Fairfield County Business Journal: Progressive Prison Ministries Head Jeff Grant Takes on Leadership of Family ReEntry, by Kevin Zimmerman - Reporter

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Fairfield County Business Journal:

Progressive Prison Ministries Head Jeff Grant 

 Takes on Leadership of Family ReEntry

By Kevin Zimmerman - Reporter

 Reprinted from Westfaironline.com

October 6, 2016

 

Support and counseling for white-collar criminals re-entering the general population is a growing business for Jeff Grant. Founder of Greenwich-based nonprofit Progressive Prison Ministries, Grant was recently named interim executive director of Family ReEntry, a nonprofit with offices in Norwalk, Bridgeport and New Haven.

Founded in 1984 as a re-entry support group for men at the Isaiah House in Bridgeport and with a budget of over $4.5 million, Family ReEntry is principally involved with helping people convicted of street crimes and their families re-enter society. The organization has some 15 intervention, re-entry, and family and children programs. Services are provided in Bridgeport, Derby, Norwalk, Stamford, New Haven and Norwich and in three prisons in Cheshire and Niantic.

Grant’s elevation — he’s served on Family ReEntry’s board of directors since 2009 — marks the first time that a formerly incarcerated white-collar criminal has served as the head of a major re-entry agency.

“It’s a tremendous step, and a bold decision on the board’s part,” Grant said. “This is a transformative period for Family ReEntry. I owe them my fresh start, so of course I said yes when they offered me the position.”

He is replacing Steve Lanza, who as the group’s executive director for the past 15 years “was the heart and soul of Family ReEntry,” Grant said. “He had some family issues he had to attend to and is starting a consulting practice for nonprofits in general and criminal justice nonprofits in particular.”

Family ReEntry is also in the midst of weaning itself from state support, as much of that was reduced as part of the recent budget cuts, which Grant termed “adverse and dramatic.”

“We’ll miss having that overabundance of state contracts,” Grant said, “but now we can be more creative in fulfilling our mission.” The nonprofit’s private fund raising department is already finding donors in that area, he said. “The miracle is that we’ve been able to use our experience and learning from the inner-city and white-collar communities to make each of them stronger and more empathetic, which is part of our mission of advocating for public awareness of the issues surrounding criminal justice and re-entry.”

In 2006, Grant, a former corporate lawyer with an office in Mamaroneck, N.Y., served 14 months in a low-security prison after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges. He was charged with falsely claiming in a loan application to the U.S. Small Business Administration to have had an office on Wall Street that was impacted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

After his release, Grant volunteered with several nonprofits that helped rehabilitate former convicts as they re-entered society. After attending a 2009 Family ReEntry benefit in Greenwich, he and his wife Lynn Springer joined the group and began working to transform a blighted block across from Bridgeport’s First Baptist Church that had been home to drug addicts and prostitutes into a community park and garden.

In 2012, he graduated from the Columbia University-affiliated Union Theological Seminary, and holds a Juris Doctor and Master of Divinity degree. “It was a big deal that they accepted someone who’d been convicted of a white-collar crime,” he said. Now a [Rev. Deacon at St. Joseph Mission Church in Cliffside Park, NJ], Grant and his wife created Progressive Prison Ministries in 2013.

Both Progressive Prison Ministries and Family ReEntry have benefited from “individuals and families, who have been very open and receptive to our missions,” he said. “People who live in the affluent suburbs in particular have wanted to step up as a way of recognizing their civic responsibility and, frankly, for the tax savings” their donations can realize. “We have a message that resonates around the state — to make sure these people don’t recidivate.”

The cost benefits to society could be significant: according to the FBI, white-collar crime is estimated to cost the U. S. more than $300 billion annually.

Grant said he’s uncertain how much time he’ll be able to devote to Progressive Prison Ministries with his new responsibilities at Family ReEntry, though he pointed out that the former is still moving ahead with a number of ambitious projects.

One of those is an ongoing online support group for white-collar and nonviolent criminals, the first in the country, which began six months ago. Held on Tuesday evenings, the confidential videoconference sessions have had 25 participants from nine states logging in, with most from Fairfield County.

Since January 2015, Progressive Prison Ministries has served and individuals and families in 25 states, with consultations taking place before, during and upon re-entry from prison in person or by phone, email, Skype, FaceTime, GoToMeeting or, if in a federal prison, via CorrLinks.

On Oct. 15, Family ReEntry is serving as Connecticut sponsor of “Emerging Leaders Training,” a daylong event at the University of New Haven presented by New York City-based nonprofit JustLeadershipUSA, which is dedicated to cutting the U.S. correctional population in half by 2030 while also reducing crime.

