Getting the Truth Out

Sometimes, a sea change takes place in the minds of the public, elected officials and media pundits. Long overdue, that seems to be underway now with regard to the American prison system and the war on drugs.

For decades, politicians competed to see who could be tougher on crime - who was more in favor of locking up the most people for the longest stretches - and the public and media, for the most part, cheered them on. Now even Attorney General Eric Holder has called mass incarceration a moral and economic failure. What happened?

Tireless activists, educators and authors happened: not least of them Michelle Alexander, whose hugely influential book The New Jim Crow was championed by Truthout. But I'm proud to say I believe that Truthout's own reporting also played a part in this shift.

From Victoria Law’s coverage of long-term solitary confinement in California, to the work Dina Rasor has done on prison privatization, to Maya Schenwar's deeply personal accounts of the cruel effects of imprisonment on human beings, we've treated this as an important issue for years.

please support Truth Out. Kicking against incarceration America Incorporated.

letter to your MP. Let's talk about Transforming Rehabilitation.

The Transforming Rehabilitation Bill will pass  through the House of Commons after October 8th. We are requesting parliamentary scrutiny on  how this will affect offenders on license in the community, particularly women.  Karl Turner MP for East Hull has applied for a Westminster Hall debate  and if more MPs apply, the speaker is likely to grant the debate. We created a template letter for you to send to your MP. To find out who your MP is please enter your post code on this link and their email details will come up in the search results.

  

http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/

We are also writing to the Justice Committee today to urgently call an inquiry into Transforming Rehabilitation, when it is back from recess on October 8 2013.

Thank you for your continued support.

With best regards,

KAZURI MINDS TEAM

............

template

FROM 

(your name)

Your full address inc post code

 12 September 2013

REF: Request for a debate, Transforming Rehabilitation

Dear  (Name of MP / AM) 

We write to ask you to apply for a Westminster Hall debate on women in the criminal justice system. The Ministry of Justice are next scheduled to answer on the 14th October and the 28th October. 

Karl Turner MP has applied for a debate on this issue, and if there is enough support from other MPs who care about issues of justice and rehabilitation, the chances of securing  such a debate are increased. 

The effects of privatising a very successful 100 year old probation trust have not been discussed on their merits, have never been piloted and indeed, the government is so scared of the  outcry should the  impending devastation be known they have refused to publish the risk register and the impact assessment. This is one of the projects being carefully reviewed by the Major Project Team, senior civil servants  and Chief probation officers have grave concerns as to the risk to public safety if these reforms to allow over 70% of all offenders to be released under the supervision of private for profit companies are allowed to proceed. 

The Secretary of State for Justice still wants to push ahead.  Our concerns are that the Transforming Rehabilitation bill does not take into account the very different needs of women, although HMG have proposed an amendment on the face on the bill. We don't consider it to be enough of a palliative or protection  against the drastic  effects upon women prisoners or those forced to take up services of the  newly  privatized probation service, as proposed. 

“Arrangements under subsection (5) shall make provision for the delivery of services for female offenders which take into account of the particular needs of women.”

There is no compulsion or mandatory requirement of the said providers, and questions arise as to whether this is enforceable in the law. What defines a requirement?

We do hope you will consider supporting this request for a debate.

 The Justice Committee’s  recent report, Women in the Criminal Justice System  claims NOMS and the Ministry of Justice consider women as an afterthought. Let’s put this firmly on the agenda and give women  who offend at least half a chance to reintegrate by ensuring that interventions are sensitive and gendered. 

Yours sincerely

(YOUR name)