The F8 Foundation

Art by Kalen

TUFTS University PRISON Initiative, Why EDUCATION Will CHANGE PRISON 4EVER This is a Story three men who went into prison as juveniles with life sentences. All three men are from different parts of Massachusetts from Roxbury to Lynn...

Thank you Harriet Tubman Project for a great event in Springfield. , , , , , ,

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https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtd-CqqT8uEtQjIi4nmpr2t5_GAzhHuMk9 #/registration

🌟 JOIN OUR MISSION: IMMEDIATE VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE M-F! 🤝

Seeking volunteers to help with food pantry organization, distribution, and ensuring our guests have the best experience!

Ready to lend a helping hand? Explore our new SignUp for Food Pantry Volunteers! It's a simple and convenient way to sign up for shifts and see where your assistance is needed the most!

SignUp: https://signup.com/go/HNrYckG

Buscamos Voluntarios M-F

¡Buscamos voluntarios para ayudar con la organización y distribución de la despensa de alimentos y garantizar que nuestros huéspedes tengan la mejor experiencia!

¿Listo para echar una mano? ¡Explore nuestro nuevo registro para voluntarios de despensa de alimentos! ¡Es una forma sencilla y cómoda de inscribirse en turnos y ver dónde se necesita más su ayuda!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-hampden-county-freedom-trail-workshop-tickets-937076459917?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios

Community Healthlink’s Clinical Support Services (CSS) program reopened Tuesday!

CSS – formerly known as PASSages – is a post-detox program that provides short-term, intensive treatment for individuals in the early stages of substance use recovery. The CSS team is ready and looks forward to providing this vital service for the community.

Today, we join Nathaniel Brown, his family, brilliant legal minds and unwavering supporters to celebrate the Massachusetts Appeal Court’s landmark ruling to grant him a new trial!! This is a resounding victory for truth and justice, and a triumph over systemic failures and prosecutorial overreach that can have devastating consequences for innocent convicts. The appeals court's verdict is a beacon of hope, demonstrating that even in the face of overwhelming challenges, justice can ultimately prevail. May this verdict serve as a guiding light, illuminating the path towards freedom for all who have been wrongly convicted 🙌🏽

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We extend our heartfelt thanks to State Senator Liz Miranda's office for the successful adoption of Amendment #273 to the economic development bond bill. This amendment will provide an additional $500,000 in funding for Justice 4 Housing's Brie's House, supporting individuals recently returning from incarceration. Brie's House paves the way to permanent housing by providing reentry stabilization services, financial empowerment, a myriad of resources, and a safe place for clients to begin healing from trauma and rebuilding their lives.

We are thrilled to use this funding to further our efforts to end housing discrimination and homelessness among formerly incarcerated individuals. Thank you for helping us make a difference in our community!

This coming September we are offering another Recovery Coach Academy Training taught by Nicole OBrien!

Are you ready to take your coaching skills to the next level and become a certified Recovery Coach? The CCAR Recovery Coach Academy© offers a comprehensive training program that covers all the essential topics you need to know. From understanding the role and functions of a Recovery Coach to learning about core values and guiding principles of recovery. Dive into the dimensions of recovery, explore the stages of change, and tackle important ethical and boundary issues. Practice your skills, develop a recovery wellness plan, and gain valuable insights into cultural competence and privilege awareness. Don't miss out on this opportunity to make a real difference in the recovery community. Sign up now and start your journey towards becoming a certified Recovery Coach!

For more information or to securely purchase through paypal please visit: https://ruthsway.solutions/classes

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Call: 857-361-9913 / Email: [email protected]

Stay humble, stay grateful!

Action alert!

Today is the Senate debate! Please reach out to your state senator and ask them to support Amendment #273 to the economic development bond bill!

You can find out who your senator is at the following link:
https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
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Email/phone script:

Hello, My name is ____ and I'm a constituent in your district. I am reaching out to you today to ask you to co-sponsor/support Amendment #273 to the economic development bond bill filed by Senator Liz Miranda.

This amendment would add $500,000 to the bond authorization for Justice 4 Housing for Brie’s House, an SRO for individuals recently returning from incarceration. Brie’s House paves the way to permanent housing by providing housing search support, financial empowerment resources and a safe place for clients to begin rebuilding their lives after incarceration.

Justice 4 Housing has an incredible record of supporting returning citizens and preventing recidivism, homelessness, and many other social ills. This amendment is important to me and to my community and I urge the senator to support it. Thank you for your attention.

[Name]
[Address]

Senator Welch and Congresswoman Pressley introduce the Inclusive Democracy Act

SOLITARY PANEL

Dear friends,

You wrote to me this past month inviting me to share of my experiences with isolation in a prison. I apologize that I was not quick with a response, I had to deal with the death of my dear brother Alex. He had been bedfast, crippled with M.S. in a nursing home in the city of Chelsea. Talk about isolation, his cell was his own body; in which he lingered for ten years.

