Dear Friends,
Happy New Year!
Since our last newsletter, there have been many changes throughout the state. We have a new Governor in office, a new Director of the Department of Corrections, new faces and minds in the legislature, and other changes happening all around us.
Here, at AFSC, we continue to receive letters and phone calls from people in prison and their loved ones. These correspondences bring various problems to our attention and we work to help folks navigate the often ovewhelming terrain of prison.
We are in the process of training 5 new student interns.
We have also been looking ahead to the new year thinking deeply about and making plans to help facilitate ideas and actions that will bring a compassionate perspective to the public regarding people living in prison.
With all of the changes in government, in the coming months, it would be helpful for you to set up a time to meet with your new representative and/or senator and let him or her know that you will be keeping her informed about inadequacies and problems within the prisons in Michigan. If you've never spoken with your legislator before, please contact us before you make an appointment with your legislator so we can give you some pointers on how to tailor your message and effectively communicate with your legislator. You can also click on this link and download a quick reference sheet entitled Getting Your Legislator to Listen.
In addition to contacting your legislators and introducing yourself as a constituent concerned about corrections' policies in this state, it is really important for you to talk to your neighbors, co-workers, and local community leaders about the challenges your loved one living in prison faces and the triumphs your loved one has experienced in his life since going to prison. You can shift the minds of people who believe in locking people up and throwing away the key or who simply do not know anything about prisons and the people who are locked away from us.
In this issue of our newsletter, there are many links to interesting articles and some groups you can get involved in.
Be active, be engaged!
Be well,
Natalie and Pete
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AFSC's Prison Watch's Bonnie Kerness
On Solitary Confinement
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Bonnie Kerness, director of AFSC's Prison Watch Project discusses solitary confinement on New Jersey Network (NJN).
From the program description:
"On this week's edition of Due Process, Solitary Confinement - a cruel and unusual punishment, or an essential Corrections tool?
Sandra King introduces us to a man who spent 22 years in isolation, and hosts a spirited debate in the studio. This week's studio guests: Prof. Alexander Reinert of Cardozo Law School, Bonnie Kerness of the American Friends Service Committee's Prison Watch Project, and former New Jersey Corrections Commissioner Jack Terhune."
Click on watch video here to view the program.
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All of Us or None--Detroit, Michigan Chapter: Meeting February 2 at 6:00pm at the Urban Network in Detroit
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The Urban Network is located at 5740 Grand River Avenue
Detroit, MI 48208-1548
Contact Yusef Shakur with any questions: 313-459-6008
All of Us or None is a national organizing initiative started by formerly-incarcerated people to fight against discrimination faced after release and to fight for the human rights of prisoners. We are determined to win full restoration of our civil and human rights after release from prison. Our goal is to build political power in the communities most affected by mass incarceration and the growth of the Prison Industrial Complex.
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Family of Prisoners Support Group (FOPS): Meets the 3rd Thursday of each month
| | Family of Prisoners Support Group or FOPS is a peer led, support group for family members of the incarcerated. It meets the 3rd Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm at 1414 Hill Street (behind 1416 Hill Street), Ann Arbor. Its goal is to help each other with: emotions, money management, resources, transportation, advocacy, and whatever else members find helpful. Please send e-mail to fops@prisoneradvocacy.org or write to FOPS, 1414 Hill Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 for more information. |
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Criminal Justice Related News, Issues, and Articles
| Newt Gingrich and Pat Nolan recognize that criminal justice spending and prison expansion are broken mechanisms for creating public safety. Interesting statement can be read at: Gingrich, Nolan: Common-sense prison reform will save money, make South Carolina safer
New York Times Opinionator article providing a look into the Fortune Society's Castle and Delancey Streets re-entry programs. For Ex-Prisoners, A Haven Away from the Streets
New York Times Opinionator article calling for evidenced based policies to be implemented around re-entry Removing the Roadblocks to Rehabilitation
New memoir, An American Radical: Political Prisoner in My Own Country, by Susan Rosenberg to be released March, 1 2011. "A political activist from the '60s through the early '80s recounts her arduous journey from the FBI's most-wanted list through a 16-year incarceration in maximum-security prisons." |
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MDOC Policy Directive Changes and Other MDOC-Issued Information
|  Below is a list of recently revised or issued Michigan Department of Corrections' Policy Directives (PDs) and Director's Office Memorandums (DOMs). You can find the Policy Directives and DOMs at the following link MDOC Policy Directives. All DOMS are at the very bottom of the page.
Revised PDs: PD 04.06.184 Gender Identity Disorders in Prisoners PD 04.01.105 Reception Facility Services PD 03.03.140 Prohibited Sexual Conduct Involving Prisoners PD 03.04.100 Health Services PD 04.02.130 Prisoner Store PD 04.07.112 Prisoner Personal Property PD 04.06.182 Mentally Disabled Prisoners in Segregation PD 04.02.135 Securepak Program PD 02.05.100 New Employee Training Program PD 02.05.101 In-Service Training PD 02.05.102 Training Committees PD 03.02.135 Office of the Legislative Corrections Ombudsman PD 03.04.108 Prisoner Health Information PD 06.04.100 Lifetime Electronic Monitoring of Sex Offenders OP 03.04.108 A Release of Confidential Health Record Information
Click on the links below to read a pdf of MDOC's F.Y.I. January issues:
F.Y.I. 1-07-11
F.Y.I. 1-20-11
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If you have questions or concerns, please email or call. For Natalie: nholbrook@afsc.org or 734-761-8283 ext. 5
For Pete: pmartel@afsc.org or 734-761-8283 ext.2
In Peace,
Natalie Holbrook, Program Director
American Friends Service Committee
Michigan Criminal Justice Program
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John O'Donohue
For a Prisoner
from To Bless the Space Between Us
| Caged in a cold, functional cell,
Far from the comfort of home
With none of your own things,
In a place that is gray and grim,
Where sounds are seldom gentle,
Amidst the shuffle of dumbed feet,
The crossword of lost voices,
The one constant note
Is the dead, trap-shut sound
Of unrelenting doors that
Make walls absolute.
Though you have lost the outside world,
May you discover the untold journey
That awaits you in the inner world.
May you come to recognize
That though your body is imprisoned,
No one can imprison your mind.
May all the time you have on your hands
Bring you into new friendship with your mind
So that you can learn to understand and integrate
The darkness that brought you here.
Within this limited space,
May you learn to harness
The stretch of time.
May your compassion awaken.
May you learn to recover the self
You were before you lost your way
And draw from its depths
Some balm to heal your wounds.
Behind the harsh rhythms of prison life,
May you find a friend you can talk to
And nurture the natural kindness
To become more free in your heart
And lighten the outer constraints.
May your eyes look up and find
The bright line of an inner horizon
That will ground and encourage you
For that distant day when your new feet
Will step out onto the pastures of freedom. |
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Newsletter #5
