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weekly update – march 7, 2019

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CT Criminal Justice Reform Field Scan

Demanding Lifesaving Reform at the NYS Capitol

CT Criminal Justice Reform Field Scan

 

 

In 2018, we conducted a Connecticut Criminal Justice Reform Field Scan and we are thrilled to share our findings with our colleagues within this constantly evolving field.

The Field Scan served several goals: first, we wanted to review where Connecticut stands in its efforts to end mass incarceration and for that assessment to be directly informed by groups working across the field. Second, we wanted to better understand how the Connecticut criminal justice field – and those who are connected to criminal justice reform efforts but who are not per se criminal justice reformers – perceived progress in our state comparatively to states across the nation, and learn what further efforts were needed to advance decarceration – both in the 2019 legislative session under a new governor, and long-term. Third, we wanted an increased understanding of the range of groups, coalitions, and networks currently working to end mass incarceration in Connecticut – and to uncover new configurations and relationships that may have developed. Finally, we wanted to bring together a wide range of voices – both familiar leaders and unfamiliar folks on the ground around the state – to solicit input about the best path forward to further strengthen the movement to end mass incarceration in Connecticut.

During the course of the Field Scan, a number of common themes emerged after a meticulous examination of the interview and survey data, including:

  • The Necessity to Increase Funding for Community Organizing for Criminal Justice reform and Related Issues
  • The Necessity of the Criminal Justice Field to Align with Other Fields
  • The Necessity for a Shared Table on Criminal Justice Reform
  • The Necessity to Better Integrate Directly Impacted People Into the Criminal Justice Reform Field in Meaningful Way
  • The Necessity to Give Better Resources and Attention to Formerly and Currently Incarcerated Women

We hope the information and ideas coming out of this – the result of engaging with many actors across the field – will, over the next number of years, serve to inform the next phase of advocacy to end mass incarceration in Connecticut!

Read the Connecticut Criminal Justice Reform Field Scan here.

 


Demanding Lifesaving Reform at the NYS Capitol

 

Our members and leaders at the NYS Capitol alongside Senators Brian Benjamin and Luis Sepulveda.

 

Last week in New York, our Community Organizer, Cedric Fulton, Director of Health and Harm Reduction, Keith Brown, and some of our members and leaders, alongside our #EndOverdoseNY partners were at the Capitol in Albany demanding lifesaving Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) inside New York’s prisons and jails. Through this action, the group highlighted that this bill is a civil rights and human rights issue, as people in jails and prisons across the state are forced to inhumanely withdrawal – often without medical care, often in solitary confinement, and in some cases leading to death. Medication-Assisted Treatment – including methadone and buprenorphine – would be established in all New York State jails and prisons through the passage of the MAT in Prisons and Jails Bill (A833/S2161)

 

Senator and Bill Sponsor Jamaal T. Bailey speaking at the #EndOverdoseNY rally demanding MAT inside New York’s prisons and jails.

 

Read the full press release here.

To learn more about this bill, contact:

Community Organizer, Cedric Fulton at cfulton@katalcenter.org or 518.965.6771

Director of Health & Harm Reduction, Keith Brown at keith@katalcenter.org or 518.527.6263

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