Prison Justice Resources
- Sunday, August 28, 2016 (9:30-10:20am) Sheila Clever will speak again on the “Pipeline to Prison Learning Tour” to the adult Sunday school class at West Swamp Mennonite Church, 2501 Allentown Road, Quakertown. Sheila was one of 16 participants who spent six days visiting prisons and prison-related facilities in Pennsylvania and will report on what she learned about the impact of mass incarceration in our state.
- Allentown’s Community Corrections Center at 6th and Hamilton Streets is closing. J.B. Riley plans to build a 12-story “Tower 6″ where the Corrections Center is now located, so the lease will not be renewed, and Corrections Center residents will be moved to other facilities.
- National Institute of Justice “Crime Solutions” database of evidence-based crime-prevention programs
- Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising, National Institute of Justice, U. of Maryland (about 1996).
- Description of the crimesolutions.gov database that was inaugurated in 2011.
- Other Publications from the National Reentry Resource Center
- Higher Education Pilot Program For PA Inmates.
The U.S. Department of Education has revamped a higher education program for prisoners, and four schools in the Commonwealth have been selected to participate. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Villanova, Bloomsburg University and the Lehigh Carbon Community College will create the curriculum to educate prisoners selected for the grants under the new Second Chance Pell Grant pilot.
Press Release (MSWord Document) - Mandatory Minimum Sentences in PA will not be Reconsidered. Although mandatory minimum sentences are now ruled unconstitutional in Pennsylvania, the PA Supreme Court has announced that mandatory minimum sentences will not be revisited for prisoners who are already serving time.
Anti-Racism Resources
- 23 Ways You Could be Killed if You are Black in America (YouTube video clip)
Gun Violence Prevention
- Interfaith Coalition Urges Immediate Steps to Mend Divisions between Communities and Law Enforcement. A July 14th a letter to Congress signed by 50 faith-based organizations supports legislation to mend police & community divisions:
– Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act of 2015 (S. 2168/H.R. 2875) and
– End Racial Profiling Act (S. 1056 /H.R. 1933).
The letter is posted here.
Pennsylvania Shalom Conference
- Pennsylvania Shalom Conference – sponsored by PA Council of Churches
Sept. 24-25, 2016 (Saturday 6:00pm – Sunday 4:00pm)
Pennsylvania’s first ever “Shalom Conference” will be held at The Hartman Center, a UCC retreat center on 5725 Old US Hwy. 322 in Milroy, PA 17063. We know that peacemaking work can be lonely work. The Pennsylvania Council of Churches is hosting this event in hopes of building a statewide network of peacemakers that will make peacemaking less lonely. Peacemakers of all types, including those who struggle against systemic racism, environmental destruction, torture, domestic violence, gun violence, are all invited to participate in this conference.
– Saturday evening: Shane Claiborne, a founding member of the Simple Way Community in Philadelphia and author of influential books Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President
– Sunday afternoon: Saadia Ahmad, current McCormack Scholar and Master’s student in Conflict Resolution at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
– Registration: $100 (includes food, but bring your own towels and bedding)
For details and registration, contact Sandy Strauss, s.strauss@pachurches.org,
717-545-4761, or see www.pachurches.org/event/shalom-conference.
