Decarcerate PA has recently put together a three part platform calling on Governor Corbett and Pennsylvania’s legislators to stop building new prisons, reduce the number of people in prison, and reinvest money in our schools and communities. We are reaching out to organizations across the state and asking them to sign on to this platform in order to demonstrate broad-based support for these policy changes. Already more than seventy organizations have endorsed this platform. If your organization would like to sign on, please contact us by email at decarceratePA@gmail.com or by phone at (267) 217-3372. Individuals can also sign on to the platform by clicking HERE. We look forward to working with you!
In response to massive protests during your recent visit with the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, you said protestors need to “get their facts straight.” You claimed that you shouldn't be blamed for the state’s prison expansion because you canceled the construction of a prison in Fayette County.
We have our facts straight, Governor. The canceled Fayette project was just a drop in the bucket. While slashing funding for education, social services, and healthcare, you are moving ahead with the $685 million construction of three new state prisons and the expansion of nine existing facilities. This expansion would add at least 5,000 beds to Pennsylvania’s prison system, costing the state approximately $165 million in additional operating expenses per year.
When Governor Corbett comes to Philly, he does so with good reason. Like, say, he speaks with the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the one group in Southeastern Pennsylvania that may still support his budget priorities. That’s what happened yesterday at the Prince Music Theater—and protesters from several community action groups were ready for his appearance.
Members of Fight for Philly, Decarcerate PA, the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, Act UP Philly, Occupy Philly and others began organizing on Chestnut, between Broad and 15th, just before 4 p.m., showing their homemade signs, handing out fliers and wrapping themselves in a red carpet to greet the governor, who had better sense than to walk in the front door.
The groups were there, they said, to protest the governor’s budget cuts and other priorities; things like tax loopholes, mass incarceration and cuts to public education. In all, I’d estimate the crowd grew to about 300 at its largest. After about an hour of chanting and building the crowd, leaders of the organizing groups spoke through a bullhorn, implying they hoped Corbett could hear them from outside.
Join the online mobilization and tweet your budget priorities using the hashtag #PAbudget to @GovernorCorbett. Then check out http://www.papeoplesbudget.org/ to see how your values measure up with Governor Corbett's.
As Corbett visits Philadelphia, massive protest challenges his controversial budget
Coalition demands to be a part of the ‘conversation with the governor’
Philadelphia: Cots will line the street outside of the Prince Theater (1412 Chestnut St) at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15, while Governor Corbett speaks inside as part of the annual Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce “Conversation with the Governor.” Demanding a “people’s budget,” each cot will compare the contentious $685 million plan to expand Pennsylvania’s prison system with alternative uses for these funds, namely restoring the hotly contested cuts to education, medical assistance and essential services.
Hundreds are expected to gather outside the center city theater in protest of what they are calling the governor’s broken budget. “Corbett’s budget cuts equal death for many of Pennsylvania’s residents” explained Paul Yabor from ACT UP Philadelphia, one of the organizations that sponsoring the protest. “Close to 90,000 low income children will no longer have access to medical assistance. Restricting access to food security and cash assistance is a devastating blow for Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable.”
The rally—endorsed by a wide range of organizations that includes Fight for Philly, ACT UP Philadelphia, Teacher Action Group, Occupy Philly, Coalition Advocating for Public Schools and Decarcerate PA—will vividly illustrate how the governor’s “wildly misplaced” priorities keep Pennsylvania prisons bloated at the expense of community needs across the state. Challenging the massive cuts to education, advocates point out that Philadelphia currently spends approximately $150,000 to educate one child from kindergarten through senior year but $330,000, to incarcerate the same person for ten years.
“These cuts directly threaten the future of our children,” says Anissa Weinraub from the Teacher Action Group. “With fewer resources, it is impossible to meet the needs of students and to effectively support their development and education. Governor Corbett is making his priorities clear—he does not value our children.”
Corbett cut nearly $1 billion from education spending last year, and his contentious 2012 budget proposal cuts more than $264 million from higher education along with other proposed cuts to mental health services, medical assistance, and the cash-strapped Philadelphia School District. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is currently spending $685 million dollars to build three new prisons—including two in Montgomery County, outside Philadelphia—and expand nine others. The Department of Corrections $1.8 billion budget remained untouched following last year’s 11% spending increase.
