Recent Press

Media folks, sign in and be the first to know!

PHILADELPHIA TRIBUNE: Group vows to fight Revictimization Relief Act

tribune logoWednesday, October 29, 2014 5:00 am
By Samaria Bailey 

A group of social activists said they will fight the Revictimization Relief Act recently signed into law by Gov. Tom Corbett, because it violates the First Amendment.

The unified announcement during a press conference on Wednesday was organized by The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, a coalition of human rights and prisoners’ rights organizations and individuals, and included speeches by Suzanne Ross — Free Mumia Coalition (NYC); Patrice Armstead of Building People’s Power; Betsey Piette of Worker’s World newspaper; Layne Mullett of Decarcerate; Pastor Renee McKenzie; Church of the Advocate; Shandre Delaney from Justice for the Dallas 6; Derrick Stanley, a freed member of the Dallas 6; and Ramona Africa, a survivor of the 1985 MOVE bombing." 

PRISON LEGAL NEWS: Pennsylvania Activists Arrested for Protesting Construction of New Prison Complex

logo for prison legal newsPrison Legal News October, 2014, page 48

Seven members of Decarcerate PA, a grassroots coalition working to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania, were arrested while protesting the construction of a new two-prison complex in that state. The protest was to highlight the $400 million cost to build the facilities, which could be better spent on schools.

To make that point, the protestors set up 10 school-style desks with apples and notebooks across the entrance to the construction site for the prisons, which is on the grounds of SCI Graterford. They also set up a mock schoolhouse in what they said was the “first-ever act of civil disobedience to block prison construction in Pennsylvania.”

EXPRESS-TIMES: Pennsylvania's addiction to prison-building a moral, economic disaster

By Robert Walden and Thomas Dichter
October 11, 2014

In their last two debates, neither Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett nor Tom Wolf has spoken a word about mass incarceration. Yet the Department of Corrections is the third largest item in the state budget, costing more than $2 billion in 2014-15.

Pennsylvania has opened 20 new state prisons in the past 35 years. Next year the DOC is slated to open two more at a cost of $400 million, although opposition to continued prison growth is building across the national political spectrum. The two new prisons, both in Montgomery County, are to be named "Phoenix I and II." But given the economic, public safety, and moral disaster that mass incarceration has proven to be for Pennsylvania, the only thing rising from the ashes is the DOC budget.

Philadelphians demand answers on mass incarceration from PA’s next Governor

For Immediate Release: September 30, 2014
Attn: News Desk

Philadelphia PA - At 7:30 am on October 1st, people from across the city are expected to gather outside the KYW Studios at 1555 Hamilton Street, where Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett and gubernatorial hopeful Tom Wolf will meet for a breakfast debate. While some attendees will be there to support a specific candidate, many are coming to demand answers from Pennsylvania’s next Governor no matter who wins in November.

Generocity.org: Protests in Harrisburg Call for Increased Commutation for Lifers

By Alex Vuocolo | Posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014

The Pennsylvania Board of Pardons voted on Thursday, August 28, not to grant Avis Lee, who has been imprisoned since she was a teenager, a chance to reduce her sentence of life without parole through the commutation process. Friends and supporters of Lee filed out of the hearing room in the East Wing of the Capital Building in Harrisburg with looks of disbelief.

Patriot News: Advocates call for changes to how Pa. commutes life prison sentences

By Charles Thompson on August 28, 2014

A small group of protesters rallied at the state capitol Thursday for a loosening of the legal requirements for commutation of a life sentence.

The advocates argued that the 1997 amendment to the state constitution requiring a unanimous recommendation from the state's Board of Pardons as a threshold for clemency has effectively ended mercy for lifers — who by definition have been convicted of murder and can't qualify for regular parole — here.

Patriot News Op Ed: Gov. Corbett's prison reform effort doesn't look much like 'justice' or 'reinvestment' at all

July 22, 2014 
By Ben Felker-Quinn and Ashley Henderson

As Gov. Tom Corbett made a spectacle last week of his own priorities for next year's budget, he seemed increasingly desperate to make good on unfulfilled promises.

The same could be said of his efforts at prison reform. For the fourth year in a row, Corbett pushed through a budget that significantly increases funding for Pennsylvania's prison system, sending an additional $78 million to the Department of Corrections.

Pages

Subscribe to Recent Press