Giving Tuesday (#GivingTuesday2022) is a good opportunity here to raise up some of the amazing local partners I get to work with round the country who fight everyday for fairness, freedom, health, & safety.
Thread on how to support:
Texas Jail Project. Empowering incarcerated people in Texas county jails by lifting their voices through stories, testimonies, & community building. Providing aid and support to people, families, and communities. Fighting for truth. Give here:donorbox.org/texasjailproje…
Silicon Valley De-Bug (@ . A community organizing, advocacy, & storytelling organization based out of San José, California. Leading a national network of "participatory defense" hubs supporting public defenders secure the best outcomes in & out of court: mightycause.com/donate/Silicon…
Contextos (@ContextosChi). Working to prevent, interrupt, & end cycles of violence in Chicago, while complicating the narrative w/ true stories that illuminate, elevate voices, create proximity, build empathy & change minds and actions of diverse audiences.contextos.org/donate/
Gideons Promise (@Gideons_Promise). Supporting public defenders so that we can be a nation where every person has access to zealous, outstanding legal representation necessary to ensure “equal justice for all” in the criminal justice arena. gideonspromise.org
Partners for Justice (@PFJ_USA). Training non-attorney Advocates to provide clients with case navigation and wraparound support, while helping public defenders protect people from incarceration and other criminal penalties.partnersforjustice.org
Healthy Hood (@healthyhoodchi). Providing affordable programming & resources to combat the current twenty-year life expectancy gap between undeserved communities and high-income communities in the Chicagoland area and around the country. healthyhoodchi.com
PEN America Prison & Justice Writing Program. Amplifying the work of 1000s of writers who are creating while incarcerated. Providing resources, mentorship, & audiences outside the walls. pen.org/prison-writing/
Fund for Guaranteed Income (@fund4gi). Proving a viable path to guaranteed income–direct, recurring cash transfers that support those who have been locked out of welfare programs and economic systems. Based in Los Angles. f4gi.org
Justice LA Coalition (@JusticeLANow). Grassroots orgs, advocates, directly impacted communities, & stakeholders, working to reduce the footprint of incarceration by stopping jail expansion & reinvest dollars into community-based systems of care. justicelanow.org
JustMedia. Organizing, amplifying, and sharing existing films and videos that tell a variety of stories as a media literacy tool for the movement to end mass incarceration and achieve abolition. justmedia.org
Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign. Working to end racist policies that have more than doubled the number of elders behind bars, to expand the use of parole, compassionate release, & clemency, and to end life imprisonment. rappcampaign.com
Orleans Public Defenders. Representing nearly 20,000 people each year utilizing a client-centered, community-oriented defense model that puts the client first & takes a 360 degree approach to advocacy & representation. opdla.org
Free Hearts (@freeheartsorg). Led by formerly incarcerated women, Free Hearts supports, empowers, reunites, and organizes families impacted by incarceration in Tennessee. freeheartsorg.com
Our courtwatching family over the next several threads. Don't just consider giving. Consider volunteering. Truly one of the best, most direct ways right now to help transform the criminal legal system. Accountability. First up: Courtwatch PG in Maryland.courtwatchpg.com
Baltimore Courtwatch. Don't just consider giving. Consider volunteering. Truly one of the best, most direct ways right now to help transform the criminal legal system. Accountability. baltimorecourtwatch.org
Baltimore Courtwatch. Don't just consider giving. Consider volunteering. Truly one of the best, most direct ways right now to help transform the criminal legal system. Accountability. baltimorecourtwatch.org
Court Watch LA. Don't just consider giving. Consider volunteering. Truly one of the best, most direct ways right now to help transform the criminal legal system. Accountability. courtwatchla.org
Court Watch NYC. Don't just consider giving. Consider volunteering. Truly one of the best, most direct ways right now to help transform the criminal legal system. Accountability. courtwatchnyc.org
Support worker-led journalism that exposes injustice and challenges our reliance on police and punishment. theappeal.org/donate/
If you made it this far, thanks! More on my org, Zealo.us. Working round country to support local coalitions of defenders, organizers, artists, & people w/ direct experience to topple imbalance of power over justice policy & media.