JustLeadershipUSA Emerging Leaders Training, Sat., Oct. 15, 2016 at University of New Haven

Prisonist.org: Faith & Dignity 
for the Days Ahead
Blogs, Guest Blogs & News

Please join us at the JustLeadershipUSA
Emerging Leaders Training 

Sat., Oct. 15, 2016, 8 am to 4 pm

Family ReEntry is Proud to Serve as
Connecticut Sponsor

Deadline to register is October 7th

Click here to register

   

Mission
 

JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA) is dedicated to cutting the US correctional population in half by 2030. JLUSA empowers people most affected by incarceration to drive policy reform.

Emerging Leadership Development Training for the Formerly Incarcerated 
  

JLUSA believes that America's most challenging barrier to expansive, systemic criminal and juvenile justice reform is the absence of clear and consistent leadership by those who have been directly affected by our failed criminal justice policies. Through our Emerging Leaders trainings and our 12-month Leading with Conviction training, JLUSA is building a nationwide network of advocates and organizers united by a shared vision for justice reform.

Emerging leaders are highly motivated individuals with a strong commitment to making a real difference in their community of choice. Typically, they are just stepping into their role as organizational and/or community leaders and must simultaneously juggle their professional development needs with their desire to make real change. Our regional Emerging Leaders trainings are professional sessions with a skilled facilitator and a dynamic and participatory agenda.

All Emerging Leaders participants must have prior involvement with the criminal justice system (juvenile and/or criminal justice involvement is required to be eligible and includes but is not limited to: actual incarceration [served time in jail and/or prison], arrest with or without conviction, under community supervision, i.e. parole, sentenced to probation-only, and involvement as a client in the juvenile justice system). Deadline to register is October 7th. Click here to register. 

While not required, participants with the following characteristics are most successful and gain most from Emerging Leaders training:

• Are members, employees or clients in-good-standing with a regional partnership organization.
• Have a demonstrated track record of leadership within their community.
• Are committed to ongoing leadership development and expansion beyond the emerging leadership training itself.
• Are committed to systemic criminal and juvenile justice reform.
• Have at least one year from date of release of previous incarceration so as to be able to take full advantage of JLUSA's investment in their leadership development.

Emerging Leaders Training Content
 

Based on our guiding principle that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution, JLUSA employs a dynamic, inclusive and culturally competent leadership training that includes:

• Pre-session work including a survey, reading and homework
• Breakthrough Action® Leadership - introduction to the principles of responsibility, self-reflection and collective leadership
• Communication skills - learning how to connect communication with real results.
• Professional relationship effectiveness - managing up, down or any direction; leaders must communicate effectively to be successful.
• Interviewing and employment skills - emerging leaders are challenged to learn skills essential to securing and sustaining employment.
• An introduction to JLUSA's year-long Leading with Conviction Training

How to register for Emerging Leaders Training

JLUSA seeks to train individuals connected to re-entry organizations in the West Haven, CT area who are committed to the professional development of emerging leaders. Individuals should seek a referral from a partner organization before registering for Emerging Leaders. Deadline to register is October 7th. Click here to register.

JustLeadershipUSA Emerging Leaders Training - West Haven, CT

In partnership with the The University of New Haven & Tow Youth Justice Institute

Family ReEntry serves as Connecticut Sponsor

October 15, 2016 | 8am - 4pm
The University of New Haven
300 Boston Post Rd
West Haven, CT 06516

Deadline to register is October 7th. Click here to register.

JustLeadershipUSA: A New Paradigm, by William Eric Waters - Guest Blogger

Progressive Prison Project

Innocent Spouse & Children Project

Greenwich I Weston I Bridgeport

Connecticut

JustLeadershipUSA: 

A New Paradigm

by William Eric Waters - Guest Blogger 

Glenn Martin, CEO of JustLeadershipUSA, will be a panelist at Family ReEntry Presents: An Evening With Danny Glover, May 6th at The Klein in Bridgeport. Danny will be interviewed by WNPR's Colin McEnroe.  Other Panelists & Presenters include Charles Grodin, Mayor Bill Finch, Steve Lanza, Hon. Erika Tindill, Fred Hodges & Joe Gaudett.  I am honored to serve as the event's Emcee.  Link for tickets. - Jeff

__________

With the recent launch of JustLeadershipUSA, Glenn Martin, President and Founder of JustLeadershipUSA, is looking to elevate the voice of Americans impacted by crime and incarceration, especially people who have been imprisoned, by positioning them as “informed, empowered reform partners.” This will be done through leadership development, policy advocacy and reframing. JustLeadershipUSA has as its goal cutting the U.S. prison population in half by 2030. 

