Civil Society Issues — Galsworthy Criminal Justice Reform Program

Galsworthy Criminal Justice Reform Program

Civil Society Issues

Many issues that are primary drivers of mass incarceration cannot be remedied through government solutions alone. Issues such as broken families and mental health, both forever altered by over criminalization, cannot be simply be repaired through legislation. Civil Society has the unique capability to address certain social issues that government cannot, or to address them more effectively than government can. This section also addresses issues in which over-policing attempts to fix issues that should be handled through the community.

A Top Justice Reform Funder Targets the Prison System, Aiming for “Radical Change”

“The bulk of this initial commitment funds two organizations—$10 million to the Urban Institute and $7 million to the Vera Institute of Justice. In the context of rising philanthropic engagement in justice reform, Vera’s president Nicholas Turner called Arnold’s investment ‘unique in terms of size and scale and what it’s targeting.’ He added, ‘Arnold is saying that the effort to dismantle mass incarceration requires us to look at the condition of mass incarceration, the how and why and what of incarceration, and that’s a unique statement’.“

Inside Philanthropy

May 20, 2019

Civil Society SolutionsPhillip ReevesMay 20, 2019Inside Philanthropy, Vera Institute, Urban Institute, Arnold VenturesComment

The ‘American Taliban’ will be free after 17 years. Is the U.S. ready to welcome him back?

“Lindh and other incarcerated American supporters of Islamic militants present a quandary with growing urgency: Is the United States prepared to try to rehabilitate extremists and foreign fighters, and welcome them back into society? “

Washington Post

May 20, 2019

Civil Society SolutionsPhillip ReevesMay 20, 2019Washington Post, John Walker LindhComment

Black Mama’s Bail Out helps moms get out for holiday

“Since her release, Vernon, the Grant Park mother of two, has volunteered with the Atlanta chapter of Southerners on New Ground (SONG), a regional nonprofit that works on social justice and LGBTQ issues. For the past three years, the Atlanta SONG chapter has participated in the Black Mama’s Bail Out, an initiative that raises money to help secure the release of mothers and caregivers from jails. It’s part of a national collective of organizations working on ending cash bail.“

Atlanta Journal Constitution

May 9, 2019

Bail ReformPhillip ReevesMay 9, 2019Atlanta Journal Constitution, Black Mama's Bail OutComment

Why We Need a Code of Ethics in U.S. Crime Reporting

“The Society of Professional Journalists already has an impressive “Code of Ethics” that, among other things, enjoins journalists to “avoid stereotyping (and) never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information.” But it needs to weigh in on what responsibilities journalists owe the public when it comes to reporting on public safety and criminal justice–a code of ethics, perhaps, for crime journalism.“

The Crime Report

May 8, 2019

Media CoveragePhillip ReevesMay 8, 2019The Crime ReportComment

Long Island City’s Fortune Society helps the formerly jailed find employment, one necktie at a time

“‘I can tell you what it meant for me when I came home from prison and tied my first tie,’ The Fortune Society Executive Vice President Stanley Richards said. ‘It meant there was an acknowledgment of my humanity and my participation in society’.“

Queens News Service

May 3, 2019

EmploymentPhillip ReevesMay 3, 2019Queens News Service, Queens, New York City, Fortune SocietyComment

“A Sliver of Light:” Maine’s Top Election Official on Voting From Prison

“When I talked with one of the social workers at the prison about the driver’s license, they said that it’s like that sliver of light that comes in through the ceiling. For some of them, it’s their last connection to the outside world, having a driver’s license. There’s a little bit of humanity involved here as well. Much of the way we handle corrections is very vengeful, you lock somebody away forever. I’m not judging whether or not that’s appropriate, but you cannot deny that you are still working with human beings, people who have a psychological structure that is greatly impacted by their incarceration.“

The Appeal Political Report

May 2, 2019

Felon DisenfranchisementPhillip ReevesMay 2, 2019The Appeal Political Report, MaineComment

