Voices and actions for change
Most of us are familiar with the idea that there are professional lobbyists who work full-time to have some effect on legislation being considered by our elected representatives. Yet, it rarely occurs to most of us that it is something anyone can do if you know how! With the right tools, you can lobby for or against proposals at the…
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One of the segments to be presented as part of NARSOL’s “Building Your Advocacy Tool Kit” webcast on June 19th will be “Impactful Storytelling.” The session will be presented by Dan Swern and his associates from coLAB Arts, a production company that facilitates “creative conversation” through innovative programs. Webcast attendees will learn how to be empowered as advocates by effectively…
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On Saturday, June 19, 2021, NARSOL will host a live day-long webcast entitled, “Building Your Advocacy Toolkit.” The one-day virtual event will feature speakers and panelists who will present viewpoints, strategies, and techniques that can assist anyone who is an advocate for criminal justice reform or may be contemplating it, whether at the local, regional, or national level. The webcast,…
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Poetry Magazine is a prestigious publication, well known in the literary world, and it recently published a special edition, one containing exclusively the works of those who have been incarcerated. Among the offerings was a poem by Kirk Nesset, a former English literature professor who was released from prison last year after a sexual offense conviction in 2014. When readers protested…
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By Richard and Sandy . . . If the world is made of individuals and families, are not the world’s problems reflected in us and our families? If we look at the world through the lives of ourselves and our families and reach into our own experiences, can we not find the resolution to the world’s and the communities’ problems?…
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By Frank Parlato . . . In response to the Frank Report post, Children of Parents on Sex Offender Registry Are Collateral Damage of Registry, numerous people commented. Some were strongly in favor of keeping the sex registry in place to protect children and others. Several others oppose it and want the sex offender registry eliminated and they have given their…
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By Paul M. Renfro . . . The “sex offense legal regime,” which has developed alongside mass incarceration over the last forty years, has failed. US sex offender registries now list nearly one million people. Federal, state, and local ordinances prohibit convicted sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, parks, day care centers, and other spaces where children…
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Releasing the most vulnerable to COVID-19 from our prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers is critical to stopping the spread of the deadly virus in facilities and our broader community. Yet, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are not using their authority to safely and swiftly reduce incarcerated populations right now. BOP and DOJ…
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By PARSOL . . . Although we at PARSOL are disappointed in the results of the PA Supreme Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Butler, which was a 7-0 unanimous decision to separate SVP’s from non-SVPs regarding registry requirements and asserting that Pennsylvania’s SORNA statute is not punishment because of the Commonwealth’s interest in protecting the public from persons with a…
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By Michael M . . . The holiday season will be brightened by an exciting project in New Jersey which will culminate on December 19th, 2019, with a live performance called Banished: A Family on the Sex Offender Registry. The live performance, co-written by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, a staff writer for The Appeal, and coLAB Arts producing director, Dan Swern, was produced…
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