Probation and Parole Is Changing In Our Country Thanks To REFORM #REFORMAlliance

    Big things are happening with REFORM Alliance and their quest to address and correct the inequities of Probation and Parole in our country!! Glad to be part of REFORM and pushing these conversations to end the dehumanizing practice of probation and parole in our country. Honestly, the passing of SB105 in Georgia is major.  REFORM and the efforts of the coalition in taking those structural racist grips off so many equals freedom for those trapped by probation and parole, who thought they could never be free of the injustice. 

There's plenty of work to be done in changing probation and parole in our country. Meek Mills is from Pennsylvania and boy were they pissed when he won his freedom. Every legislator that could block probation and parole reform has done so. The corrupt judge in his case is also still on the bench. So what does this mean for justice reform in Pennsyltucky and other stubborn states? 

Probation and parole reform really needs total transformation.  A national town hall held several times a year to bring more people into this conversation could also support probation reform. More than anything we have to pay attention and get involved in these elections. Attitudes are shifting from a careless society to a more collective mutual aid society. Our social justice campaign to defund the police was part of the Presidental campaign talked about by both parties. Trust in the police is at an all-time low. States, where probation and parole is heavily practiced, are said to be more dangerous because there are not enough probation and parole officers to oversee the most violent offenders. 

Please get involved and help end this injustice on vulnerable people. Probation and parole create stigmas that block people from freedom. Many companies are suffering employment shortages thanks to criminal justice stigmas. i had a conversation with a food truck owner, whose business is booming. He works double overtime because students on f1 visas are not available and his perception of returning citizens was not good. So many job openings throughout our country that are in desperate need of good employees are on crutches because of their stigma with returning citizens. There was a campaign to ban the box as a way to give returning citizens an interview that most were denied when checking the box of past criminal history. Employers like ShopRite have had great success in retaining employment with returning citizens through the nonprofit Uplift Solutions. These successes need to be shared widely with employers and legislators, please contact your business associations, chambers of commerce and legislature today and ask them to support second chance legislation.