We had a very busy summer and fall. I will go into all of that in a moment. During this time period, our website showed nothing but a rocket and some text for nearly 3 and a half months. I am sure those of you who tune in here to see what is going on were a bit interested and perhaps worried that we had gone offline for good. This is not the case and is far from it.
Let's talk about what we did on our summer break and what this means moving forward.
In September we took a trip to Harrisburg (our states capitol) to take part in the PA Probation reform day. This was a huge success and we got to meet our good friends at FAMM, Reform, and PARSOL. These organized groups are doing amazing things for criminal justice reform and got us very fired up for change.
We have posted some videos and images (copyrights belong to the holder of those images and videos) of the event.
During this event, we learned something that has given us a lot of fuel. We learned that our lawmakers are ready to listen to the reform of our criminal justice system. Right now in the state government, we have several bills that are up for consideration and in some cases could drastically increase our prison population if implemented and in other cases could drastically decrease our prison population. In PA we spend millions and in some ways billions on people in prison and its time for that to change. When someone breaks the law and later pays the price for that crime they should not spend a lifetime paying for it in other ways like a lack of a good-paying job or housing. We will cram a lot into our sites in the coming month all about bills, lobbying work, great organizations you can help with, and lots and lots more. In short, we are embracing the unity of all of these organizations rather than forging ahead with our own. We are an alliance of ideas and minds. We are a population of people indescribably trampled upon for the laws we once broke and we are working on change. So join us. We are going to be looking at some fantastic things.
Please be patient while we upload content to our site. Also consider our tab titled: "Your Story". Submit your contact information and your basic story pitch and we will contact you with how to submit. Get your story out there and join in the millions who are now speaking out. No story is too small! Tell the world how you were affected by the system! We look forward to hearing from you. No story is turned down as long as it follows our basic rules. Check that out today.
Thanks for sticking with us!
Jason
Community Outreach and Coordinator.