At 2.2 million people confined, the U.S. prison population has increased exponentially since the late 1960s, beginning with Richard Nixon’s candidacy and declaration of war, that is, the “war on crime,” in 1968, which specifically targeted Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, which Nixon declared “lawless.” Since then, various laws and policies, on the Federal and state level, have contributed to mass incarceration and the grossly disproportionate imprisonment of people of color, mostly men, in the United States: Rockefeller Drug Law in New York (1973), which was adopted in other states; mandatory minimum sentencing across the nation as well as the Federal criminal justice system (1984), with the Federal government providing monetary incentives, in the form of block grants, for states to adopt mandatory minimum sentencing, which almost always increases the length of time in prison (New York’s Governor, George Pataki, continuously mentioned how New York would not be eligible for these block grants to build more prisons or hire more police if the state did not adopt mandatory minimum sentencing, which it did in 1998 after the tragic killing of a young woman by an individual who had been on parole for a nonviolent crime); crack-cocaine laws, which created longer prison sentences for crack-cocaine convictions over cocaine convictions, which disproportionately impacted people of color; the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which made it easier, read quicker, to execute people sentenced to death; it also limited the right of habeas corpus, creating procedural hurdles that were too high to jump, not to mention the United States Supreme Court even ruling that a showing of “actual innocence” by an individual in prison could not overcome these procedural hurdles; tougher parole releasing policies as well as the increase in technical parole violations (returning people to prison for non-criminal violations of parole rules such as curfew violations or “fraternizing with known felons”); elimination of temporary release (including work release) programs; and three strikes laws requiring life sentences for those with three separate felony convictions, even relatively innocuous and nonviolent third felony convictions. 

Thirty years after Richard Nixon declared his war on crime, people incarcerated in the mid- and late ‘60s, ‘70s and early ‘80s were being released from prison. This is the reality, as Jeremy Travis writes and thus entitles a journal article and a book: “But They All Come Back: Rethinking Prisoner Reentry” (2000), and But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry (2005). At the other end of the mass incarceration tunnel were individuals coming back from prison. The numbers are staggering. In 2002, more than 630,000 individuals were released from Federal and state prisons, and since then that number has remained pretty much the same. Thirty years prior to that, the number was less than 150,000 individuals.

When we look at the more than 630,000 individuals released from Federal and state prisons every year, this translates into, every day, about 1,700 individuals released from these prisons, exploding onto the American landscape and this Era of Reentry. At the same time, there was great interest and thus an explosion of journal and newspapers articles on this phenomenon as well as books such as Jennifer Gonnerman’s Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett, which shows how a bit player, not a queenpin, got caught up in a drug sale and was given a life sentence under the draconian Rockefeller Drug Law, while the more culpable people involved in the drug world who set her up got a get-out-of-jail-free card. Additionally, there were the stories of the people themselves, those who had been imprisoned; they showed us compelling cases of the possibilities of transformation and what it looked like. They added something new, something different, to the reentry narrative, that is, through their stories, which they began to tell at conferences, at colleges, to journalism grad students, on radio shows and television. Some wrote about these experiences, mostly stories of their transformation. See Harvey Brown’s Freedom at Last: The Life of an Ex-Con, and Theo Harris’ Blessed and Highly Favored: Memoirs of a Multiple Felon. See also Piper Kerman’s Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. The most important thing was that these men and women were taking control of their stories, not just being subjects, but also being authors of their own stories. 

There was something familiar in their stories, in their narratives, if you will, something that tapped into the historical connection between slavery and imprisonment in the United States. As many should know by now, imprisonment of people of color replaced slavery. (And the disproportionate imprisonment of people of color began even before the end of slavery. Gustave de Tocqueville and Alexis de Beaumont, in their study, On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France, published in 1833, noted the disproportionate imprisonment of “Negroes” in the Southern States.) This is stated explicitly in the Thirteenth Amendment: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” The big difference is that people who have been duly convicted of a crime aren’t given any moral agency – “They committed a crime!” This, some think, takes away from the fact that imprisonment is slavery under another name, and imperfectly Constitutional. 

These stories, these narratives, are similar to the slave narratives, eloquently given voice by Frederick Douglass. Making the transition from talking about slavery to talking about prison, more recently, we think of Malcolm X and his odyssey as documented by Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X. 

These stories have been critical in including the voices of those imprisoned and those formerly incarcerated. However, they are mere testimonies, powerful, but individual stories that only touch the iceberg of the problems of mass incarceration. Imagine if Frederick Douglass confined his speeches to his experiences as a slave. We would not have got his talk about the importance of the franchise, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” (1852), which is an issue of importance today for those imprisoned and those formerly incarcerated, many of them having lost the right to vote for life in a number of states, mostly Southern, as a direct result of a felony conviction. And imagine if Malcolm X confined his speeches to his experiences as a prisoner. 

We would not have his famous speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” (1964), given more than 100 years after Douglass’ speech on the same topic. 

