- Financial Literacy Course: Families with incarcerated loved ones are at a steep financial disadvantage due to the added strain that comes from being subjected to predatory collect call and email system fees, traveling to and from distant prisons for visits, providing commissary money, and providing cash for necessary medical equipment like eyeglasses. These systems hold our desire to stay connected with our loved ones and provide for their needs against us, siphoning money away from families and prisoners and into private pockets. We have partnered with Dollar Bank to combat this by offering a financial literacy course for those with incarcerated loved ones, to teach them how to manage the cost of living as an Invisible Prisoner, providing for not only your household but the necessities of your imprisoned loved one.
Working with the ACLU: IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA
- No. 13 MAP 2022
- __________________________________________________________________
- THOMAS WASHINGTON,
Appellant,
- PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
Appellee.
__________________________________________________________________
BRIEF FOR AMICI CURIAE
THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF PENNSYLVANIA, JUVENILE LAW CENTER, DR. LISA SERVON, MOTHERS OF INCARCERATED SONS, AND PENNSYLVANIA INSTITUTIONAL LAW PROJECT IN SUPPORT OF APPELLANT, THOMAS WASHINGTON
__________________________________________________________________
“Pennsylvania’s system of automatic deductions from incarcerated individuals’ accounts causes significant financial and social harms during incarceration. Because prisons do not fully provide for incarcerated individuals’ living needs, individuals must rely on their own financial accounts to obtain sufficient nutrition, clean and clothe themselves, access the courts, and communicate with loved ones. However, many individuals who are incarcerated have limited, if any, financial resources, and prison labor wages of between $0.19 and $0.42 per hour barely permit them to supplement these low balances. Given the small balances held by many, even a slight increase to the amount deducted from financial accounts can have a dramatic impact on individuals’ ability to meet their basic needs.”-Amicus Brief, No. 13 MAP 2022
“Prisons do not provide incarcerated individuals with all of the necessities they require free of charge, despite myths to the contrary. Financial accounts play a significant role in ensuring the necessities of life for those in state prisons, even with the low balances held by many. “-Amicus Brief, No. 13 MAP 2022 Prison financial accounts are most often funded by families. Statistically, it is the women in the lives of incarcerated men who financially provide for them. More commonly known as, putting money on their books or commissary.
- Voter Registration: As I stood in the hallways of various courtroom, feeling powerless, frustrated and struggling to hold on to hope: I realized no one saw me. I mean ACTUALLY saw me. No one saw the countless moms, grandmoms, aunts, sisters, loved ones sitting in the courtrooms and hallways of judicial buildings. It was here that I realized I wanted to be seen. I wanted to be heard.
- Are you a U.S. citizen, 18 years old and have been a Pennsylvania resident for at at least 30 days? Then you are eligible to vote! Click https://tinyurl.com/SeetheInvisiblePrisoner
Be a MIS Mover & Shaker…be paid Canvasser! $15-20/hour
Email info@mis-pgh.org to apply!
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- Purchasing a Vehicle: The cost of traveling to visit with your incarcerated loved one can be exorbitant! With the long distance, hotel and meal(s): families are not able to afford visiting with their loved ones.
- Fight to eradicate juvenile lifers
To sentence people to die in their youth is condemned in international law. Instead, the United States sentences young people for crimes committed in their youth to life without parole. “For children or adults, a sentence of life without parole is cruel, inhumane, and denies the individual’s humanity. For children, the sentence also defies law and research confirming that youth are different than adults and must be treated differently by our justice system.”-https://jlc.org/issues/juvenile-life-without-parole
PA leads the country with the largest number of juvenile lifers. Out of 2,600 juveniles sentenced and serving life without parole; 450+ are in Pennsylvania.
https://www.cor.pa.gov/About%20Us/Initiatives/Pages/Juvenile-Lifers-Information.aspx
As of December 31, 2022, the DOC reports:
Resentenced: 487
Released: 284
Parole Rate: 66%
JL Population: 521
In their own voice, hear from people sentenced to life without parole:
https://scoop.upworthy.com/meet-joe-ligon-the-oldest-juvenile-lifer-he-was-just-released-after-68-years-in-prison-522715
