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The growing movement for criminal justice reform

Photo credit: "President Barack Obama walks in the Residential Drug Abuse Prevention Unit at El Reno Prison after making a statement to the press, in El Reno, Okla., July 16, 2015." Official White House Photo by Pete Souza, public domain.

Last month, President Obama became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison, touring the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma. During his visit, he acknowledged that if it weren’t for the privilege of his family support, he could have ended up inside prison walls rather than inside the White House.

The visit capped off more than a week of speeches and announcements about criminal justice reform, including the commutation of 46 people who were given mandatory minimum jail sentences for drug offenses. The President also addressed the national convention of NAACP, calling for sweeping changes to the “broken” criminal justice system.

The President’s call is part of a growing bipartisan movement for reform. Last month, EJUSA’s Marc Hyden gave a briefing to staffers from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill, and groups like the ACLU, the Center for American Progress, Right on Crime, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, and others are forming coalitions to work together. The need for reform is becoming a hot topic for celebrities, candidates, lawmakers, and organizations.

This is great news. But despite this broad spectrum of support, EJUSA believes the conversation isn’t quite broad enough.

Much of the focus on ending mass incarceration centers on the need to reduce or eliminate sentences for drug crimes or other offenses categorized as nonviolent. In response, several recent articles make the case that reducing or ending these sentences alone will not make a significant dent in mass incarceration, and the only real solution is to also release people convicted of violent crimes. The New York Times recently featured a new tool by the Urban Institute that allows you to select a policy change and see how it will impact the prison population.

“The mass incarceration debate too often gets mired in false choices between addressing the problem on the front or back end (admissions versus length of stay) and questions about the relative impact of focusing on nonviolent or violent offenses,” writes the Urban Institute.

The debate also gets mired in the false choice of locking people up or doing nothing, but much gets lost in these simplistic dichotomies. By focusing exclusively on how many people are in prison and whether or not to let them out, a range of questions are missed: how to help people harmed by crime to rebuild their lives, how to prevent violence before it occurs, and how people can be accountable to those they’ve harmed in ways that are forward-looking and constructive.

A recent study of people on death row in Texas found “a litany of childhood horror” in the backgrounds of the people who committed capital crimes. The article goes on to quote a range of research that backs up the finding. One study found that among 43 men on death row, “an astonishing 94 percent had been physically abused, 59 percent sexually abused, and 83 percent had witnessed violence in adolescence.” Another by a U.K. professor identified that trauma experiences in childhood are key features for young people who commit violence. Her study found 91 percent of young offenders had experienced abuse and/or loss.

This research lends insights that go beyond the narrow question of whether and how to punish people, indicating that many violent crimes might be prevented if we do a better job identifying and treating trauma when it happens. The discussion around criminal justice reform must expand to include developing effective responses to violence that address trauma, meet the needs of the people harmed, and break the cycle of both violence and incarceration in the future. EJUSA’s growing trauma advocacy program seeks to ensure that this part of the conversation isn’t lost.

Photo credit: “President Barack Obama walks in the Residential Drug Abuse Prevention Unit at El Reno Prison after making a statement to the press, in El Reno, Okla., July 16, 2015.” Official White House Photo by Pete Souza, public domain.

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Young liberty activists continue to question the death penalty

EJUSA’s Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP) project spoke to a standing room only crowd of young liberty activists at last month’s Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) National Conference.

YAL members at the workshop learned more about the death penalty and the movement to end it. One participant approached EJUSA’s Marc Hyden after the workshop with a confession. “I came here tonight for the sole purpose of heckling you,” he said. “Now I am 100% with you.”

This kind of reaction is nothing new to CCATDP. If skepticism of government programs is a core tenant of the liberty movement, what could be more frightening than a government program that has the power to kill?

Marc also had the opportunity to shake hands with former Congressman Ron Paul, who helped form YAL after his 2008 campaign for President. Paul wanted to make sure Marc saw his recent statement against the death penalty and was aware of his endorsement of CCATDP.

Young Americans for Liberty is the largest, most active, and fastest growing liberty organization on America’s campuses. CCATDP’s strategic partnership with the group has lead to presentations with YAL college groups around the country, and more conference participants expressed interest in engaging in discussions about the death penalty following this year’s convention. Many YAL groups have become regular participants and even leaders of state death penalty repeal campaigns in places like Kansas, Tennessee, Florida, and Nebraska.

If you’re a supporter of the liberty movement or conservative and want to join a conversation with politically like-minded people about how to end the death penalty, sign up to join CCATDP today.

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EJUSA bids farewell to longtime ally and advocate, North Carolina’s Steve Dear

PFADP's Steve Dear

After 18 years, Steve Dear will hang up his hat as executive director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty (PFADP). When Steve started at PFADP, it was a statewide organization in North Carolina with just a few hundred determined supporters, mostly in the Raleigh-Durham area. Under Steve’s leadership, PFADP has grown to a national organization that has mobilized thousands of religious leaders in support of death penalty repeal campaigns around the country.

