Standing up for Prison Reform
With more incarcerated Americans than ever, criminal justice reform has become an urgent and important issue. Activists across the United States are working towards:
Reducing harsh prison sentences
Changing the drug sentencing policy surrounding the war on drugs
Decriminalizing certain laws, including drug policies
Prioritizing rehabilitation of offenders, especially juvenile offenders
Altering policies surrounding food assistance programs and voting rights for previous offenders
Changing minimum sentencing laws
How you can help:
Volunteer or give to support the following organizations:
Women’s Prison Association - works with women at all stages of criminal justice involvement
The Marshall Project - a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system
The Sentencing Project - works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration
FAMM - public education and targeted advocacy to create a more fair and effective justice system
Books Through Bars - an all-volunteer-run group that sends free, donated books to incarcerated people across the nation
Black and Pink - working to abolish the criminal punishment system and to liberate LGBTQIA2S+ people/people living with HIV who are affected by that system
Service Network for Children of Inmates - supports the children of incarcerated people
Young Women’s Freedom Center - works to break cycles of poverty, incarceration, criminalization, exploitation and violence that harm girls, women and transgender, gender non-conforming (TGNC) people of color
Activists are working to address the issues that contribute to mass incarceration legislatively as well.
Most states have a reform act — learn about what's happening in your state, call your representatives, and vote.
Educate yourself about criminal justice reform and why it’s important.
This is only a brief introduction to what is an extremely fraught and complex issue. Each of the organizations above offers pathways to more information about the criminal justice system and how communities are affected by mass incarceration.
We also recommend the following essays and stories responding to the justice system in the United States.
‘It’s Just Heartbreaking’: Families Search for Answers as Death Rate Rises in Mississippi Prisons
Prison deaths in Mississippi have climbed nearly 40 percent in recent years, from 62 in fiscal year 2014 to a high of 85 in fiscal year 2018.
by Lauren Gill
Desert bloom: My wedding day, inside a California prison
by Keonna Harris*
Missing Daddy
A child narrator explores the emotions she feels surrounding her father’s incarceration.
by Mariame Kaba
Awakening to a Mass-Supervision Crisis
Paroled from prison, Kelly Savage entered a world that could feel as restrictive as the one she left.
by Priscilla A. Ocen*
Angola’s Angst
A disquieting tour through the largest maximum-security prison in the nation
by Beth Shelburne*
*We discovered these writers through the PEN America Writing For Justice Fellowship — another valuable resource for learning and storytelling that illuminates and sparks debate about critical issues related to mass incarceration.