Support Smarter Sentencing in 2015!

Today, one in one hundred Americans are caught up in the nation’s criminal justice system. While the U.S. only makes up five percent of the world’s population, we incarcerate twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. Since 1980, the size of the federal prison population has increased nearly 800 percent, due to the failed ‘War on Drugs’ and ‘tough on crime’ policies. Our federal criminal justice system should ensure proportional and equitable accountability for our brothers and sisters entangled in the criminal justice system, particularly in relation to racially biased sentencing.

Support for addressing mass incarceration has grown in recent years from both sides of the aisle. Sentencing reform is one of the proposed changes. Two pieces of legislation introduced this year, the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2015 (H.R. 920/S. 502) and the Justice Safety Valve Act of 2015 (H.R. 706/S. 353), would help to reduce the number of people our country incarcerates, ameliorating the overcrowding crisis within the federal prison system. They would also address the racially disproportionate outcomes in mandatory minimum sentencing.

Call on Congress to pass sentencing reform today.

The Smarter Sentencing Act, sponsored by Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representatives Raúl Labrador (R-ID) and Bobby Scott (D-VA), would limit the long mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, expand judicial discretion in cases involving the lowest level drug offenses, and reduce the federal prison population by retroactively implementing the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (a significant reduction in the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine). This would impact around 8,800 people currently incarcerated. 

The Judicial Safety Valve Act, sponsored by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Bobby Scott (D-VA), would restore judicial discretion in all federal criminal cases by allowing the broadest departure from mandatory minimum sentences.

As Christians, we should prioritize forgiveness, mercy, and reconciliation in our judicial system policies. In 1988, the 200th General Assembly weighed in, saying, “individual Presbyterians and the entities of the General Assembly should . . . advocate a social order where compassion and justice characterize efforts toward those in the criminal justice system.”

Then, in 2003, the 215th General Assembly stated in a ‘Resolution Calling for the Abolition of For-Profit Private Prisons,’ “the ultimate goal of the criminal justice system should be restorative justice, addressing the hurts and the needs of the victim, the offender, and community in such a way that all might be healed.” 

These two pieces of legislation are important ways we can build more compassion and proportional justice into our federal criminal justice system.

Let your Senators and Representatives know you support smarter sentencing.

Washington Report to Presbyterians Spring 2015

Click here to view or download the complete Washington Report to Presbyterians (PDF document).

THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE PC(USA) OFFICE OF PUBLIC WITNESS INCLUDES:

Land of the Free on Lockdown

By the Reverend J. Herbert Nelson

In the United States of America, we incarcerate more people than anywhere else in the world. While the U.S. is home to five percent of the world’s population, we nonetheless incarcerate 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Read more…

Where are They Now?

Featuring Former OPW Intern Jessica Tate and What’s NEXT for the Church?

NEXT Church is a network of leaders across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who are trying to figure out what it means to be God’s faithful church in the 21^st Century. Read more…

Celebrating Public Witness Victories

OPW Staff highlight a few recent victories for the church’s public witness ministry, including:

·      Victory on Establishing Diplomatic Relations with Cuba

·      Standing with Low-Wage Workers

·      Nuclear Non-Proliferation in Iran

·      A Step in Addressing Global Climate Change

Read more…

Homelessness and Mass Incarceration

The Office of Public Witness is currently hosting an art exhibition titled “Homeless” by Presbyterian member Lucy Janjigian. These 18 paintings represent the trials and sorrows of people living with homelessness. They deal eloquently with real-life tragedies. Read more…

Presbyterians in the National Capital region are invited to come view the exhibition. Please contact ga_washington_office@pcusa.org to let us know you are expected.

A Celebration of Service Learning: Spring 2015

Meet this Spring’s amazing group of young adult service learners. Read more…

Young Adult Engagement Report, 2012-2015

The PC(USA) Office of Public Witness in April 2015 is releasing a new “Young Adult Engagement Report, 2012-2015,” in which we review the fruits of the last three years of ministry to and with youth and young adults. Through three projects, the OPW reports having engaged with over 5,000 youth and young adults in the 3-year period. These programs are:

1.     A Justice Model for Service Learning

2.     Seminars to Build Advocates for Justice

3.     Conferences and Outreach

The overwhelming conclusion is that this ministry is a blessing ot the work of the OPW, which will renew its commitment to providing educational and experiential learning opportunities for youth and young adults. To download the complete report, please click here.

Land of the Free on Lockdown

By the Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson

Washington Report to Presbyterians, Spring 2015

In the United States of America, we incarcerate more people than anywhere else in the world. While the U.S. is home to five percent of the world’s population, we nonetheless incarcerate 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Our claim to be the land of the free is scarred by the issues surrounding mass incarceration, which include the deep legacy of ongoing racism in this country, a private, for-profit Prison Industrial System, disparate mandatory sentencing that unjustly targets people of color and non-violent offenders, and a failure to live into God’s call for restorative justice, which focuses on making relationship right and on restitution, rather than on retribution and punishment.