Protest organizers are further calling for an online mobilization to demand an end to all prison expansion and restore funding to education and social programs by tweeting these demands to @GovernorCorbett using the hashtag #pabudget.
“We need to shift resources away from prison expansion and invest in the kinds of programs and services that stabilize our communities. This can be accomplished through the passage of bills like Senator Greenleaf’s SB100, which brings our neighbors home and increases the likelihood that they can successfully stay home” said Dana Barnett of Decarcerate PA. “We need to build communities, not prisons.”
On Tuesday May 15th, Governor Corbett is coming to the Prince Theater in Philadelphia to address the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. During his time as governor, Corbett has made massive cuts to education, medical assistance, and social services while he is spending $685 million on new prison construction. His recent budget alone proposes $264 million in cuts to higher education, $319 million in cuts to general assistance, and a funding change that cuts another $21.6 million from Philly's public schools. More recently the School Reform Commission, an entity created by Harrisburg when the state took control over Philadelphia's School District in 2001, has put forward a plan to close 64 public schools.
Governor Corbett has made his priorities very clear: Corporate tax breaks, mass incarceration and environmental devastation.
Join Decarcerate PA, the Teacher Action Group, the Coalition Advocating for Public Schools, ACT UP, Fight for Philly, and many others as we demand a different set of priorities for Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania needs quality public schools, stable housing, jobs and job training programs, health care and food access, drug and alcohol treatment programs, community-based reentry services, and non-punitive programs that address the root causes of violence in our communities. Instead of building more prisons we need policy changes that reduce the prison population and reinvest resources in our schools and communities.
Join us to demand that PA build communities, not prisons!
Statewide Coalition Demands Moratorium on Prison Construction
Decarcerate PA to Corbett: Get Serious about Justice Reinvestment
Philadelphia, PA – In an open letter to Governor Corbett that was released today, the statewide coalition Decarcerate PA demands that the governor declare a moratorium on pending prison construction while the newly formed Justice Reinvestment Working Group assesses the state's bloated prison system. The coalition’s letter also calls on Corbett to include two key stakeholder communities that have been excluded from the Justice Reinvestment process: formerly incarcerated people and representatives from Philadelphia.
“Formerly incarcerated people and their families are a crucial part of any conversation about community health, safety, and resources,” said Hakim Ali of Reconstruction, Incorporated, a community-based re-entry organization in North Philadelphia. “But the Justice Reinvestment Working Group isn't listening to us.”
In the letter, which was sent to Governor Corbett, Department of Corrections’ Secretary Wetzel, Mark Zimmer of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, and every member of the Justice Reinvestment Working Group, Decarcerate PA commends the Working Group’s stated mission, but calls on it to go further to bring all stakeholders to the table. The letter also points out that the Council of State Government Justice Center, which is partnering with Pennsylvania on this effort, has called into question the need for the state's $685 million plan to build new prisons.
The Justice Reinvestment Working Group is a collection of judges, lawmakers, and others who were convened by the governor in January 2012 to make recommendations on how the state can reduce corrections spending, decrease recidivism, and enhance public safety.
The Working Group, which has held one private meeting to date, is tasked with holding focus groups and soliciting input from key stakeholders. Still, this committee does not include people who are currently or formerly incarcerated or their families.
“We do not need and cannot afford more prisons,” said Dan Berger of Decarcerate PA. “The justice reinvestment process is a chance for our state to pull back from the brink of a disgraceful prison crisis. If Governor Corbett is sincerely committed to the process, he must cancel any and all plans to build or expand the state's prison system.”
Thanks to everyone who came out yesterday for our three part march to demand that Pennsylvania 1) stop building new prisons, 2) let people out of prison, and 3) reinvest money in our schools and communities.
And special thanks to all the amazing groups who spoke at the rally, including the Human Rights Coalition, the Returning Citizens Voters Movement, Fight for Philly, And Justice For All, No Time-Bar 4 Innocence, the Anti-Curfew Committee, the Youth Art and Self Empowerment Project, Ex-Offenders For Community Empowerment, ACT UP, Youth United For Change, the Media Mobilizing Project, the One Love Movement, the Teacher Action Group, Reconstruction Inc., and International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Also big thanks to Spiral Q for helping us make the props!
When Governor Corbett comes to Philly, he does so with good reason. Like, say, 
