On Monday November 13th, the Friends Committee on National Legislation convened local faith leaders in Lynchburg, Virginia to call on Rep. Bob Goodlatte to re-introduce his 2015 Sentencing Reform Act.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: José Woss, Jwoss@fcnl.org
Direct: 202-903-2511
November 15, 2017, Lynchburg, VA –
On Monday November 13th, the Friends Committee on National Legislation convened local faith leaders in Lynchburg, Virginia to call on Rep. Bob Goodlatte to re-introduce his 2015 Sentencing Reform Act. As House Judiciary Chairman, Goodlatte has the power to advance sentencing reform that will lower our nation’s enormous prison population. Amazing Grace Outreach Church hosted the speakers to discuss how mass incarceration shapes their lives and faith.
The Lynchburg News-Advance reported:
With a particular focus on the criminal justice system’s effects on people of color, the speakers issued a strong call to action for Goodlatte to use his position as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to reintroduce and fight for the passing of the Sentencing Reform Act.
In his remarks, Amazing Grace Outreach Church Pastor Rick Linthicum spoke about his experience being incarcerated prior to becoming a pastor and how generations of young black men are getting caught up in a recurring cycle of incarceration that spans entire families.
“Incarceration affects generations of young men,” Linthicum said, with audience members affirming his words through his speech. “I’m not here to talk about something that I heard; I’m here to talk about something I know about. I knew a young man who was incarcerated with his father and his grandfather. Three generations incarcerated. Locking people up, there’s better solutions than doing that.”
All of Chairman Goodlatte’s constituents who spoke had personal or church connections to incarceration. These are voices that the Chairman, and every member of Congress, needs to hear. Despite deadlines and politics in congress, criminal justice reform is still a top priority for the families and communities who need it more and more each day.
Rev. Aundreia Alexander, Esq. was also quoted in the Lynchburg News-Advance explaining her moral stance against the lasting burden of a criminal record:
“What we believe is all people were created by God. Every human being has intrinsic worth, and the system we have now is not the criminal justice system. It is a penal system that is predicated on retribution and punishment. Once you connect with that system, you have a life sentence no matter what the situation is. It’s not right.”
The Sentencing Reform Act is an important first step towards transformative criminal justice reform. If passed, the bill would lower the mandatory minimum sentences for certain nonviolent drug offenses. These long sentences do not improve public safety, they break communities. The Sentencing Reform Act would be a strong counterpart to the Prison Reform and Redemption Act (H.R. 3356) and the Second Chance Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2899), which have already been introduced with solidly bipartisan support. Sentencing reform is the lynchpin of comprehensive criminal justice reform that also includes these prison and re-entry improvements.
José Santos Woss, Legislative Manager for Mass Incarceration and Election Integrity, stated:
“There is little dignity in this system of mass incarceration, which Congress has a way of forgetting is in its backyard, from Virginia’s 6^th congressional district to every corner of the country. In the land of the free and home of the brave, the U.S. locks up millions, and Congress needs to show a lot more bravery these days. Chairman Goodlatte has a critical opportunity to leave a lasting legacy of real criminal justice reform by re-introducing the Sentencing Reform Act.”
The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is a nonpartisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people of many different faiths from every state in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government.