According to the Sentencing Project, 2.2 million persons are incarcerated in the United States. This represents a 500 percent increase over the past 30 years. The Prison Industrial System is responsible for the incarceration of one in three young African American men – in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole — yet mass incarceration tends to be categorized as a criminal justice issue, rather than a racial justice or civil rights issue (or crisis).

In the wake of the release of the United States Department of Justice’s investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, it is clear that there are cases of long-term mistrust among marginalized communities. This mistrust and fear stems from a deep-seated practice by law enforcement to target and over-criminalize communities of color. It is difficult for any community, targeted by the very people who are called to protect them, to avoid the struggles of over-criminalization.

During my ministry in Memphis, TN, it was clear that once the perpetual cycle of the criminalization of a community begins, it negatively impacts households and generations of people. Children are impacted by the absence of an incarcerated parent. Jails and prisons become rites of passage for young people and whole communities of both young and older persons are destroyed by underground economies of guns, violence, sex trafficking, and too many lives lost prematurely to drugs and alcohol.

The question we are raising at this year’s Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day and Ecumenical Advocacy Days pertains to more than ending mass incarceration. We are raising deeper questions –

“How do we restore communities that have experienced a historically negative impact by the criminal justice system in the United States?”

“How do we eradicate the corporate takeover of the United States and other countries across the globe, which leads to the denial of human dignity and violations of human rights?”

For us, as Presbyterians, these are the related questions that we ought to raise and take back to our local communities and congregations. Our hope is that both of these training events will be a time of deep introspection as to how Jesus Christ is calling you to be a disciple at a deeper level of engagement.

Let’s come together with a mind to End Mass Incarceration and Break the Chains of Systems of Exploitation.

SAVE THE DATE!

Ecumenical Advocacy Days

April 16-19, 2016

Breaking the Chains on EAD Lobby Day 2015

Today, hundreds of Christians, including Presbyterians, will converge on Capitol Hill for meetings with the offices of their Senators and Representatives following PC(USA) Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day and Ecumenical Advocacy Days. This is the culmination of an Advocacy Training Weekend of learning about mass incarceration and systems of exploitation through keynote speakers, workshops, training, worship, and discussion time.

 

During these meetings today, these Christian advocates will be addressing these two issues –

 

1.     Eliminating the Immigrant Detention Bed Quota (in effect since 2009), a federal budgetary mandate stating that “34,000 detention beds” must be filled at any given time. In order to fill the detention bed quota law enforcement targets immigrants and detains them in mostly private detention centers where human rights abuses run rampant.

  

2.     Ending Mandatory Minimum Sentencing. Mandatory minimum sentences are      excessive and contribute to significant racial disparities in the federal prison system.

 

Both of these problems have contributed significantly to the explosion of incarceration in the United States.

 

Join fellow advocates by urging your Senators and Representatives to pass make these important policy changes. Click here to write to your Members of Congress today!

Striking the Quota from Appropriations bills

 

In the House, Congressmen Deutch (D-FL) and Foster (D-IL) will introduce an amendment to strike the quota language in the Fiscal Year 2016 Appropriations bill. Ask your Representatives to vote in favor of this amendment and garner support for the elimination of the quota. Detaining people just to meet a quota and to pad the profits of private prison companies is not only unjust. It is bad policy.

 

Smarter Sentencing

 

To address mandatory minimum sentencing, urge your Senators and Representatives to support the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2015 (S. 502/H.R. 920), sponsored by Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representatives Raúl Labrador (R-ID) and Bobby Scott (D-VA), and the Justice Safety Valve Act of 2015 (S. 353/H.R. 706), sponsored by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Patrick Leahy (R-VT) and Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Bobby Scott (D-VA).

 

The Smarter Sentencing Act would limit long mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, expand judicial discretion in cases involving the lowest level drug offenses, and reduce the federal prison population by retroactively implementing the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (a significant reduction in the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine).

 

The Justice Safety Valve Act would restore judicial discretion in all federal criminal cases by allowing the broadest departure from mandatory minimum sentences.

 

Read a detailed description of the lobby day ask here.

 

What does the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) say about these issues?

 

In 1910 the General Assembly declared that the church ought to stand “For the development of a Christian spirit in the attitude of society toward offenders against the law. The Church holds that a Christian society must seek the reformation of offenders…” (Minutes, PCUSA, 1910, Part I, p. 232). 

 

In 1988, the 200^th General Assembly reaffirmed that “individual Presbyterians and the entities of the General Assembly . . . advocate a social order where compassion and justice characterize efforts toward those in the criminal justice system.”

 

In 2003, the 215^th General Assembly stated in a “Resolution Calling for the Abolition of For-Profit Private Prisons” that “the ultimate goal of the criminal justice system should be restorative justice, addressing the hurts and the needs of the victim, the offender, and community in such a way that all might be healed.” Moreover, it states, “Since the goal of for-profit prisons is earning a profit for their shareholders, there is a basic and fundamental conflict with the concept of rehabilitation as the ultimate goal of the prison system.”

