Criminal Justice Policy Coalition
City Mission Society’s Public Voice Project and the Governor’s Commission on Corrections Reform
City Mission Society is an urban social justice agency affiliated with the Metropolitan Boston Association of the United Church of Christ. Several faith-based and non-governmental organizations have collaborated with CMS to launch the Public Voice Project. These include All of Us or None (an organization of formerly incarcerated people), Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, Episcopal City Mission, Greater Love Tabernacle, Partakers Inc., Side by Side/ The Community Circle, and the Swedenborgian Chapel of Cambridge.
The primary goals of the Public Voice Project are to establish a strong public voice for reform of the state’s criminal justice system, support leadership and speaking skills for formerly incarcerated people, and develop an effective partnership of concerned people and organizations. The Project seeks to educate citizens and to mobilize them to take action related to the state’s inhumane and ineffective criminal justice laws and practices.
In August, the Public Voice Project led a meeting targeted at non-governmental organizations that focused on a critical discussion of the Governor’s Commission on Corrections Reform (also known as the Harshbarger Report). Forty citizens attended representing advocacy groups, faith communities, grassroots non-profit organizations, and formerly incarcerated people. Participants focused on the following areas:
q Strengths of the Report
q What is missing in the Report
q Areas of disagreement and/or weaknesses of the Report
q What action should be taken.
Twenty-five citizens met again in September to identify specific recommendations from the Governor’s Report where public support would be most effective in impacting change. Three study committees emerged from this discussion: Re-entry Issues, Mental Health and Women’s Issues, and the External Review Board. These sub-committees are continuing to meet to identify key issues and implementation strategies for their area. As well, the Public Voice Project is developing an implementation plan so that the work of these groups will be aligned with the efforts of other criminal reform organizations and the larger community. The goal is to mobilize citizens to act on behalf of legislative reform related to the recommendations found within the report, as well as to educate the public around critical topics such as CORI (Criminal Offender Record Index), Restorative Justice, and the culture and practices inside the walls.
We envision panels of diverse speakers who can reach out to a wide audience of church, school, and business communities. We aim to develop panels that include a diversity of presenters representing different areas of expertise and experience, for example, those with experience inside and outside the walls, policy people, and service providers. While the subcommittees work on specific content for an educational campaign, we are simultaneously piloting workshops to support the leadership and speaking skills of formerly incarcerated people so that policy and statistical data can be seen as having a name, a face, and a story. Public Speaking Coach Carly Kimball of Riverways Enterprises, and storyteller extraordinaire, Lani Peterson of LeadershipStories, will co-facilitate Speaking Circles beginning on November 4. (Explore more of their work on www.riverways.com and www.leadershipstories.com). The first pilot program will have 8 participants. More details about these development opportunities can be gotten from CMS.
We have been contacted by a number of churches about speaking with them and are exploring innovative ways to reach the public. Our aim is to strengthen the constituency necessary to support the important work of organizations such as the CJPC.
The work of the PVP on corrections reform is open to all members of the larger community interested in changing our state’s correctional centers into facilities for rehabilitation and thereby increasing public safety. We need people with many different skill sets. The next meeting of the coalition is late in November; subcommittees will be meeting in the meantime. Further information is available from Marrey Embers, Director of Criminal Justice Program, City Mission Society, 617 742-6830, ext. 210 or [email protected].