Restorative Justice Works!

May 1, 2012

Jesse Epp-Fransen recently attended a Restorative Justice conference hosted by West Coast MCC.

Restorative justice works! This was the message of the Day of Justice held in Fresno, California, on March 16, 2012. The conference, put on by West Coast Mennonite Central Committee, featured members of local law enforcement, a judge, a leading advocate for the “three strikes” law in California, and members of the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) in Fresno.

The participants brought varied opinions and a range of perspectives on restorative justice. Restorative justice is a perspective on addressing crime that puts healing and community support at the heart of its action. While some speakers were cautious of giving full support to the restorative justice model, other panelists, such as Reedley Police Chief Joe Garza, expressed being confident that restorative justice was the direction law enforcement needed to move.

Read the entire reflection here.

Learn more about West Coast MCC here and the Washington Office’s work on restorative justice here.


The High Cost of Incarceration

April 25, 2012

At the Philadelphia Detention Center, MCC East Coast supports the work of a peace worker Ron Muse in this minimum- to medium-security prison. The majority of the prisoners here are awaiting hearings in lieu of bail for crimes such as driving under the influence or burglary. Muse walks with Henry Murray, an inmate, who often helps Muse with his duties. (MCC Photo/Silas Crews)

The High Cost of Incarceration

CBS News recently aired a story about the high cost of incarceration. The video helpfully outlines the rise in incarceration in the last 40 years and the current housing crisis.

The rising expense of mass incarceration has convinced many to think differently about how we approach justice as a nation. One fact that is particularly eye-opening in the video is that while African Americans do not use drugs at a higher rate than the national average, they are incarcerated at a much higher rate for drug crimes.

This is caused by biases in policing and prosecution. Drug use has been tracked across lines of race and class and has been found to be tied much more closely to age rather than other indicators. Yet when the prison population is surveyed, African American men are disproportionately serving sentences for crimes that white men are committing at the same rate.

Sen. Jim Webb, who appears in the video, has put forward a proposal to have a national commission that would take a top to bottom look at criminal justice in the United States and make non-binding recommendations to help reform the system to make it more just, less expensive, and make communities safer. The National Criminal Justice Commission Act is based of a Presidential commission from Pres. Johnson in 1965.

More resources from MCC Washington Office on Criminal Justice are available here.


January 9: National Faith and Immigration Webinar

January 5, 2012
  • Monday, January 9, 2012, 3:30pm Eastern Time
  • RSVP here.

Please join the Interfaith Immigration Coalition on January 9th for the National Faith and Immigration Webinar on Secure Communities.

The webinar will provide concrete tools to launch a community campaign to demand your city or state to stop turning people over to ICE and to halt unjust deportations.

Lines will be limited, so register today!

  • Monday, January 9, 2012, 3:30pm Eastern Time
  • RSVP here.
See the full action alert announcement here.

Immigration resources  |  State-level policy resources


In a world of turmoil, a light appears

January 3, 2012

Jesse Epp-Fransen reflects on the need for hope in a world full of turmoil, both in the biblical era, and today.

We… live in a turbulent world, desperately in need of good news. In America 15 percent of the population experienced poverty in 2011. More than 2 million people are in federal or state prisons, or in jails awaiting trial. One in nine African-American males ages 25-29 was in prison or jail in 2009, according to The Sentencing Project(1). The Mayor of New Orleans recently noted in a statement that “from September of last year to February of this year, a student attending John McDonough [High School] was more likely to be killed than a soldier in Afghanistan”(2).

Read the full article here.


“A Culture of Cruelty”

November 21, 2011

“They treated me like a dog…They asked if [I] wanted water, but when [I] responded ‘yes,’ they wouldn’t give [me] any.”  -2010, 16 year-old boy from Guatemala, in A Culture of Cruelty.

Credit: No More Deaths (No Mas Muertes) www.nomoredeaths.org

When we, as Americans, hear about human rights abuses we imagine distant mass atrocities, reminiscent of genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda or widespread abuses in today’s Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia. We fail to associate human rights violations with our own country, occurring within our own nation’s borders. However, the organization No More Deaths has released a shocking new report, A Culture of Cruelty: Abuse and Impunity in Short-Term U.S. Border Patrol Custody, detailing widespread abuse of migrants by the U.S. Border Patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Read the rest of this entry »


Stop Gun Smuggling to Mexico

October 12, 2011

Since 2007, nearly 40,000 people have been killed as a result of the Mexican “drug war.”  Approximately 80 to 90 percent of the guns used by Mexican drug cartels originate from gun sellers in the United States.  Weak gun laws within the US have created an open market by which unlicensed sellers are able to sell guns without a background check.  Current figures estimate that 2,000 weapons flow from the United States each day.  Easy access to guns has increased the violence in Mexico, contributing to the execution of 34,162 Mexicans, the disappearance of 5,397 individuals, and the kidnapping of 11,333 migrants in recent years.

Weapons acquired in the U.S. perpetuate transnational criminal activity, and are increasingly destructive to communities on both sides of the border. Violence destroys lives and families, and it threatens Mexican democracy.  Expanding and improving measures to ensure that military-style firearms do not end up in the hands of traffickers will save lives.

Petition President Obama to help stop gun smugglers who are fueling violence in Mexico.


New MCC U.S. campaign launched

July 28, 2011

Do not fear, for I am with you. –Isaiah 41:10a

“Fear not: Seek peace”, the new MCC U.S. campaign provides educational materials, worship and advocacy resources focused on domestic violence, gun violence and U.S. militarism.

Waiting in exile God’s people were reassured, “Do not fear, for I am with you.” These words still resonate powerfully today. We live in a world of fear—fear of death, fear of personal assault, fear of terrorism and losing what we have.

Some level of fear is healthy. It keeps us from doing unwise things and grows out of concern for our own safety and the protection of those we love. But it must not become an idol and keep us from experiencing the abundant life God desires for us.

The Bible offers us an alternative way of understanding security, promising that God is present with us. Because of this we need not live in fear and can put our trust in God, rather than in human rulers or weapons.

Join us as we explore ways to seek peace in our homes, communities and world.


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 35 other followers