Hi all:

I'm new to the forums, and wondering if anyone has compiled a list of projects and stategies that groups that are primarily made up of prisoners and their loved ones - are working on.

A list of ongoing projects and the goal the project is addressing might be good to review.

Off the top, November Coalition has a petition that lends to the efforts to bring back federal parole.

Four that Got Away is a graphic display that people can borrow - it highlights the racial and class disparity of those prosecuted for drugs.

What other projects are being pursued by other groups that are organized around our constiuency - the personally affected?

Once we have a list - we can publicize them better.

Please add on!
Thanks,
Nora Callahan

I wish I knew, Nora.....

Thanks for starting this discussion. Can you please post more information on the two projects that you mentioned?
I'd especially like to know more about the Four that Got Away display. Thanks.

This is the kind of intelligent use that PrisonTalk is really suitable for -- assembling needed pointers to info. If one does not have time or energy to wade through materials oneself (and lots of writers seem paid by the word!) perhaps we can get a point-form summary going here of stuff we've tripped over.

Good Afternoon:

On the Two projects mentioned above - at the homepage of the November Coalition, www.november.org - you will see graphics that represent some ongoing projects.

The Four That Got Away display and/or Four That Got Away broadside, were designed to easily teach people that people of one class of drug offender goes to prison -- the other goes college and on to political office.

Some of our members and network, put this display up at events, our volunteer leaders sometimes post reports and they are at websites about those people. A blue grass band in Austin is putting up the Four That Got Away each time they perform, and have the broadside (a name we like to use instead of brochure) for the public to take if they want more information. Some people get the broadside/brochure and put it in with all the correspondence, even bill paying.

Another project - a complex one is "Journey for Justice". Chuck Armsbury (husband and colleague) and I have traveled a lot of miles this past 12 months - and local people organize different kinds of events, large and small. In 2001, our group published a 'guide to basic activism,' an easy to read tutorial on how to organize ourselves by communities. Staff and even volunteer community leaders could not do as much 'one on one' assisting. When Journey for Justice was seven months into traveling, we expanded the guide to include more instructions for planning a Journey for Justice event. We gave the guide a name - Bottoms Up - because we believe that "grass roots" pressure - predicates reform. People on the bottom are organizing for change.... here's some instructions are how to do that work - hope it helps you and that we meet you in our travels...

All projects are summarized with links to details at:
http://november.org/projects/projects.html

But, surely there are other projects besides ones sponsored by the November Coalition. And small groups, perhaps meeting locally, that would like to share their ideas and successful actions. Perhaps the thread will bring them in, and their efforts be publicized as others are on November's website.

That said, we have concerns in broader criminal justice reform efforts that the focus of the drug war activists should embrace - for instance - sentencing reform, prison conditions, who is makey money on all the prisoners, etc.

This thread, within this forum - a place that people will share their group or family, or individual actions or projects - or float an idea.

An elist, where subject matter changes, or covers a myriad of subjects is so confusing.

That is why I posted the thread. Thanks sodaigakko for noticing the value of it.

spidereyesburn, I hope that the referenced URL's can answer your questions, if not - let me know. The display is available 'on loan,' we ask that people help with the cost of mailing it two directions, and that is under $10. Groups can purchase one, but cost is always negotiable. November Coalition makes educational materials available to people that promise to use them!

In Struggle,
Nora

Just an add on to the message above. If someone stumbles by this website and yearns to add to this topic -- I'm listening. You need not mind that date of last post stuff you see.

By the way, we have a smaller version of the Four That Got Away Display available - and can be easily mounted on a couple of those foam, folding display boards, available in office supply stores.

Nora