 

Join fellow Christians in this the lobby day by contacting your Senators and Representatives today.

Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day Announces Keynote Speakers! Register Today!

Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day Announces 2015 Keynote Speakers April 17, 2015 New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC Register today to hear how Presbyterians are paving the way for justice! On April 17th, Presbyterians from across the country will gather in Washington before the start of Ecumenical Advocacy Days. Together, through workshops and plenaries,  we will look at issues of Mass Incarceration and Systems of Exploitation and learn how individuals and congregations can make an impact in their community and their nation. Rev. Alonzo Johnson The Rev. Alonzo Johnson is the new Mission Associate with the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. Alonzo has concluded his service as the pastor/head of staff of Oak Lane Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA. He is a graduate of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (LPTS) and is currently a candidate for his Doctor of Ministry degree at LPTS. He is passionate about peacemaking and social justice issues and has rich experience in urban ministry with a focus on mentoring youth in the arts. For more information go to: https://www.pcusa.org/news/2015/1/26/rehabilitation-or-incarceration/ Eric LeCompte Eric LeCompte is the Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network and represents a civil society coalition of 75 US member organizations, 400 faith communities and 50 Jubilee global partners. Jubilee USA Network has won critical global financial reforms and more than $130 billion in debt relief to benefit the world's poorest people. He serves on expert working groups to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights. Eric has more than 15 years of experience working with faith-based organizations to impact global policy on poverty, conflict and human rights. Eric serves on several boards of faith-based and antipoverty organizations as well as institutions that work for greater financial transparency, including the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, where he serves on the executive board.  For more information go to: http://truth-out.org/speakout/item/22684-vulture-funds-religious-scotus-filing-on-argentinas-behalf Gail Tyree Tyree has had a long and distinguished career in grassroots and labor organizing in the South. She has been an international representative for the Workers United Labor Union; campaign director and organizer with Grassroots Leadership in Charlotte, North Carolina; campaign director for the Southern Faith Labor and Community Alliance in Memphis, Tennessee; and for 15 years was a project labor organizer with the Communications Workers of America. She has extensive experience planning organizing and campaign strategy; training and developing the leadership capacity of individuals and groups; and working closely with a range of constituencies, including religious congregations, labor, immigrant communities, and policymakers at the local and statewide level. Tyree is a member of the Federation of Union Representatives and a prior board member of the Mid-South Interfaith Network for Economic Justice. For More information go to: http://grassrootsleadership.org/blog/2012/10/social-justice-hero-gail-tyree

Save the Dates for CPJ Day and EAD 2015

Advocacy Training Weekend: Save the Dates!

April 17, 2015 – PC(USA) Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day

April 17-20, 2015 – Ecumenical Advocacy Days

Breaking the Chains:

Mass Incarceration & Systems of Exploitation

Come to Washington, DC, April 17-20, 2015, for the 13th Annual National Gathering of Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice titled, "Breaking the Chains:  Mass Incarceration and Systems of Exploitation."  

Join over 1,000 Christian advocates in building a movement to shake the foundations of systems of human exploitation (Acts 16:16-40), including a prison-industrial system that incarcerates millions of people in the U.S. and abroad.  A world that incarcerates so many and allows some to profit from the exploitation of slave, trafficked and forced labor remains far from the “beloved community” which we are all called to seek.

The U.S. makes up only five percent of the world's population yet holds nearly a quarter of the world's prisoners.  Still, “imprisonment” is a worldwide problem and takes various forms, as everywhere people around the world remain trapped in detention centers, prisons, factories and drug wars that bind and dehumanize individuals for political or economic profit. 

Lamentations asks, “When all the prisoners of the land are crushed under foot, when human rights are perverted in the presence of the Most High, when one’s case is subverted – does the Lord not see it?” (Lam. 3:34-36)  Do we?

As people of faith, we denounce the elements in our world that justify such systems of exploitation and mass incarceration.  At EAD, we will confess our personal and corporate failure to break the chains of poverty, racism, and greed institutionalized in our laws, economy, and social behaviors that collude to perpetuate such human exploitation and strip civil and human rights. 

As people of Hope, we are reminded that Jesus' radical message was one of liberation
for all and restoration of right relationships. Through prayer, worship, advocacy training,
networking and mobilization with other Christians, we will face the reality of mass incarceration and corporate exploitation, and call for national policies that bring liberation both to the prisoner and to a world in need of restoration – all culminating with EAD’s Congressional Lobby Day on Capitol Hill.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is proud to sponsor and collaborate in planning this conference that seeks to build a movement to shake the foundations of systems of exploitation (Acts 16). We further invite you to arrive early and attend “Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day,” an opportunity for Presbyterians to gather, reflect, educate, network, fellowship, and be in prayer together. Together we can build a movement to Break the Chains!