Friends across the country have been engaging in faith-based work to end mass incarceration. Their grassroots efforts show great potential.
As a Quaker growing up in the Midwest, I became well-versed in the stories of Friends’ struggles and their stands for justice. In coming to Washington, DC to work as a summer intern for FCNL, I have begun to learn new stories as I find myself talking to Quakers from around the country who are working faithfully to act against mass incarceration.
Our work here at FCNL is focused on federal legislation, but there Friends around the country work more broadly on the issue. (For example, the new Quaker Network to end mass incarceration.) Over the course of June, I’ve reached out to many such Friends and heard numerous stories of Friends called to action in attempts to put an end to this injustice. I have been continuously awed by their hard work. Of these stories, Jondhi Harrell’s stood out.
After his own incarceration, Jondhi became dedicated advocate for reform and a mentor for others returning from jail or prison. Jondhi shares his wealth of knowledge through his nonprofit, The Center for Returning Citizens. According to its website, TCRC is: “dedicated to restorative approaches in battling the effects of mass incarceration upon individuals, families and the community.”
Based in Philadelphia, TCRC fulfills this mission throughout the community:
- Prevention: TCRC provides mentorship and counseling for at-risk youth in the hope of keeping them out of the juvenile justice system. TCRC runs an afterschool drop-in center for children of incarcerated parents and at-risk neighborhood youth
- Support: TCRC also offers guidance and support for the children of the incarcerated in the absence of full-time parents. It assists families to access needed services and maintain themselves as this is often difficult once a parent is away.
- Reentry: TCRC conducts workshops that teach returning citizens various skills—critical thinking, parenting, time management, computer literacy—needed to successfully re-enter their communities and join the workforce.
In addition to the invaluable services TCRC provides, Jondhi is working to change the politics around incarceration.
In a book that Cornell West called the “secular bible for a new social movement,” author and litigator Michelle Alexander compares the process of felony disenfranchisement to historic Jim Crow laws. That book is The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Because Pennsylvania is one of only thirteen States where people convicted of felonies are immediately returned their right to vote upon release, ex-offenders have more political power than in most of the country.
TCRC is in the forefront of a movement to organize returning citizen leaders into a vital coalition in order to more fully impact the community. TCRC as a non-profit continues to do voter education and registration, and they have partnered with Project Vote through their Community Vote initiative to organize returning citizens in Philadelphia and across the state into an effective force.
Jondhi also works to activate ex-offenders for political change through the Build, Lobby, Organize, and Campaign Party—the BLOC Party. During my conversation with Jondhi, he described the objective of the BLOC Party with the catchy slogan, “no decisions about us without us.” To that end, the BLOC Party educates returning citizens and partners with TCRC in political actions. For example, the two organizations regularly co-sponsors forums for political candidates to speak with returning citizens—a portion of the electorate frequently ignored by politicians.
Jondhi hopes to see the BLOC Party grow into a diverse multi-leveled structure with a PAC and the ability to endorse local candidates and mobilize returning citizens to change the face of Philadelphia politics. Many of these returning citizens don’t know they have maintained their right to vote.
Jondhi’s work, and that of so many other Friends, sows seeds of justice across the country to reform the badly broken criminal justice system. Here at FCNL, we’re working to pass the Smarter Sentencing Act to cut lengthy, unjust mandatory minimum sentences. Please join us in working for this critical legislation.
