community Corrections at Harvard Kennedy School. Glenn regularly contributes his expertise to national news outlets such as MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Al Jazeera and CSPAN on topics such as policing, decarceration, alternatives to incarceration, and reentry issues.

________

Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div, Minister/Director
jgrant@prisonist.org

jg3074@columbia.edu
(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

Speaking the Unspeakable: Abused and Neglected Women Speak Out On The 50th Anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream”

Progressive Prison Project

Innocent Spouse & Children Project

Greenwich, Connecticut 

Aug. 24, 2013  

Speaking the Unspeakable:

   Abused and Neglected Women Speak Out

On The 50^th Anniversary of

 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s

 “I Have a Dream”

By Jeff Grant

Today is the 50th Anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial – in my mind the most important and stirring event in the history of our nation’s civil rights movement.

Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow,” states that today’s prisoner reentry movement is “the new civil rights movement” - I agree.  As a minister, activist and chronicler in this prisoner reentry movement, I searched for a spiritual angle for a sermon about the 50^th Anniversary of Dr. King’s speech.

In our ministries we spend time with women living on the margins – women who are in shelters, halfway houses, sober living ministries and mothers and children who have been abandoned by husbands who have gone to prison leaving them without resources or a plan.   I asked some of these women if they would like to reflect on what Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” means to them.

Below are some of the responses.  The first is from a mother who has been left penniless (along with her children) by her husband; the second is from the Re-Entry Ministry on the Eastside of Bridgeport, Connecticut; and the last two are from student residents in the Reentry Ministry program. 

Last is a prayer that feels important to share on this anniversary of Dr. King’s speech - it was written recently for me by my wife.  I need it to read it and say it out loud everyday – today more than ever.  Perhaps you will find the same comfort and inspiration in it as I do.

____________________

“Our dreams make their path in to our life only if we trust in God and let him show us the way. 

In our lives there will be times when we are able to help others and there will be times when we need help. I have been going through a very difficult time in my life.  My husband is in jail and I have to face raising my children on my own.  I was in trouble and adrift but I have never lost hope that somehow, God will help me. And he has, he did it through a group of people that so generously gave themselves to help someone in need. Do not forget to help others when you can, as Dr. King said in his 1963 speech:  “Our brothers …have come to realize their destiny is tied up with our destiny… we cannot walk alone” If we help each other we will have a better future, together!” 

Re-Entry Ministry

“God had the plan. He used The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak faith-filled words 50 years ago that remain “alive” and “active” in our life and ministry today. And God empowered Martin Luther King to put His words into action. He told us that we are saved from things that bind us and rob us of our freedom and justice. His dream of freedom and justice was based on the love that Jesus Christ has for all people. For the past 34 years, we (Re-Entry Ministry) have labored to free women from the bondage of substance abuse... to give them a dream... that God has a plan to restore us and rescue us from our depravity...to give a future and a hope... a dream that becomes a reality. What would things be like if Martin Luther King had not dreamed?”

 Two testimonies of ladies who have found freedom in Jesus Christ follow:

The 33^rd Annual Re-Entry Ministry Banquet will be held on Sept. 14^th at 12:30 pm at the Holiday Inn in Bridgeport.  Among the speakers will be State of Connecticut Pardons & Parole Chair Erika Tindill.

Juelene L.

“I am 48 years old and from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. My parents Bernice F. and Collin L. are both deceased. I was drinking for 40 years since the age of eight (8) and at a later date I started smoking marijuana. Eventually, I stopped smoking the marijuana but continued drinking and at the age of 39 I went to jail for third degree assault and did not get out until I was 41, a year later I went back to drinking. After that I decided to ask for help from my counselor. They sent me to Atlanta for help. I went to two programs, but because of my anger I left them. I ended up back home living on the streets sleeping in abandon houses, in the park or wherever I could. I went to my brother to see if he could help me out, so he called his cousin and she makes calls to places and the last call was to Sister Queenie. We talked on the phone and here I am. I thank her for taking me in. She did great with me, my favorite Scripture is Psalm 138:1 ‘I will praise thee with my whole heart.’”

Pamela I.

“I am 49 years old, a mother of two sons, and grandmother of two, originally from Miami, Florida but relocated to Hartford, Connecticut. Before coming to Connecticut I had a 20 year addiction to crack cocaine and problem that I didn’t know how to handle or control. I sought help in all kinds of programs and treatments, trying to find answers that only God Himself can answer and fix.

After coming to Re-Entry, God is showing me a new way to live, and giving me a new life. Through Re-Entry, God has reached down in my heart, and given me a reason, a desire and a hope to live for. Re-Entry Ministry has taught me the value of living my life for Christ and doing His will.

I am so very grateful to Sister Queenie and all the dedicated staff who helped me and taught me the Word of God, and how to apply it to my life.

The Scripture I leave you with is Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, sayeth the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.’”

A Prayer for Jeff

by Lynn

Exalted God, You give me sacred tasks and I beg of you to grant me the courage and strength to faithfully execute my duties.

Please, guard me from the blindness of avarice and the thirst for glory and honor.  Endow me with the desire to service equally the poor and the rich, the wicked and the good, the enemy and the friend, and to see simply in each a fellow human being in pain.  Let your truth alone guide me.

Oh most compassionate and merciful God, strengthen me in body and soul that I might do your will and serve my fellows with kindness, compassion and intelligence.

Amen.

Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div
Director, Progressive Prison Project/
Innocent Spouse & Children Project
Greenwich, Connecticut

Assoc. Minister/
Director of Prison Ministries
First Baptist Church of Bridgeport
126 Washington Avenue, 1st Fl.
Bridgeport, Connecticut 06604

(203) 339-5887
jgrant@progressiveprisonproject.org
jg3074@columbia.edu