International

News Article The Guardian July 14, 2016

Prosecutioin of illegal entry a driving force in mass incarceration in US

This article by Renee Feltz of the Guardian describes how the prosecution of individuals crossing the U.S. border for entry, a misdemeanor, and re-entry, a federal felony, has become a driving force behind mass incarceration as detailed in Justice Strategies' and Grassrooots Leadership's most recent book length report, Indefensible: A Decade of Mass Incarceration of Migrants Prosecuted for Crossing the Border, released July 13, 2016.  The book, book highlights, press release and an audio recording of our media and advocacy conference call are available for download free of charge, here on our website. 

News Article Univision July 13, 2016

Prosecuting Migrants is an Indefensible Failure

This Univsion Op-Ed by Justice Strategies' Judith Greene, Grassroots Leadership's Bethany Carson, and writer and lawyer Arjun Singh Sethi, makes the case for why Operation Streamline is a moral and policy failure, as described in detail in our most recently released book length report, Indefensible: A Decade of Mass Incarceration of Migrants Prosecuted for Crossing the Border.  The book, book highlights, our press release and an audio of our recent media and advocates conference call, are available free here on Justice Strategies website. 

JS Publication July 13, 2016

Indefensible: A Decade of Mass Incarceration of Migrants Prosecuted for Crossing the Border

"Indefensible,” a new book from Justice Strategies and Grassroots Leadership, examines the costs and failures of over a decade of criminalization of border migration. Operation Streamline was launched in 2005 and added criminal convictions to the previous civil removal process, and is known for the disturbing spectacle of mass courtroom proceedings in which up to 80 shackled migrants are arraigned, convicted and sentenced for misdemeanor improper entry charges. While the Streamline courts have been scaled back in several districts, the legacy continues in federal courts, and includes related massive immigration prosecutions for both improper entry and felony re-entry. In 2015, half (49 percent) of all federal prosecutions were made up of what is essentially a crime of trespassing, in the form of improper entry and re-entry prosecutions. Read more »

JS Blog Post May 31, 2016

Does anyone prioritize the needs of our children?

Patricia Allard

In 2012, the Quaker United Nations Office published Collateral Convicts: Children of incarcerated parents. This report emerged from a day of general discussion convened in 2011 by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Committee compiled recommendations and good practices from various countries in the hopes that other governmental stakeholders could see and learn from other jurisdictions that have found a way to prioritize the needs of children whose parents become entangled in the criminal justice system.

While United States continues to be the last holdout of all nations to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child – just a couple years ago the United States and Somalia were the only two states that had not ratified the Convention. That the US government is dragging its feet when it comes to the needs of one of our most cherished national treasures – our children – is frightening, but it does not necessarily come as a surprise given the number of other social values that get thrown under the bus, i.e. health care, education, housing. Read more »

JS Publication March 21, 2016

US Sentencing Commission Testimony Mar. 21, 2016

In this joint testimony regarding proposed sentencing enhancements for unlawfully entering or remaining in the US, Justice Strategies and Grassroots Leadership provide the US Sentencing Commission with insights into the views of the judges, federal public defenders, private attorneys and individuals who, on a daily basis deal with, and have been directly impacted by, these prosecutions.

JS Publication March 16, 2016

Day Fines & The Fare Probation Experiment

This article by Susan Tucker and Judith Greene on the Maricopa County day fines program was first published in 1999 (The Justice System Journal Vol. 21 No. 1, 1999).  Recently, there has been growing interest in day fines from the media, the US Department of Justice, criminal justice reform advocates and academics as a consequence of events in Ferguson Missouri.

JS Blog Post March 9, 2016

Make it Quick: The Kids Only Have 24 Hours with Dad

Patricia Allard

Nightline’s Face to Face with Juju Chang presents "One Day with God" -  a prison program that runs in seven states. Fathers have 24 hours to build memories with their children in the prison gymnasium. One father teaches the importance of cursive writing to his son, while another has an intimate moment dancing with his daughter. Chang summarized this precious day as follows: “Throughout the day, it’s clear that the dads are trying to cram years of parenting into a couple of hours.”

In-prison and re-entry programs are critical in maintaining healthy connections between fathers and children. However, we do have the opportunity to further limit the damage visited on children when their parents face a possible prison term. We talk about the best interest of the child but when we consider severing the parent-child bond when a father faces a prison term, we fail to take an inquisitive look at the impact a prison term will have on the family unit, especially children. Read more »

JS Blog Post February 27, 2016

United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent Speaks to the Best Interests of Children of Incarcerated Parents

Patricia Allard

On Thursday, January 21st, 2016, the US Human Rights Network and the Franklin Law Group, P.C. convened a Civil Society Roundtable with the members of the UN Working Group of Experts on People     of African Descent          (UN WGEPAD) during their first official visit to the United States. This convening provided the opportunity for civil society to spotlight persistent issues of racial        discrimination in the United States,    and engage the Working Group on policy recommendations, and   lift up best practices for   replication at the state, national and international levels.   Read more »

JS Blog Post July 23, 2015

Let Our Families Have a Future: A Mother's Story #3

Theresa Martinez

In her third video blog post, Theresa Martinez discusses how sterilization not only violates women's reproductive rights, but she also discusses how it undermines the right to family. Take a look at this latest video blog post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U4BJU585n0 

 

 

 

JS Blog Post July 16, 2015

Let Our Families Have a Future: A mother's story #2

Theresa Martinez

In this video, Theresa discusses the impact that familial seperartion has had on her daughter's well-being. Theresa's incarceration resulted in years of seperation from her daughter who was forced to live a challenging existence in the foster care system. Theresa also discusses how children of color in foster care - who miss their parents so much - are over-medicated in an effort to make them more manageable. Please view Theresa's second blog post

 

 

 

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