The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, with over 2.4 million people currently behind bars. Poor people and people of color are incarcerated at vastly disproportionate rates. Many prisoners are held in solitary confinement or denied adequate medical care and educational opportunities, and few resources are invested in reentry or community programs.
AFSC works to end mass incarceration, improve conditions for people who are in prison, stop prison privatization, and promote a reconciliation and healing approach to criminal justice issues.
AFSC Friends Relations, in an effort to create a more substantial level of engagement between Friends and AFSC, is piloting a program called Quaker Social Change Ministry to support and facilitate Spirit-led, social justice work in Quaker meetings/churches. This program is based on the work of Kelly Dignan, Kierstin Homblette, and Deborah Holder, three Unitarian Ministers in the Denver area who created this model to support congregations doing powerful social change ministry.
Please fill out an interest form to learn more about the program.
1. Educate yourselves about mass incarceration
Whether you have direct experience or not, get background information, and educate yourselves about the problem of mass incarceration.
- Start a New Jim Crow reading group using this study guide
- Start a Beyond Prisons study group using the study guide
- Hold a public education event using Broken on all Sides, The House I Live in, Redemption of the Prosecutor, or this Stopmax video.
- Listen to Laura Magnani, Director of AFSC’s Bay Area Healing Justice Program in California, describe her experiences on the mediation team for hunger strikers at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California and why Quakers need to take an active role in ending mass incarceration. You can listen to the full recording of this Call for Spirited Action by clicking here.
- Listen to Dominque Stevenson, Program Director for AFSC's Friend of a Friend program, describe the work of Friend of a Friend and how that program is addressing the needs of predominantly black communities in Baltimore that are heavily impacted by mass incarceration, hunger, and poverty. You can listen to the full recording of this Call for Spirited Action by clicking here.
- Watch How Quakers Can Help End Mass Incarceration, a QuakerSpeak video, and share it with your networks.
2. Get your congregation inside the prison walls
Learning and working with those most impacted by the criminal justice system will change you. You can volunteer at a federal prison through Prisoner and Visitation Support.
Participate in Alternatives to Violence programs in prisons. They are...
To continue reading this call to action written by the American Friends Service Committee visit: [ http://www.afsc.org/resource/5...minal-justice-reform ]
Photo credit: AFSC
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