In this issue…
Katal on WNYT News Channel 13: Health Beat
National Group of Former Parole and Probation Officials Call for Reform, Echoing #LessIsMoreNY
Join Us For Capital Region Overdose Awareness Day
Katal on WNYT News Channel 13: Health Beat
Katal’s Director of Health and Harm Reduction, Keith Brown, alongside WNYT News Channel 13 co-anchor, Benita Zahn.
In New York State, over 3,000 people died from fatal overdose in the most recent year for which we have accurate statistics. Many more have been harmed by criminalization and failed drug war approaches to this health-related issue.
On Wednesday, August 14th, Katal’s Director of Health and Harm Reduction, Keith Brown, appeared on WNYT-TV’s Health Beat with Benita Zahn to discuss upcoming Capital Region Overdose Awareness Day events, health-based solutions to the overdose crisis, and why the decriminalization of drugs is a sensible strategy.
Watch the full segment of Health Beat featuring Keith Brown, here.
For more information on how to get involved in our Health and Harm Reduction work in New York, contact Keith Brown at 518.527.6263 or keith@katalcenter.org For details about our next Monthly Member Meeting in the Capital Region, contact Cedric Fulton at cfulton@katalcenter.org or at 518.965.6771.
National Group of Former Parole and Probation Officials Call for Reform, Echoing #LessIsMoreNY
Across our country today, probation and parole too often function as a revolving door to reincarceration, keeping people entangled with the criminal justice system. People that are trying to successfully rejoin their families, jobs, and communities are being sent back behind bars for crimeless, technical violations like missing an appointment with a probation officer or failing a drug test — ultimately driving the mass incarceration crisis. With 4.5 million Americans currently on probation or parole — more than double the number of people in prison — momentum is growing for major reforms to the system.
Monday, August 19th, #LessIsMoreNY Coalition partner and co-auther of the Less Is More legislation, the Columbia University Justice Lab, launched EXiT: Executives Transforming Probation and Parole. EXiT is an association of more than 60 commissioners and chiefs of probation and parole calling for the end of Mass Supervision and to make community supervision smaller, less punitive and more helpful and hopeful nationwide.
In New York, we have been fighting to pass transformative parole legislation for the exact reasons why now even the corrections officials think probation and parole should be reformed. We commend the Justice Lab for launching this national effort, and we will use this momentum to demand Albany give New Yorkers the fair parole system we deserve in 2020 through the passage of Less Is More: Community Supervision Revocation Reform Act (S.1343B- Benjamin/A5493A-Mosley).
Learn more about EXiT and the reforms the group is advocating, here.
Learn more about our#LessIsMoreNY parole legislation, here.
If you want to get involved in New York in our #LessIsMoreNY campaign for parole reform, please contact Cedric Fulton at cfulton@katalcenter.org or at 518.965.6771.
join us for capitol region overdose awareness day
The United States, including the Capital Region, is in the midst of an overdose crisis of unprecedented proportions. Despite encouraging reductions in some drug related deaths last year due to naloxone distribution and other evidence-based interventions, nearly 70,000 of our fellow Americans are no longer with us. We need a governmental response that matches the scope of this crisis, not minor investments and more criminalization.
On Friday, Aug. 30th, 2019, Katal and Second Chance Opportunities, Inc. will host our annual International Overdose Awareness Day Memorial and Rally at West Capitol Park from 10am to 2pm.
We hope you will join us and people who use drugs, families, people in recovery, and allies in harm reduction, treatment, human rights, community organizing and criminal justice reform in solidarity, to demand sensible policies and meaningful investments.
RSVP and details here.
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