Unlocking Justice Organizing to Address Mass Incarceration George ge Dugars and Gloria Brown McNeil, Charles Hampton, Reinvested Communities Leaders 11x15 Campaign Leader Caitlin Dunklee, David Liners, Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy WISDOM (Gamaliel in Wisconsin) Moderated by Nicole D. Porter, The Sentencing Project October 21, 2014
Overview of Webinar � Introductions Reinvested Communities (Texas) � Campaign Strategies � Organizing Goals � Stories of Success � Q&A and Next 11x15 Campaign (Wisconsin) Steps
Community Leaders Gloria Brown McNeil Charles Hampton Texas Wisconsin
Organizers Caitlin Dunklee David Liners Texas Wisconsin
The Campaigns: Wisconsin and Texas 11x15 Campaign Reinvested Communities The “Eleven-by-Fifteen” Campaign is Leadership training in Texas for a challenge from the faith community • to all the people of the State of formerly incarcerated individuals, Wisconsin: families affected by incarceration, and people of faith. So that we might all have less wasteful, safer, healthier, and more just communities… Trainings in Austin and Houston • We must cut our prison population Expanding to communities all over by half • - to 11,000 - Texas by the end of 2015
The Campaigns: Organizing Bases 11x15 Campaign Reinvested Communities The Base The Base Formerly incarcerated • Members of 160 congregations • around the state (19 religious Families of incarcerated traditions) • Faith leaders 10 local 11x15 Campaign • • Committees Action teams • Formerly-Incarcerated Caucus • group Collaboration with Texas Inmate • Workgroups for various sub- Families Association and Texas • issues Interfaith Center for Public Policy
Organizing Approach Leadershi hip Develop lopment Work rkgrou oups � Voices of communities touched by incarceration � Sentencing must be heard at the Capitol � Treatment alternatives and diversions � Advocacy through bars � “In-prison” issues Transforming stigma and shame � � Post-release issues Poli licy Goals ls Action on Teams � Power of Sentencing � storytelling Treatment alternatives and diversions � � Know your rights “In-prison” issues � Messaging, media � Post-release issues � and language
Activities/Tactics Rallies, media events, trainings, Leadership trainings • • presentations Reentry myth busters • Madison Action Day and Messaging, media and language • • “Blueprint” this December Know your reentry rights • Constituent visits, hearings, etc. •
Success Stories Effecting change with leadership More than 250 • • from communities affected by presentations, to more than incarceration 4,000 people around the state Targeted leadership trainings in • Austin and Houston 1,000 people for a rally at the • State Capitol, March 2013 Working with action teams • directed by Community Leaders $4 million/year for increased • “Treatment Alternatives and Diversions” (TAD)
Next Steps for Advocates Strategy State and local analysis • Technical assistance • Identifying what’s • possible Research Fewer Prisoners, Less • Crime Racial Perceptions of • Crime State of Sentencing •
Contact Information Nicole D. Porter The Sentencing Project staff@sentencingproject.org Twitter: @SentencingProj Caitlin Dunklee David Liners WISDOM (Gamaliel in Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy Wisconsin) caitlin@texasinterfaith.org prayforjusticeinwi.org Facebook: Reinvested Communities wisdomforjustice@gmail.com jbartholow@wclp.org
Speaker: David Liners, Wisconsin David Liners is the state director for WISDOM, which consists of 10 interfaith social justice organizations around the state of Wisconsin. WISDOM is a multi-issue organization, but it is best known for its work to reform the criminal justice system and to end mass incarceration in Wisconsin. David Liners WISDOM State Director
Speaker: Charles Hampton, Wisconsin Charles Hampton is a leader in the faith-based WISDOM network in Wisconsin. Charles is also a funding member of The Table of the Saints, a group founded by men when they were in prison, which has continued outside the walls. Charles Hampton, 11x15 Campaign Leader
Speaker: Caitlin Dunklee, Texas Caitlin is the co-founder and co-director of Reinvested Communities. She holds a Master’s of Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor’s in Urban Affairs and Africana/Latino Studies from New York’s Hunter College. Caitlin has been a prison justice advocate and organizer for more than ten years. As a policy analyst for the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, Caitlin advanced legislative proposals to reduce Caitlin Dunklee incarceration during the 83rd Texas Legislative Session. Caitlin directed the Drop the Rock Reinvested Communities Campaign to repeal New York’s harsh and Co-Founder racially biased Rockefeller Drug Laws and helped to achieve major legislative reforms.
Speaker: Gloria Brown McNeil, Texas Gloria Brown McNeil is a Reinvested Communities Leader in Houston, Texas. Since retirement, she has worked with the Houston Independent School District as a School Nurse. Ms. Brown is anxiously awaiting the release of her nephew who is serving 23 years of incarceration. As she waits, she has been educating herself on how she can help her nephew with reentry into the “free world,” as he calls it. Currently, she volunteers as a Target Hunger Advisory Committee member Gloria Brown McNeil and Target Hunger Intake Clerk at Greater True Vine Baptist Church in Fifth Ward. Reinvested Communities Leader
Speaker: Shavailya Long, Texas Shavailya Long is a formerly incarcerated Reinvested Communities Leader. Born and raised in Houston, she is former health care worker. She looks forward to returning to nursing and owning her own business. She is an active member of Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church. Shavailya Long Reinvested Communities Leader
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