African American men incarcerated at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe founded the Black Prisoners’ Caucus (BPC) in 1972. The men organized Black Culture Workshops between 1969 and 1972. These workshops laid the foundation for the development of BPC. The organization fosters respect, … [Read more...]
Community Advisory Committee for Law Enforcement Oversight (CACLEO) Needs You!
HB 1412 Legal Financial Obligations
In 2018, the legislature passed a bill reducing legal financial obligations (LFO) imposed on defendants convicted of crimes. At that time, LFO legislation was one of the priorities identified at the 2017 Justice Summit. LFO’s are court costs and other financial costs that recently incarcerated … [Read more...]
Life and Death of an Anti-Fascist
Few anti-fascists were as influential on Portland’s recent protest scene as Sean Kealiher, a young anarchist who became a fixture on the city’s streets after he joined an Occupy Portland encampment in 2011, when he was 15. Over the years, Kealiher moved in and out of many of the city’s leftist … [Read more...]
A podcast about defunding the police and rethinking public safety
After George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis last May, anti-racism protests exploded across the nation and presented Seattle city leaders with an existential question they are still trying to answer: How might the city rethink public safety while keeping the city safe and eliminating … [Read more...]
School to Prison Pipeline Action Group Needs your Help
The Interrupting the School or Prison Pipeline group is exploring bystander intervention training opportunities that JUUstice Washington might offer to congregations. We are checking various options and there are a couple of training opportunities coming up in February that help this … [Read more...]
Finding Humanity Podcasts
To unpack some of the biggest threats humanity is grappling with today, each episode will draw on the expertise and life experiences of members of The Elders: former Presidents and Prime Ministers, UN officials, Nobel Peace Laureates, freedom fighters, and human rights champions, brought together by … [Read more...]
A NEW BILL AIMS TO END POLICE RAIDS LIKE THE ONE THAT KILLED BREONNA TAYLOR
THE POLICE KILLING of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot in Kentucky in March when plainclothes officers barged into her apartment in the middle of the night, has set off a series of state and local efforts to ban “no-knock” raids — the police practice of breaking into someone’s home unannounced … [Read more...]
Fair Fight Bond Fund Accepting Applications for Those Detained by Immigration in WA
The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network is thrilled to share that the Fair Fight Bond Fund is open and accepting applications for people who are detained by immigration in the State of Washington and need support with paying bond. To request assistance with paying a bond, a request form must … [Read more...]
Fair Bond Fund to Help Release Detained Immigrants
As COVID-19 continues to impact our communities, those most at risk are the members of our community who are in detention. Last week, La Resistencia broke the news that dozens of immigrants at the Northwest Detention Center had been exposed to COVID-19 by a GEO guard. Last month, we heard how in … [Read more...]
Learning about & Speaking Up for PRISON ABOLITION: A COVID-Safe Way To Help
~ ~ ~ M E M B E R O P I N I O N ~ ~ ~ The views & opinions expressed here are those of the author & do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of JUUstice Washington. Looking for a meaningful topic to study with a small group? Please learn more about … [Read more...]
Union negotiations loom over the future of policing in Seattle
As Seattle grapples with the future of policing and public safety, much of the attention has focused on the Seattle Police Department's budget. But looming in the background is the contract with the city's largest police union, the Seattle Police Officers Guild. In its current iteration, the … [Read more...]
Harvest the Power 2020-Commit to a Season of Collective Action and Faith Formation
On October 1st, the Harvest Moon will rise shortly after sunset in the Northern Hemisphere. This burst of evening light provides an extended time for farmers to harvest summer crops and plant new seeds for the Fall Season. What and how have you grown this summer --- personally, in connection to … [Read more...]
Recent protests revive push for WA to speed up police reform
Nearly two years after voters approved I-940, training lags while investigations into police-involved killings face scrutiny. . . . At the forefront of the conversation that has emerged in the past few months is a restless generation of activists who are rejecting long-held ideas about how … [Read more...]
Blood in the Water
It would be the first federal execution in 17 years. The last time the U.S. government restarted executions after a long pause — killing Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in a newly constructed death chamber in 2001 — throngs of protesters and national press overwhelmed the city of 60,000. But … [Read more...]
Part 3 – Deaths in WA prisons draw scrutiny from state Legislature
series of deaths at one Washington prison has prompted lawmakers to reconsider how the Legislature monitors state prisons, despite Department of Corrections suggestions that more oversight is unnecessary. While the Department of Corrections contends it investigates every … [Read more...]
Part -2 Cancer treatment in WA prisons often too little, too late
Cancer care poses problems that prison systems are badly positioned to meet. Prisons tend to be distant from urban centers with cancer doctors, and health services afforded most prisoners don’t include regular preventive care. Beyond those practical barriers, inmates, their families and critics … [Read more...]
Part 1 – Health care in WA prisons leaves inmates waiting months or years for help
Prisoner accounts laid out in lawsuits, investigations from a new watchdog office and internal department documents obtained by Crosscut point to a pattern of delay that leaves the state’s 18,800 incarcerated men and women unable to access basic health services. Homicides and suicides in prison … [Read more...]
Faith leaders blast Trump administration’s renewed use of death penalty
“So much for the ‘pro-life’ administration,” the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author, wrote in a Facebook post. “The taking (of) a life is always immoral. So is the taking (of) a life to punish the taking of another life. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that the death … [Read more...]
How To Reinvest in Communities When Reducing the Scope of Policing
Reducing the role of policing and the criminal justice system as a whole is not a radical concept and is based on the widely acknowledged idea that the justice system has taken on an outsize role in society.1 For too long, American communities have allowed—and in many ways mandated—that the criminal … [Read more...]