She forwarded me the below with the note "I thought this might be relevant to your interests."
Though the public hearing is on a teaching day, and I already wanna take the following day (also a teaching day) off to go to First Church Somerville's prayer retreat.
Subject: Families and friends of prisoners are losing rights in Massachusetts
Hey Friends,
I know there's a lot going on in the world right now but I'm really hoping you can take action on another piece. Massachusetts Department of Corrections is expanding its rules for prisoner visitors, thus making it more difficult for prisoners to get the support they need as they prepare to reenter the community. The following are the primary points being proposed by the DOC:
1) you can only visit one inmate for entire department of correction (this not only breaks up community ties but severely hampers our ability to organize)
2) each inmate can only have 10 pre-approved visitors who all have to submit photo ID and full CORI background check
3) visitors can't talk to each other in the waiting room or anywhere else(!!!!)
Please sign the petition calling for an end to this outrage - http://www.PetitionOnLine.com/visitdoc/petition.html
Please attend the public hearing on February 4 at the Executive Office of Public Safety Building at 1 Ashburton Place - Ashburton Cafe Function Room at 10:00am. You are welcome to gather at the Community Church of Boston from 8:30 - 9:30am for coffee and sign making prior to the hearing.
Please take this action! Even if you don't spend your time advocating for prisoners please also think about the families and friends of prisoners who are going to suffer from these new regulations.
With love and faith,
Jason
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the thirteenth amendment did not abolish slavery, it just moved it to the prison industrial complex. support the moratorium on massachusetts prisons and jails.
www.blackandpink.org www.massdecarcerate.org
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I applaud your efforts. Research shows that the more involvement with family and community while incarceration decreases recidivism. Having worked in corrections for over 10 years, the concern over security unfortunately conflicts (unnecessarily at times) with what would be a positive contribution by others.
ReplyDeleteI would encourage you to research this issue to back up your efforts. Here is one URL that might be a start: http://www.patrickcrusade.org/EFFECTS_VISITING.html