How Private Equity Is Turning Public Prisons Into Big Profits

“Bianca Tylek, the founder of Worth Rises, an advocacy group that tracks commercial interests in corrections, has catalogued 3,100 companies with a financial stake in mass incarceration. Her findings were released last April in a Corrections Accountability Project report and include not only the well-known, publicly traded private-prison contractors but also divisions within companies with household names like Amazon, General Electric, and Stanley Black & Decker.“

The Nation

April 30, 2019

Personalism, OvercriminalizationPhillip ReevesApril 30, 2019The NationComment

Bernie Sanders Explains Why He Supports Voting Rights for All Citizens

“The Appeal: Political Report talked to Sanders about his position on voting rights, why he supports ending felony disenfranchisement, and what he sees in Vermont, where people can vote from prison. The interview has been condensed and lightly edited.“

The Appeal Political Report

April 30, 2019

Felon DisenfranchisementPhillip ReevesApril 30, 2019The Appeal Political Report, Bernie SandersComment

Pete Buttigieg Says Incarcerated People Shouldn't Get to Vote

“Buttigieg's reasoning—that prisoners lose their rights while in prison and that they're ‘removed from political life’—is circular. As Vann Newkirk wrote in The Atlantic last year, it's the same as saying a prisoner can't vote because they're a prisoner. ‘Even death-row inmates retain a broad array of constitutional rights," Newkirk says, "including access to due process, the right to sue, and the right to appeal. Why is the right to vote excluded’?“

GQ

April 23, 2019

Felon DisenfranchisementPhillip ReevesApril 23, 2019GQ, Pete ButtigiegComment

Alabama senator says Christians ‘should speak out’ over prison conditions, sparking reaction

““No one in this state should read this report and just roll their eyes,” Ward said to AL.com. “It’s a disgrace to our state. I know everyone says, ‘They are criminals’ and ‘Who cares?’ We profess to be the most Christian state in the country, but no Christian would allow their fellow man to be treated the way that they are said to be treated. That may not be the popular view, but it’s the truth.”“

Birmingham News

April 22, 2019

The ChurchPhillip ReevesApril 22, 2019Birmingham News, Alabama, Cam Ward, St Clair County, St Clair PrisonComment

Drawing from Memory: A Former Prisoner Creates Art from Pain and Loss

“In “Saints, Sinners & Lost Beginners,” from 2014, hundreds of open-mouthed figures crowd towards a wall with a slot machine. “It was sort of about the appeal system,” Nardone said. “Everyone was turning a blind eye, even God. The dice are snake eyes.” In “Silence...Repent,” from 2005, prisoners appear to live in repetitious anonymity, in rings that orbit the earth. In “Last One Done in a Cell,” from 2016, a hand reaches up towards a ladder, surrounded by cell bars, as pocket watches fall from the sky: “Every watch has a time that represents when I lost someone while I was in prison. I went in with a flesh and blood family, and I came out to tombstones.”“

The Marshall Project

April 22, 2019

Access to Outside WorldPhillip ReevesApril 22, 2019The Marshall ProjectComment

2,000 Leaked Photos Show the Cruelty of an Alabama Prison. Should They Be Published?

“So whose approach was right? That’s a question that Pete Brook, a curator and researcher of the history of prison photography, recently asked his students to consider. Brook, who runs the blog Prison Photography, teaches a class on the topic inside San Quentin State Prison. He shared his students’ responses to the question, posed at the start of the Times story—“Would we fix our prisons if we could see what happens inside them?”—with Mother Jones. Their statements reflect the ethical gray area of the issue.“

Mother Jones

April 19, 2019

Media CoveragePhillip ReevesApril 19, 2019Mother Jones, Alabama, St Clair County, St Clair PrisonComment

