November 21, 2007
Contact: Kathleen Baca
206.718.0879
Marguerite Casey Foundation Kicks Off Campaign for Families
Townhall at Washington State Reformatory Raises Issues of Education and Recidivism
SEATTLE, WA – The first townhall meeting of the Equal Voice for America’s Families campaign was held on October 27 at the Washington State Reformatory as part of the annual Black Prisoners' Caucus (BPC) Summit. Led by the Marguerite Casey Foundation and its grantees, the Equal Voice for America’s Families campaign is an effort to build support for a national family-issues platform created and advanced by families.
Today, one in ten of our nation’s children have a parent under criminal justice supervision. The prison population has ballooned to more than 2.1 million — a five-fold increase from thirty years ago. Approximately 60% of the prison population is Black or Latino, though these groups together represent about a quarter of the general population. Not only has the prison boom robbed children of their parents, it has stripped poor communities of the most valuable resource they have left: familial bonds.
“This campaign is about families and voices that are usually not heard. Every inmate is a family member; many inmates despite being young themselves have started families of their own; and still others are struggling to actively parent their own children from inside the prison walls,” said Luz Vega-Marquis, President and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation. “Any discussion of solutions to the barriers negatively impacting families must include the input of those affected.”
The annual Summit allows prisoners the opportunity to engage the larger society and help bridge the gap between the prison and outside communities. Speaking from the prison chapel to an audience of approximately 150 visitors from the community and fellow inmates, BPC’s panel of speakers addressed policies and environments that contribute to cyclical poverty, unemployment, crime and incarceration.
The panel cited education as a primary issue. Educational opportunity is a deterrent to crime as well as a vital component for success when reunifying one’s family and reintegrating oneself into society. One of the most adamant advocates for the need for educational opportunities was a young man in his early 20’s facing more than 250 months of his sentence ahead of him.
In addition to recognizing education as a source of hope, and correspondingly, the lack of education as a strong contributor to both criminal behavior and recidivism, panel members shared some of the more profound ways that prison has affected their families. Several prisoners expressed their anxiety that other people were raising their children. One inmate expressed his fear that his son would have more access to guns than to a quality education and would end up following his father’s path.
The decision to hold its first townhall at the correctional facility reflects the Foundation’s commitment to all of America’s families and to the issues its grantees and their constituents are working to resolve at local levels, such as healthcare, immigration, living wages, housing and criminal justice.
The Equal Voice for America’s Families campaign is a yearlong effort to produce and advance an agenda of issues of concern to families. The agenda will be developed through a series of townhall meetings held in communities across the country and unveiled at a multi-city convention in Birmingham, AL; Chicago, IL; and Los Angeles, CA on September 6, 2008 and then presented to policymakers.
Marguerite Casey Foundation
Marguerite Casey Foundation is a private, independent grant making foundation dedicated to helping low wage families strengthen their voice and mobilize their communities in order to achieve a more just and equitable society for all. For more information, visit www.caseygrants.org.
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