Steve’s tenure at the helm of the organization is coming to a close, though he’s staying on part-time to help PFADP prepare for its next phase. Even so, Steve isn’t slowing down. Late last month, he spoke to the original Moral Monday gathering about North Carolina’s efforts to increase secrecy around executions. “Today we can begin a new century without the death penalty,” he said, “one that promises to be not one of retributive justice but one of restorative justice, one that really protects the people.”

Steve was one of the first state repeal organizers in the country to sign on to EJUSA’s Moratorium Now! campaign well over a decade ago. He led the country in obtaining moratorium resolutions from local groups, faith groups, and city and county councils. In 2003, members of the North Carolina legislature read the impressive list of endorsers on the floor of the Senate as they voted to suspend executions in the state.

Almost every member of the EJUSA staff has a unique, fond memory of a time shared or a valuable lesson learned working with Steve. Here are just a few of those memories:

Executive Director Shari Silberstein:

“Steve was one of the first people I met as a young new organizer in the death penalty repeal movement. He was legendary at EJUSA because of his trailblazing work organizing for a moratorium on executions in North Carolina. When North Carolina’s Senate became the first southern legislative chamber to vote for a moratorium, Steve invited me down to help build momentum towards a vote in the House. I met him in Raleigh, and he told me we were going to canvass for moratorium resolutions among local businesses in some of the rural, western counties. I figured he’d sit with me for a while and walk me through the process, calm my nerves, and give me a little training. Nope. He gave me a script and a map and wished me good luck. I’ll never forgot Steve’s faith in me that day. I felt like I ‘grew up’ as an organizer during my incredible journey through the small towns of his state.

“Today a number of state death penalty repeal campaigns have professional, strategic, state-level organizations with staff and resources. But 15 years ago, that was still just a dream. Steve did it, and he set the bar for the rest of our movement.”

National Organizer Heather Beaudoin:

“I had the sincere pleasure of getting to know Steve when he organized the incredible Kairos Conference several years ago in Atlanta. He put together an inspirational group of faith leaders, and it ended up being a life- and career-changing experience for me. Then I got to work with him when several of us from the movement spoke at the Wild Goose Festival. I loved breaking new ground with Steve and reaching new audiences. It’s something I will never forget. I am forever grateful for Steve’s leadership, his contributions to this movement, and most of all, his passion.”

Director of Campaigns and Strategy Laura Porter:

“I first started working in the movement in 2003. From the beginning I heard about the amazing work that was done in North Carolina with expanding the conversation about the problems with the death penalty with an incredibly wide swath of people. What I learned was that Steve Dear was the master of that outreach. I had not yet met Steve but studied his success and started to see how I could try to begin doing what he was doing in my home state of New York. I would tell my fellow New Yorkers if the work is being done so well in North Carolina, we could do it too. When I finally met Steve in person, he of course majorly played down his success, but I knew he was the standard to aspire to.”

Thank you, Steve. We will miss you!

Photo credit: Steve Dear at Moral Monday rally in North Carolina, NC People of Faith Against the Death Penalty’s Facebook Page.

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Justice, Reimagined

For 25 years, you’ve helped us tackle one of the most serious flaws in the U.S. justice system: the death penalty. We’re not done with that work. But you know what? We’re almost there. Really.

So what’s next when we end the death penalty?

We believe it’s not enough to just dismantle the parts of the justice system that aren’t working. We also have to build up the system we want in its place.

Today, we’re expanding that part of our work with two new programs that I’m thrilled to share with you:
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Narrow Supreme Court ruling gives glimpse at future of death penalty

The Supreme Court Building

On the last day of its spring session, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a long-anticipated death penalty case, Glossip v Gross.

Though the case’s scope was narrow – only relevant to one drug used in a handful of state execution protocols – the oral arguments held in April unfolded with rare courtroom drama and revealed deep disagreement between the Justices about the death penalty in the United States.

The Court’s final ruling in favor of Oklahoma’s right to use the drug in question – midazolam – seemed to ignore the fact that the death penalty is falling into disuse around the country and that there is a growing consensus across the political spectrum that it is broken beyond repair. But those facts were not lost on the Court’s minority.

Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, called for a “full briefing” on “whether the death penalty violates the Constitution.” In doing so, he wrote:

“In this world, or at least in this Nation, we can have a death penalty that at least arguably serves legitimate penological purposes or we can have a procedural system that at least arguably seeks reliability and fairness in the death penalty’s application. We cannot have both.”

EJUSA’s Shari Silberstein reiterated that catch-22 in the The Telegraph, saying “you simply can’t have a death penalty that is both fast and cheap and efficient and that tries to be fair and accurate and never gets the wrong person. The two things are fundamentally incompatible.”

Justice Breyer catalogued what he described as “fundamental constitutional defects” in the administration of the modern death penalty and added that “most places within the United States have abandoned its use.” Breyer ended the 41-page decision announcing, “I believe it highly likely that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment.”

