John,

Before you sign off for the holidays, we wanted to make sure you saw the good news: We won the campaign to Keep People Home, now we need clemency to Get Them Free!

Let's recap: At the beginning of the pandemic, thousands of people - many of whom are elderly or immunocompromised - were released from federal prison to finish their sentences on home confinement in order to curb the spread of COVID-19, which we know runs rampant in prisons and jails. 

People released on home confinement were told they would not have to return to prison. But because of a Trump-era legal memo that Biden decided to uphold, they spent the past year living with the psychological torture that they might be ripped from their families and communities again and sent back to prison when the pandemic is declared over.

But, your city, this past week we were able to move the Department of Justice to reverse course on the memo! People will no longer be forced back to prison once the pandemic is over. 

We want to celebrate this victory while also acknowledging that keeping people on home confinement is still a form of incarceration. 

This is why we need to keep fighting. Home confinement isn't enough. We need Biden to grant them clemency now!

PEOPLe don't belong in cages of any kind

John, while everyone we’ve spoken with on home confinement is grateful to be home with their families, they’ve also shared stories of the suffering and cruelty that comes with the carceral restrictions of home confinement. There have even been several instances where people were sent back to prison because of a bureaucratic error while on home confinement

The new memo issued on home confinement would also give the DOJ discretionary power to decide who will stay or be sent back to prison, keeping people vulnerable to re-incarceration.   

John, people need to be free. 

demand clemency now

John, so much has happened over the past year. Together, we moved the Administration to review clemency applications on an individual basis for people on home confinement with non-violent drug offenses and less than 4 years left on their sentence.

And then in October, Attorney General Merrick Garland indicated that they might reconsider their position on the OLC memo. We kept pushing and now we have won. 

But John, ALL of the individuals on home confinement need clemency now. Everyone in the program was already rigorously vetted by the Bureau of Prisons in order to be on home confinement in the first place. 

If Biden is going to make a meaningful impact towards ending racialized mass incarceration, he needs to grant clemency to everyone living on home confinement today.

we need clemency now!

John, President Biden has the power to fix this. He promised us he'd cut the prison population in half and help put an end to racialized mass incarceration. And yet, he is dragging his feet on granting clemency to a group of people who have already proved that they are stronger at home with their families and communities.

Biden has the power to make this happen, we demand action, we demand freedom. 

let's get people free!

Until Justice is Real,

Scott, Rashad, Arisha, Malachi, Megan, Ernie, Palika, Ariel, Madison, Trevor, Erick, Ana, Kristiana, McKayla and the Color Of Change team