EOY email

You may have already received an email like this from Color Of Change, but that's because we don't want you to miss it.

As someone invested in ending racialized mass incarceration and the liberation of Black communities, we wanted you to be aware that although we won the campaign to keep people home, people living successfully on home confinement are still being violated and sent back to prison during a COVID-19 spike.

Home confinement simply isn't enough. But there's always something we can do. Join our fight to demand clemency for thousands of people living safely on home confinement today. Chip in $5 today to power our campaign for clemency.

Please see our previous email below for more information on this issue.

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We have great news to share with you! We won the campaign to Keep People Home, now we need your support to Get Them Free!

Let's refresh: 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've had to spend 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, John, we worked hard, we kept pushing, and right before the holidays - we won! The Department of Justice has decided to reverse course on the Trump 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. Home confinement isn't enough. We need to keep fighting, we need Biden to grant them clemency now!

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.

The DOJ also still has discretionary power to decide who on home confinement can stay with their families or be sent back to prison, which means people are still vulnerable to re-incarceration.

With your help, we can keep fighting for thousands of people, and demand Biden uses clemency to help alleviate mass incarceration.

John, President Biden promised us he'd cut the prison population in half and help put an end to racialized mass incarceration.

And yet, Biden is dragging his feet on granting clemency to a group of people who have already spent the past year proving 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.

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.

John, we already made it this far, imagine how much more we could do with your support.

Before signing off, know this: Although we have a long road ahead of us to end racialized mass incarceration and decarcerate a country obsessed with punishment, we’re inspired every day by the empathy and compassion of our community.

-- Scott, Rashad, Arisha, Malachi, Megan, Ernie, Palika, Madison, Ariel, Trevor, Ana, McKayla, and the rest of the Color Of Change team