Every issue of our newsletter we feature one of the many awesome organizations who have signed on to our platform. Check out the complete list at http://decarceratepa.info/platform

In the last issue of our newsletter, we reported extensively on the efforts of prisoners at SCI Coal Township to achieve conditions that meet even the most basic civil and human rights standards. In June 2014, more than 1,300 prisoners at SCI Coal staged a historic week-long boycott of the dining hall in protest of cuts to their food portions.

On August 28th, people concerned about the fate of individuals sentenced to Life Without Parole gathered at the Capitol in Harrisburg and held a Rally to Restore Meaningful Commutation. The event was largely organized by Let’s Get Free: the Women and Trans Prisoner Defense Committee, and supported by Decarcerate PA, New Voices Pittsburgh: Women of Color for Reproductive Justice, Human Rights Coalition, and Fight for Lifers West, among other organizations.

So far, gubernatorial hopeful Tom Wolf has had little to say about how he’d address Pennsylvania’s mass incarceration crisis. With less than a week remaining before the election, over 51,000 people in prison and a $2 billion+ corrections budget, it is past time that Wolf tells us where he stands on mass incarceration.