For all new to NYC Mayor Eric Adams & being appalled by him, his corruption, & general weirdness, this thread is for you.
I’ve been following his behavior since his run for office in 2021. Here’s some truth on the worst mayor in NYC History. Receipts in no particular order:
NYC Mayor Eric Adams lied about the fact that he carried around a photo of a fallen police officer. After he lied about it, he had his staff make him a fake, weathered looking photo for him to start carrying around. You cannot make this up! rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
In his *very first act as Mayor* Eric Adams expanded solitary confinement on Rikers. City Council condemned him. He shot back: "Unless you’ve been a cop your opinion doesn’t matter."
Pushed ahead. 2 years later, claimed he was “against solitary.”
As Trump works to punish people he despises, NY prosecutors & @GovKathyHochul doing the same: fighting to kill “discovery reform.” A law simply requiring prosecutors to turn over evidence to defense. Their gripe: Too much work to collect, copy, & send it to the defense. Really.
Marvin spent 11 months on Rikers. For drug possession. Prosecutors withheld the most critical piece of evidence: drug lab. The pressure to plead got better of him. Today, prosecutors have to turn over evidence earlier. His case would have been dismissed.
Craig was charged w/ hindering prosecution. Then: NY "discovery" laws prevented him from learning the accusations. He was acquitted, but late disclosure of evidence kept him locked up for close to a year. Now: prosecutors want to return to this injustice.
This may be the most important post you read today.
As Trump takes office & pledges mass deportations, below is a shareable film series written *by immigrants for immigrants* on how to safely defend against ICE.
Feeling helpless? Here’s something you can do to help. Read on:
Protect your neighbors from Trump. Share:
🚨If ICE is outside your door, don’t panic & remember: YOU HAVE RIGHTS. Don’t open the door. Ask to see a warrant. ICE can’t enter w/o one.
My new op-ed is now live. In it, I explain how it's *legal to execute an innocent person* in the U.S. How that's a feature, not bug of the system. And what we can do about it now. Hint: Robust public defense. Teen Vogue again leading the way with truth. teenvogue.com/story/robert-r…
It is legal in the U.S. to execute an innocent person. Indeed, the Supreme Court has twice ruled it is perfectly constitutional to do so bc the value of expediency & finality in the legal process is more important than truth, justice, & even human life.teenvogue.com/story/robert-r…
As a civil rights attorney who served as a public defender, I saw how killing an innocent person was the most extreme example of a legal process designed *not to achieve justice, fairness, or truth, but enable unjust outcomes & erect every obstacle toward redress.
There is no evidence that police in the subways are lowering crime. What we do know: NYPD is swallowing up valuable resources, harassing New Yorkers, making needless arrests, & engaging in violent & reckless confrontations on the subway.
City records show a $151 million increase in 2023 for NYPD overtime pay for subway policing. NYC went from spending $4 million in 2022 on NYPD overtime pay for subway policing to $155 million in 2023.
In addition to the $150mil+ extra spent on NYPD for subway policing in overtime alone in 2023,
NYC Eric Adams ordered NYPD in March 2024 to send an another “800 police officers specifically to keep watch on turnstiles." apnews.com/article/new-yo…
Pay attention. 800,000 incarcerated workers are currently forced to labor in prisons for pennies.
Don’t believe me? Read on for first hand accounts from inside. Slavery is alive in the US. Thread:
Cell blocks, prison grounds, kitchens, laundry rooms, libraries, medical centers — these are the common spaces that make up America’s vast carceral architecture.
Grounds: "My first job in the prison system was on yard crew. The duties include digging through trash bags to collect recyclables. The pay for some positions in this prison is 8 cents an hour.
I remember feeling degraded and humiliated. ” Tasha in Texas.