Connection

Advocating for a ‘Smarter’ Criminal Justice System
January 20, 2019 at 10:30 amNick Pressley
As we prepare to commemorate Martin Luther King Day 2019, we should be thinking not only of immediate projects that benefit minority populations but also of initiatives that address systemic problems disproportionately impacting minority communities. Some of the most pressing and distressing problems originate in our criminal justice system. As Unitarian Universalists we must come to terms with the fact that the United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world and, as Pennsylvania UUs, with the fact that Pennsylvania has the 5th largest population of incarcerated people in the country and the highest incarceration rate in the northeastern United States. Nick Pressley, Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania’s Campaign for Smart Justice, will help us better understand a multiyear effort to reduce the U.S. jail and prison population by 50% and combat racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

Thomas Paine UU Fellowship