John,
You may have seen this email in your inbox before, and that's because we want to make sure you don't miss the great news we have to share before the holidays: We won the campaign to Keep People Home, now we need clemency to Get Them Free!
We applaud the Justice Department's reconsideration of an OLC memo that would have ripped thousands of people living on home confinement from their families and communities to be sent to prison once again when the pandemic is declared over.
While we believe it’s a step in the right direction, and 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 also creates discretionary power for the Department of Justice to decide who will stay or be sent back to prison, keeping people vulnerable to re-incarceration.
This only highlights why keeping people on home confinement isn't enough. People need to be free.
This is where you come in, John. Please join us in demanding Biden grant clemency to all those on home confinement today!
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, and were already heavily vetted by the Bureau of Prisons in order to be released to home confinement in the first place.
Biden has the power to make this happen, we demand action, we demand freedom, we demand clemency now!
PEOPLe don't belong in cages of any kind
John, so much has happened since we sent the first petition for this campaign. 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. And almost everyone released has since been thriving at home by reconnecting with their friends, families, and communities, and engaging in civic and professional life. .
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.
Please see our previous email below for more information on this issue.
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John, Biden told us he would be the President to end mass incarceration. Instead, he’s sending thousands of our elders back to prison.
These are mothers, fathers, grandparents, and children who were deemed high risk for COVID-19 and released from prison to finish their sentences on home confinement.
They’ve spent the past year getting reacquainted with family and friends, and supporting their communities. But the Administration’s legal team just decided to uphold a Trump-era policy that will force these 4,500 people, many of whom are elders, to be re-incarcerated once the pandemic is declared over.1
John, this is where you come in. Biden can grant them clemency and commute their sentences, but the White House is more worried about political fallout than preserving justice.
When Biden took office, he vowed to overhaul the criminal justice system, cut the prison population by more than half, and expand programs that offer alternatives to incarceration.
But unless he grants clemency to those on home confinement, the Administration will be presiding over the fastest expansion of the federal prison population in history.
And John, it’s not enough to just keep folks on home confinement to finish their sentences.
Home confinement is an extension of the prison system. Our people belong at home with their families without conditions.
Take Gwen Levi for example: a 76-year old mother, grandmother, and cancer survivor who was finishing her sentence on home confinement when she was re-incarcerated for missing a call from her case manager while taking a computer skills class.
Thanks to her legal team and public outcry from over 55k Color of Change members, Ms. Levi was sent home on compassionate release.
But thousands remain on home confinement with no certainty about what the future brings. Should they enroll in school or try to get a job? Or will they be sent back to prison in the near future?
Not only is clemency a vital corrective mechanism in a criminal justice system that unfairly and unjustly criminalizes Black communities, but clemency from Biden specifically can also serve as a starting point for redress for his role in architecting the 1994 crime bill that has harmed so many Black people.
President Biden promised to turn back the tide on decades of mass incarceration that he once promoted.
John, if he refuses to use his clemency powers for this group of people who have been successfully and safely living on home confinement for the past year, then what hope do we have that he’ll follow through on his commitment to justice?
Biden has not yet made a decision on what he will do, and there’s still time to move him to action.
Join us in demanding Biden grant clemency to 4,500 people on home confinement today!
Until Justice is Real,
Scott, Rashad, Arisha, Megan, Malachi, Ernie, Palika, Madison, Ariel, Trevor, Ana, McKayla, and the rest of the Color Of Change team.
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REFERENCES:
1. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/313689?t=12&akid=52677%2E4731121%2Ecd3pwo
Color Of Change is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Please help keep our movement strong.