A Blueprint for a Safer, Saner Society

“A prison inmate can’t commit a crime on the outside, so the longer the sentence, the safer we are, right? That is a tenet of the law-and-order movement, which arose in reaction to violent protests in American cities in the 1960s and has dictated criminal-justice policy for 50 years. But as Rachel Elise Barkow, a widely respected legal scholar at New York University School of Law and an expert in the administration of criminal justice, explains in her important new book, “longer sentences can actually threaten public safety.”“

The American Scholar

April 18, 2019

Civil Society SolutionsPhillip ReevesApril 18, 2019American Scholar, Rachel BarkowComment

The Advocate wins first Pulitzer Prize for series that helped change Louisiana's split- jury law

“The Advocate was awarded its first Pulitzer Prize on Monday for reporting on the racial impacts of Louisiana’s unique laws allowing juries to convict defendants without a unanimous verdict. The Advocate’s coverage set the stage for Louisiana’s voters to amend the state constitution, seven months later, to demand unanimous verdicts in criminal cases.“

The Advocate

April 15, 2019

Civil Society SolutionsPhillip ReevesApril 15, 2019The Advocate, Louisiana, Pulitzer PrizeComment

Opinion: Tell Me Again Why Prisoners Can’t Vote

“But the growing tide against felon disenfranchisement raises a related question: Why disenfranchise felons at all? Why not let prisoners vote — and give the franchise to the roughly 1.5 million people sitting in federal and state prisons? Why must supposedly universal adult suffrage exclude people convicted of crimes?“

New York Times

April 11, 2019

Felon DisenfranchisementPhillip ReevesApril 11, 2019New York TimesComment

The Ambiguous Reality of Police Integrity

“‘Once they were out on the streets, experiencing the realities of the job, their results changed,’ Dr. Blumberg acknowledged. ‘Very bluntly, we found a significant drop in participants’ integrity scores. It sounds kind of shocking to me, but it appears that police work played a part in lowering participants’ commitment to ethical principles’.“

The Crime Report

April 2, 2019

Police ViolencePhillip ReevesApril 2, 2019The Crime ReportComment

Taming wild horses brings change to Nevada inmates

“Nevada prison inmates are taming wild horses gathered from public lands across the West in a partnership program that is changing the prisoners, too. Hundreds of Nevada inmates have been taming the horses since 2000 as part of the program involving the federal Bureau of Land Management and the state Department of Corrections, the Las Vegas Sun reported Wednesday. The animals are given up for adoption after 120 days of training.“

The Spectrum

March 31, 2019

Civil Society SolutionsPhillip ReevesMarch 31, 2019The Spectrum, Nevada, HorsesComment

A playwright realized she had collected the love stories of our time. Her source? People visiting inmates at Rikers.

“I came to Columbus Circle at midnight and found a whole fleet of buses. All these women, children and even some men were boarding these buses to go to the upstate correctional facilities. They would ride all night, go through a long, degrading security process, just to spend a few hours with their loved ones, before taking the bus home. As I talked to those women, I knew I was witnessing one of the great love stories of our time.“

Washington Post

March 28, 2019

Civil Society SolutionsPhillip ReevesMarch 28, 2019Washington Post, Liza Jessie Peterson, The Peculiar PatriotComment

Criminal Justice Legislation Means Nothing Without Follow-Through

“Here is the strangest part of both the Charles predicament and the Florida mess: If people simply chose to treat the formerly incarcerated by the letter of the law, and like fellow citizens, we could avoid all of this. “

Rolling Stone

March 21, 2019

PersonalismPhillip ReevesMarch 21, 2019Rolling Stone, Matthew CharlesComment

House committee passes Amendment 4 bill along party lines

“Voting along party lines, Republicans advanced the measure, which would require felons pay back all court fees and costs before being eligible to vote, even if those costs are not handed down by a judge as part of the person’s sentence. That standard goes beyond the old system, which only required someone pay back restitution to a victim before applying to have their civil rights restored. And Democratic representatives and others blasted it.“

Tampa Bay Times

March 19, 2019

Felon DisenfranchisementPhillip ReevesMarch 19, 2019Amendment 4, FloridaComment