The media has depicted Breyer and Ginsburg’s decision as a roadmap to the eventual and inevitable end of the death penalty in the United States, openly questioning when and from where the “full briefing” will take place.

At the end of the day, a five-Justice majority decided in favor of the State of Oklahoma, saying lower courts ruled properly that midazolam could be used in executions. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said that defendants could not prove that the use of the drug in executions “entails a substantial risk of severe pain.” Alito – who, during oral arguments, accused repeal supporters of waging “a guerrilla war against the death penalty” – also reasserted that in order for methods of execution to be thrown out, defendants are obligated to recommend alternative forms of execution.

Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, and Kagan joined in a dissenting opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, highlighted by the idea that midazolam continues to leave inmates “exposed to what may well be the chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake.” Bustle provides a good break down of Sotomayer’s scathing analysis of the majority’s claims.

As the decisions were read, the Annual Fast & Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty continued outside on the steps of the Supreme Court building, marking its 22nd anniversary and over 40 years since the Court temporarily halted use of the death penalty. EJUSA team members Sarah Craft and Mona Cadena joined the Vigil to share the story and celebration of Nebraska’s death penalty repeal and to hear from other repeal supporters from around the country.

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What’s next for the death penalty debate in Nebraska?

It’s hard to imagine that after all that work done to pass repeal in Nebraska, the debate over the death penalty is still not over. But it’s not.

Why? Because some lawmakers are clinging so desperately to the death penalty that they are scrambling to get illegal execution drugs and trying to force the issue onto the ballot. If death penalty supporters get enough signatures, a decision about death penalty repeal will go on the November 2016 ballot in Nebraska.

(We put together a geeky rundown of the “Veto referendum” process, since our equally-geeky rundown of the Nebraska legislative process was so popular.)

The incredible team on the ground in Nebraska has regrouped after their amazing victory and are prepared to fight this effort at each step of the process.

Last month, Nebraskans for Public Safety officially launched, bringing together many of the great coalition partners who supported repeal efforts, including Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the ACLU of Nebraska. Nebraskans for Public Safety is continuing to educate Nebraskans about the failures of the death penalty and encouraging citizens to “Decline to Sign” the petition that would put death penalty repeal on the ballot. The campaign has already released television and radio ads to help Nebraskans across the state understand what’s at stake.

No matter where you live, you can support repeal in Nebraska by using your social media power. Make sure all of your friends in Nebraska know about Nebraskans for Public Safety and know to “Decline to Sign.” Share this Buzzfeed story on Facebook, and tell your followers how ridiculous it is that Nebraska continues to fight for this broken, outdated policy.

And if you live in Nebraska, you can join the effort right away. Sign up with Nebraskans for Public Safety to help educate citizens before they sign and to monitor the petition-gathering process for fraud and abuse. And be sure to like Nebraskans for Public Safety on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

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Addressing trauma to reduce mass incarceration

In an early-May issue of The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin tells the story of one prosecutor’s effortsto combat mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on African Americans. In the story, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm comes to realize that racial disparities exist not only at the incarceration level but also in how the system treats crime victims.

As EJUSA Executive Director Shari Silberstein outlines in a letter to the letter to the editor, published in response to the article: “There is a growing national recognition that racial inequality extends to victimization—people of color are more likely to be victims of violent crime than white people.”

Chisholm and his staff’s discovery, however, puts them in a difficult situation. As Vox explains:

“If police and prosecutors are told to be less aggressive in going after low-level offenders, how can they make sure they don’t end up devaluing African-American victims? If they’re told to take property crime in black communities as seriously as property crime in white communities, how can they avoid overreacting by rounding up and hauling in too many young men of color for things white men would get away with?”

Silberstein reminds us, however, that this type of analysis fails to consider the possibility that there are ways to respond to crime other than incarceration. It also fails to recognize that crime victims – especially people of color – might have needs that are not met and are unrelated to whether someone is arrested.

“The biographies of incarcerated people are filled with stories of unaddressed trauma and victimization. America has not made the treatment of trauma a priority in responding to crime and violence. Equity in criminal justice will remain out of reach until we expand the agenda to meet this urgent need.”

EJUSA is increasing our call for the expansion of that agenda, creating and supporting new campaigns to help crime survivors gain access to trauma care. Be on the look-out for new EJUSA staff and opportunities to act both locally and nationally to ensure that everyone impacted by violence and crime has access to the care that they need.

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EJUSA joins the Sojourners #SummitForChange. Watch LIVE

Summit For Change

EJUSA is thrilled and honored to be a part of this year’s Sojourner’s Summit for Change, starting this evening and going through noon on Saturday.

National Organizer Heather Beaudoin was nominated to participate and selected from a pool of applicants to be a part of the conference in Washington, DC that brings together 300 global leaders making change in and with faith communities. She will participate inspirational talks, small-group gatherings, and shared meals with change-makers from around the world.

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