Judith ~ LIVE!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012 @ 7:00pm
The Green Line Cafe
43rd and Baltimore Avenue, Philadelphia PA
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THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND HOW IT AFFECTS US ALL
October 11, 2012 ~ 7:30p ~ Philosophy Café at Hobbs, Swarthmore PA
Presented by Judith Trustone
Educate yourself, Advocate for others, Work for policy/legal changes |
| 1) Write to a prisoner (ask Sagewriters for a name) and get to know a human being behind bars
2) Become involved in an organization with goals for prison/legal changes 3) Visit your state representatives to discuss current laws and need for change 4) Speak out/write letters when you hear jokes or watch cop shows where jokes are made about prison rape 5) Bring your concerns about prisons to your religious leaders 6) Where possible, arrange public dialogues 7) If you belong to a religious organization, start a prison ministry |
Here are several organizations we respect and support:There are many, many more. None of us have adequate funding, so your contribution will help
Human Rights Coalition, HRC, Chester, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh www.hrccoalition.org4134 Lancaster Ave., Phila., PA 19104families, activists, change agents, help for individual prisoners
Decarcerate PA, 21 S. 12th St., Phila., PA 19107, 267-217-3372
Pennsylvania Prison Society, 345 N. Broad St. Suite 300, Phila., PA 19107, 215-564-6005 www.prisonsociety.org Started in Ben Franklin’s living room.Monthly publication Graterfriends
Real Cost of Prisons, 5 Warfield Place, Northampton, MA 01060 info@realcostofprisons.org
Women Who Never give Up, 110 Marter Ave. #209, Moorestown, NJ 08057 www.wwng.org, 856-956-6837 THINGS TO PONDER & EXPLORE WHILE THINKING ABOUT THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Annual cost to incarcerate someone in Pennsylvania $42,339.00
Annual cost to incarcerate an older prisoner in PA with a sentence of Life Without Parole, LWOP approx. $100,000
Annual cost to educate a child at Strathhaven High approx. $12,000.00
Annual cost to educate a child at Chester/Upland High approx. $6,000.00
What’s on the federal budget of $33.5 billion plus $5.4 billion outside budget and what’s not: Collateral costs, health care, pensions, hospitalization of prisoners, capitol costs, legal judgments, statewide administrative costs beyond corrections, welfare for families, private prisons
What about re-entry and post-incarceration syndrome? (And PTSD pre-incarceration?) Solitary confinement? Juvenile lifers?
What about Nixon’s War on Drugs? The War Against Gun Control? Who profits?
Who profits from prisons? Like the auto industry, who are those profiting from selling “parts”(toilet paper?) to the Department of Corrections? Corporate jets for CCC of America!
What about prison rape? Estimates one out of five are raped within less than a week after incarceration by staff or other prisoners. More than 250,000 a year. PTSD? Public safety?
Why is PA one of only a few states with LWOP? Who benefits?
What about the estimated 10,000 to 50,000 innocent people who go to prison each year at a cost of approx. $20 million?
What are the effects on families, communities?
What can be done to reduce corrections budgets? What groups resist change? Why?
Why does the United States incarcerate more of its citizens, one out of every ninety-nine, than any other country in the world?
How does the torture in our prisons affect each of us spiritually?
What are alternatives? Houses of Healing within communities? What do other countries do?? |