"April 20 is making its rounds again this year. But it isn’t a celebration for me. Far from it. I will again spend it locked in a ten-by-twelve prison cell, going through the motions of another long and tedious day, feeling the deprivation of my freedom." #FreeEdwinRubis
If you would like to support Edwin Rubis in his campaign for freedom, you can do so via this fundraiser: fundrazr.com/829bk6?ref=ab_…
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Go to pardonstoprogress.com and write a letter to your state officials urging them to go beyond pardons and use their clemency power to actually effectuate releases. (Don't worry, we make it really simple.)
TAKE ACTION: Rudi Gammo is serving 5.5 years in prison for a nonviolent cannabis offense in Michigan. Every day that goes by is another day he is denied justice. Read his story and join us as we call on @GovWhitmer to bring him home. #FreeRudiGammo 🧵
In 2018, Rudi Gammo was arrested and sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for allowing the caregivers who supplied his city-sanctioned medical dispensary with medical marijuana to cultivate the plant on his property.
That same year, Michigan residents voted to legalize adult-use marijuana and in 2019, @GovWhitmer promised to release and expunge anyone with cannabis-related offenses. But it's going on 4 years since then and Rudi is still incarcerated.
THREAD: Earlier today Congress reintroduced the MORE Act, the most comprehensive marijuana reform bill in U.S. history. If signed into law, the legislation would remove cannabis from the CSA & eliminate federal penalties for manufacturing, distributing or possessing marijuana.
The MORE Act would also create expungement & sentencing review processes for those with federal cannabis convictions, prohibit the denial of federal benefits due to marijuana-related conduct or charges, & use #cannabis tax revenues to fund community reinvestment programs.
It is critically important that any piece of federal legalization legislation prioritizes social justice and repairing the harms of prohibition.
🧵 A pilot program run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons is outsourcing the prison mail management process to the for-profit company Smart Communications.
This program first sees Smart Communications convert greeting cards, letters, & other mail sent to incarcerated people into digital scans. The original correspondence, often lovingly crafted by friends and family, is then destroyed.
This new program also forces incarcerated people to access their treasured correspondence as low-quality printouts, or to read their cherished letters from home via screens located in shared kiosks in public areas of the prison (or on a tablet provided by Smart Communications).