Mass Incarceration | Faith in Action

Debbie Ingram: As good, decent people, let’s vote to abolish slavery, without exception

Sierra Snyder — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 20:27:04 +0000

Ballot initiatives are rare for our state, and this year Vermonters have the chance to vote for two of them.

The one proposal many voters are not familiar with — and in fact are often surprised by — is Prop 2, to amend Article 1 of the Vermont Constitution to abolish slavery without exception.

Vermont Interfaith Action and the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance have been collaborating on a campaign to pass Prop 2 for over a year now. The partnership is a natural one for both parties. People of faith and goodwill, who comprise Vermont Interfaith Action, are energetic about taking a moral stand against the most reprehensible of our historic institutions — slavery. The African Americans, especially American Descendants of Slavery, who comprise the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, have a personal interest as well in unambiguously ending a system that directly affected their forebears and has brought adverse effects to succeeding generations — including the one today.

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Interfaith group produces guide to talking with police about racial equity

Sierra Snyder — Sat, 16 Apr 2022 19:02:50 +0000

A coalition of Green Mountain State faith communities has spent months trying to discover ways to start a conversation with local police about racial equity. The new nine-page guide from Vermont Interfaith Action begins by making a case for civilian oversight of law enforcement and by offering a brief overview of Vermont policing.

The bulk of the document consists of nearly 70 different suggested questions spanning more than a dozen different subject areas. They’re intended as a first step to open a dialogue between local police chiefs and the communities they serve.

“The questions also provide a chance for police officers to talk about policing,” Nina Regan said as she helped present the guide Wednesday night. “They can talk about the trauma of performing the job and how they handle it.”

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IMPD’s MCAT program offers emergency mental health resources

Sierra Snyder — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 18:47:28 +0000

INDIANAPOLIS — “I think he gave us hope. I think he helped us to persevere through some difficult times,” says Indianapolis resident Jean Gaunt. Gaunt’s son was in crisis when she first met IMPD detective David Kuchta-Drane. “He had become very violent and very difficult to care for,” she says.

Kuchta-Drane responded as part of his job with MCAT, IMPD’s Mobile Crisis Assistance Team. “I tried to empower their son with resources to try and get control of himself. His immediate reaction at that time, is that the police is going to come there and take him to jail. And I said, “That’s not what we want to do. We want to keep you and your family together,” says Kuchta-Drane.

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BPD monitoring team holds first community session to gather input on police reform

Sierra Snyder — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 18:26:59 +0000

The Bakersfield Monitoring Team, a third-party group tasked with ensuring the Bakersfield Police Department meets the terms of a stipulated judgment entered with the California Department of Justice, held its first online community listening session Thursday as is required by the judgment.

The BPD entered into a stipulated judgment in August 2021 after a four-year investigation by the state. A stipulated judgment allows the police to avoid legal fault, but must reform policies such as use of force, stop, searches and seizures, supervision practices, providing mental health resources, expanded language access, community policing and others.

Debra Kirby, part of the monitoring team, posed four questions to the small group of residents at a Zoom meeting held so people could voice their experiences with the police. These responses were gathered to aid the monitoring team in their five-year reform effort with the BPD, Kirby said.

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Children of arrested parents are focus of new Buffalo partnership

Sierra Snyder — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 22:25:43 +0000

Nationwide and locally, there are many initiatives right now working to repair the relationship between the community and law enforcement.

A new project in the City of Buffalo was announced Thursday.

The Osborne Association and the Buffalo Police Department are teaming up for an initiative aimed at minimizing trauma for children whose parents have been arrested and implementing what they describe as “child-sensitive policing.”

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Treatment instead of prison time: advocates push for passage of S.B. 3

Sierra Snyder — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 15:10:56 +0000

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A bill that could allow some people with low-level drug possession charges to have those charges downgraded to misdemeanors has stalled at the Ohio Statehouse.

Senate Bill 3 has been in committee for more than a year, and advocates argue its passage is critical to keep more Ohioans out of prison for low-level, nonviolent offenses.

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Organizations respond to continued racial disparities in traffic stops

Sierra Snyder — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 20:48:27 +0000

Despite two decades of data showing police pull black drivers over at higher rates than white drivers, nothing has changed, a number of community leaders pushing for social change pointed out Monday. Empower Missouri, Missouri Faith Voices, the NAACP, state lawmakers and others held a Zoom meeting to respond after Missouri released its annual Vehicle Stops Report.

The Vehicle Stops Report, released Friday, showed in detail that traffic stops for black drivers remain far disproportionate from the population. Intending to address the issue of racial profiling, Missouri legislators passed a statute in 2000 requiring all peace officers to report information, including the race of drivers, to the state.

Data released Friday show that despite black people making up only about 11.8 percent of residents of the state, they represented about 19.8 percent of all drivers pulled over during traffic stops in 2019.

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Indianapolis protests: Sunday belongs to faith as church leaders bring message of change

Sierra Snyder — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 16:53:03 +0000

“Breonna Taylor.”

Thump thump.

“George Floyd.”

Thump thump.

“Deshon Downing.”

Thump thump.

“Dreasjon Reed.”

Thump thump.

The names of more than 100 people of color killed by police echoed over the bodies of protesters lying on the ground across from Indianapolis’ City County Building. A drum thumped like a heartbeat between each called name.

The death of Floyd while in the custody of officers with the Minneapolis Police Department kicked off protests around the country over the weekend, spurred by other recent and high profile killings of African Americans — including Taylor in Louisville and Reed here in Indianapolis May 6. Downing was killed by officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department during a traffic stop last year.

For 8 minutes and 46 seconds on Sunday afternoon, the protesters held a “die in” while Leah Gunning Francis, dean of faculty for the Christian Theological Seminary, read the names of lives cut short and Indianapolis’s faith community sought to send a message to the city’s leaders whose offices they looked up at.

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Religious leaders hold peaceful protest, ‘die-in’ demonstration, Sunday in downtown Indianapolis

Sierra Snyder — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 16:47:45 +0000

INDIANAPOLIS — Religious leaders held a peaceful protest Sunday in downtown Indianapolis, calling for policing reform and racial justice.

Faith in Indiana and Faith in Action were joined by hundreds as they protested recent deadly incidents involving police, like the deaths of George Floyd and Dreasjon Reed.

You can watch video from the gathering below:

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On the Eve of George Floyd Protests, Justice Center Rally Calls for Release of Ohio Prisoners

Sierra Snyder — Thu, 20 May 2021 17:21:40 +0000

As a parade of cars circled the Cuyahoga County Justice Center Friday afternoon, honking for the release of Ohio’s incarcerated population, allied demonstrators rallied for widespread criminal justice reform.

Billed as a protest to demand the compassionate release of prisoners during COVID-19, the demonstration, organized by the Coalition to Stop the Inhumanity at the Cuyahoga County Jail and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, became in many respects a prelude to Saturday’s (presumably larger) demonstration over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

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