When Martin of JustLeadershipUSA talks about elevating the voice of Americans impacted by crime, he is talking about much more than the formerly incarcerated providing their testimony. He is talking about the people “closest to the problem” providing solutions to the problem. Indeed, many who have been on this reentry circuit for a number of years think of this “testimony-telling” and only testimony-telling as a “dog and pony” show. Needless to say, providing this testimony is important, more so for someone recently released as opposed to someone who has been out of prison for a number of years and has continued his or her formal education and worked in various capacities in the for-profit and the not-for-profit world, oftentimes in leadership positions. 

JustLeadershipUSA is positioning itself to go beyond the dog and pony show. It is, however, only the most recent organization looking to elevate the voice of formerly incarcerated people, but unique in that its goal is to reduce the U.S. prison population in half by 2030. Before JustLeadershipUSA, in New York, there was the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions. In California, there was All of Us or None. 

The mission of the Center For NuLeadership on Urban Solutions is “to influence socio- economic, criminal and juvenile justice policy by providing research, advocacy and leadership training to formerly and currently incarcerated people, their families, communities, allies and criminal justice professionals....” Similar to JustLeadershipUSA, the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions promotes “active participation in criminal and social justice policy decisions, discussions and deliberation by the people whose lives are most directly affected and who have a legitimate stake in the outcome.” 

All of Us Or None “is a grassroots civil rights organization fighting for the rights of formerly- and currently-incarcerated people and our families. We are fighting against the discrimination that people face every day because of arrest or conviction history. The goal of All of Us or None is to strengthen the voices of people most affected by mass incarceration and the growth of the prison-industrial complex. Through our grassroots organizing, we will build a powerful political movement to win full restoration of our human and civil rights.” 

There are other organizations across the country, founded by formerly incarcerated individuals and their families, most notably Citizens Against Recidivism, Inc., based in New York, which holds an annual Awards Ceremony honoring formerly incarcerated people for their work in the world and in their communities. The Awards are named after formerly incarcerated people. Also worth noting is Exodus Transitional Community, Inc., a faith-based reentry organization in East Harlem founded by Julio Medina, which has garnered national attention for its work in the field of reentry. 

Many of the above organizations were formed because the founders wanted to create new possibilities for themselves and others similarly situated. Additionally, working at established organizations, reentry organizations included, these individuals encountered the green wall, the glass ceiling for formerly incarcerated people. Most of these organizations were not truly cultivating the leadership of its formerly incarcerated employees. 

Michelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010), has mainstream America and academia talking about the criminal justice system in ways we have not previously, stating that incarceration is being used as a"system of racial control."

Martin and JustLeadershipUSA, and the other organizations mentioned above, as well as those not mentioned, are creating a new paradigm to not only elevate the voice of formerly incarcerated people, but also to develop the leadership of this group. With this, we are moving into another stage of this Era of Reentry. Stay tuned. 

We have become friends with Eric Waters from his regular attendance at the Bridgeport Reentry Roundtable. 

William Eric Waters has more than 25 years experience in the criminal justice system. He is the author of three books of poetry and one novel. He has a master's degree from New York Theological Seminary and bachelor's degrees from the University of Albany and SUNY New Paltz. Check out his blog at www.ezwaters.wordpress.com.

___________

Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div, Minister/Director
jgrant@prisonist.org
jg3074@columbia.edu

(o) +1203.769.1096
(m) +1203.339.5887

Twitter
Facebook
Linked In
Pinterest
Google+

Lynn Springer, Advocate, Innocent Spouses & Children
lspringer@prisonist.org
(m) +1203.536.5508

George Bresnan, Advocate, Ex-Pats
gbresnan@prisonist.org
Jim Gabal, Development
jgabal@prisonist.org
(203) 858-2865

Babz Rawls Ivy, Media Contact
mediababz@gmail.com
(203) 645-9278

__________

Donations

We are grateful for donations from individuals, religious groups, charities, foundations and the like. Donations can be made by credit card/PayPal or by sending your check payable to: “Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc.” P.O. Box 1232, Weston, Connecticut 06883. Progressive Prison Project/Innocent Spouse & Children Project are missions of Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. We are a CT Religious Corp. with 501c3 status - all donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thank you for your support and generosity.

If transformation and redemption matter to you, a friend or a family member with a white-collar or nonviolent incarceration issue, please contact us and we will promptly send you an information package by mail, email or via Dropbox. The darkest days of a person's life can be a time of renewal and hope.

Big Time: American Justice Summit, JustLeadershipUSA & TEDx SingSing, by Jeff Grant

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

________ 

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

___________

Comments from Social Media: 

Barry Kolanowski | Director

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 

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.

Tom Dudley 

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

Sr Charles Ellis

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

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