Empathy for his situation came easy to me, for I have known what it is to be confined to one small space, staring at the cold walls that keep me in, as time marches relentlessly by, unseen and forgotten (or so it seems).

There are far too many instances, for me to catalog here, which reinforced the sense of desolation during my years in segregation. The practice is barbaric and inhumane. As such, those charged with the responsibility of confining men/women, objectify the people under their power.

How many times must you see the sun rising in the east before you realize that there is a pattern? How many generations of recorded observation, without any real variation, do you require before you settle upon an eastern sunrise as fact? Allow me to set before you a few facts:

1) Man is a social creature.
2) Isolation, for prolonged periods of time, can cause psychological harm.
3) People who assume the social role of prison guard are often corrupted by their power over their helpless charges.
4) Fact 3 exacerbates fact 2. I have lived amidst the people who make up the statistics of the studies which prove those facts. They are not data points to me, they are my fellow prisoners, and I am one of them. I listened to Thomas Knight speak of himself in the third person, after ten brutal years in the "hole" at Florida State Prison in Starke (to name one of the hundreds of men whose souls and minds I've seen crushed by isolation).

In the hole there is no other voice than your own, so you could spend years finding fault in others and reinforcing an egocentric view of your suffering. There is no one there to counter or refute, so one can slowly spin into a new reality, one of his own design. This is not rehabilitative!

Does anyone care? There seems to be little movement to alter the status quo. The academics who chart and plot have little say in the day to day operation of prison, and the staff operate as though there is absolutely no oversight.

I would tell you of one instance when I, being brought to the Dade County Jail in Miami, was placed into a holding cell on the ground floor. As I was a state prisoner returning to the jail, I was not placed in the regular holding cells with all of the new "intake", but rather in this small walled in space under a stairwell with a door on it. Quite obviously a later addition to the booking area. It was a lot like a half-bath you might add in a home, sans the ambiance.

Now booking is a nerve center bustling with activity: pictures, prints, cell assignments, phone calls, etc. It is a non-stop, garishly lit, hornets' nest - but for the dark dank recess into which I had been cast.

Three times a day a cart, pushed by two inmates, would emerge from the kitchen loaded with styrofoam clamshells of food; and the officer who escorted them would pause at each holding bay and have distributed food to the detainees. Eventually, he would peer into the small window of my cell door, open the bean slot, and I would get a tray of food. No questions asked.

As I said, it's a busy place, so my paperwork was more than likely tossed on a desk, perhaps moved, buried, reshuffled - who knows. The end result is that I was of no immediate concern to anyone. They went about processing the new detainees, and there I remained, in that filthy little cell, fed, but never bathed for ten days.

As I pen this I can see the cell in my mind. It was like living in a filthy trash dumpster, albeit, a four foot by six foot one with a sloped ceiling.

Yes, this is actually done to real people. Not maliciously, just as a matter of course (punishment is even worse).

Is there an answer? Yes. First of all, stop locking up people for what is not a crime. The biggest problem with prison is that too many, far too many people are placed into them. It is politically popular to be 'tough on crime', so politicians propose and promulgate increasing numbers of reasons for which to cast someone into this machine. Put an end to mandatory sentences, allow judges to judge, and to determine what rehabilitative action is required in each unique case. One size does not fit all people, and the plus forty percent recidivism rate in the Comm. of Mass. SCREAMS failure!

Don't get tough on crime, get smart about it. The current approach bleeds the public coffers and does precious little to improve public safety - and long term isolation will only breed more Dominic Cinellis.

https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2023/12/01/none-was-there-when-i-had-my-fatal-hour-on-the-death-of-jorge-l-zerquera/

Jorge Zerquera, a lifer incarcerated for forty years, ended his life on Friday night, November 17, 2023 in the Behavior Adjustment Unit (BAU) at MCI-Norfolk (MCIN). Jorge's action stunned and shocked the Norfolk prison community. Jorge was a very active member of our community- both religious ans secular. Jorge was much respected, valued, loved by his fellow prisoners. He lived the adage that he would "give the shirt off his back" to anyone he saw in need."

Feel free to share.

Winnable criminal justice reforms in 2024 32 high-impact policy ideas for state legislators and advocates looking to reform their criminal legal system without making it bigger.

I encourage everyone not only in Boston, Massachusetts, & New England to watch this docuseries by @hbo & @bostonglobe.. I encourage everyone across the country and the world to watch it. This ain’t not an ad, this is me telling you that this is an extremely important piece of footage and history within our city that’s being told. December 4th, on @Hbo the 3 part series of #MurderInBoston begins. I was blessed with the opportunity to watch the first two yesterday at a screening and let me tell you.. this doc blew me away. @streamonmax

Prisoners'​ Legal Services of Massachusetts on LinkedIn: In Prison Policy Initiative's latest report, they list some high-impact… In Prison Policy Initiative's latest report, they list some high-impact policy ideas for state legislators and advocates who are looking to reform their…