Criminal Justice

What You Can Do to Reform the Criminal Justice System

by Matt Kelley

Published October 05, 2008 @ 11:14AM PST

Our prisons and jails are home to 1 in 100 Americans. In our courts, in police interrogations rooms, in prison cells and in halfway houses, the human rights of our fellow citizens are often compromised - and it's rare to hear about a helping hand extended after release from prison. Below are some actions you can take today to humanize our criminal justice system.

1. Donate books to prison libraries. Educational offerings in many prisons are sparse, and the library shelves are bare, so even inmates with the motivation to improve themselves are denied access to educational materials. Dozens of organizations around the country provide books on request to prisoners and help to fill prison libraries with important resources. Most only accept paperbacks, and they especially need ‘how to' guides, dictionaries and books about African-American and Latin American history. Find a program near you.

2. Visit a prisoner. Long-term inmates often refer to friends and family on the outside as their lifeline, saying they wouldn't have made it decades without their visits and correspondence. Prisoner Visitation connects volunteers with federal prisoners who don't have visitors, helping isolated prisoners socialize and grow through their connection with the outside world.

Visit Prisoner Visitation's website to volunteer as a visitor today.

3. Make a donation. Non-profit organizations need your financial support to fight the drug war, support prisoner rehabilitation and overturn wrongful convictions. Even $5 makes a difference.

A few organizations that need your help:

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund - promotes racial justice across the U.S., seeking to ensure that African Americans are treated fairly in the criminal justice system.

ACLU Prisoners Rights Project - defends fairness and civil rights for American prisoners.

Amnesty International - works to end human rights abuses around the world. Does a great deal of work on international prison and detention conditions.

Drug Policy Alliance - worksworking to end the U.S. War on Drugs through decriminalization of marijuana and alternatives to incarceration for other non-violent drug crimes.

The Innocence Project - works to overturn wrongful convictions through DNA testing and reform the criminal justice system based on lessons learned from exonerations. (full disclosure: I work as the Innocence Project's Online Communications Manager.)

4. Overturn a wrongful conviction. Advocates and inmates seeking to overturn wrongful convictions often need volunteers to raise awareness, conduct letter-writing campaigns and donate their professional skills. Learn about several cases that need your help and get involved today.

5. Spread the word. Tell your friends that you care about reforming the criminal justice system. Post a comment on this blog or other criminal justice blogs. Host a community event to raise awareness of a case or to raise money for an organization.

6. Teach or mentor in a local prison or jail. Prisons across the country are seeking volunteers of all kinds, and we all have something to teach. Nearly 20% of U.S. prisoners are completely illiterate. By teaching an inmate to read and write, you are providing them with a  world of new opportunity. Contact a prison or jail in your area and offer to share your expertise - whether it's in reading, writing, knitting or plumbing.

Search for your state department of corrections for contact information here.

7. Help to abolish the death penalty. Do you oppose the death penalty? The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty's action center invites you to send letters to elected representatives and help build momentum to end the death penalty in the U.S.

8. Support the arts in prison. Art study and practice is popular among prisoners, but most don't have access to this luxury. You can help by donating art supplies, buying prisoner artwork, or volunteering to share your expertise in theater, writing, drawing or painting. Get involved here.

9. Give a helping hand; hire a formerly incarcerated person. Give an individual with a criminal record another chance. Thousands of Americans are released from prison each year, most of them convicted of non-violent crimes. These formerly incarcerated individuals face the toughest job market imaginable, because so few employers will hire them. Employ someone with a criminal record - you're giving them a hand and you'll qualify for federal tax credits.

The Hire Network

America Works

10.  Write to your elected representatives about the War on Drugs. If you support decriminalization of drugs or simply lesser sentences for non-violent offenses, tell your representatives. The momentum is building for a more humane drug policy in the U.S. and you can help make the difference.  Get talking points and contact info on your elected representatives here.

Comments

  1. Jacqueline Caron

    HOW LONG IS LONG ENOUGH?

    For any man or woman convicted of a crime, successfully completing their sentence, along with any assigned parole or probation, is just the beginning. After their release from confinement, they are faced with re-integrating themselves back into their community – often in the same area and with the same influences that provided them opportunity to break the law in the first place. Their search for employment is often stonewalled by the fact that they now have a conviction on their record. Employers performing a routine search find the negative information, and unless they are part of a progressive federal or state program, or willing to give the applicant a second chance, the applicant is put at the bottom of the list of candidates – if they remain on the list at all. The goal of improving their own economic status and fighting the impulse to return to their former ways is complicated further by the fact that even advanced education – like a master’s degree – is often not enough to convince a potential employer to give them another chance.Apartment leases, home mortgages, opening a bank account or a credit card, and many other processes that non-offenders take for granted are often closed to these individuals. This situation continues for as long as the conviction stays on their record, and with the advent of computers, the information is even easier to find. How long is long enough for a person convicted of a crime, who has successfully completed their parole and / or probation, to continue to pay for that crime? The Connecticut Pardon Team was founded in 2004 to provide tools and information for individuals convicted of a crime who are interested in clearing their record through the Expungement/Provisional Pardon process within the state of Connecticut st through our Expungement/Provisional Pardon Assistance Program. 
                                  Jacqueline Caron, Founder / Chairwoman
    Connecticut Pardon Team, Inc.
    P.O. Box 807 ~ 307 Main Street
    Norwich, Connecticut 06360
    Toll-free: 1-866-251-3810
    Local (Norwich): 1-860-823-1571
    http://www.connecticutpardonteam.com
      

    Posted by Jacqueline Caron on 12/20/2008 @ 05:58PM PST

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  2. Lorraine Moriarty

    There is a need in the USA to create a movement of people willing to work to change our retributive justice system to one of restorative or transformative justice.   One way to start is to register for daily Google Alerts on Restorative Justice to become educated and find out what is happening in the restorative justice movement around the world.   The needs of all those impacted by crime need to be addressed - victims, their families, perpetrators and their families and community stakeholders.   It is time for true change in the criminal justice system in the USA...restorative justice at all levels appears to be the best alternative to a retributive justice system that is irreparably broken.

    Posted by Lorraine Moriarty on 12/29/2008 @ 08:37PM PST

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Matt Kelley Matt Kelley
Brooklyn, NY

Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.

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