I was a 16-year-old child when I was arrested.

My offense resulted in being sentenced as an adult, to spend the rest of my life behind bars, with no chance for parole. I survived decades in Pennsylvania state prisons, including around 10 years in solitary confinement, because of the fierce advocacy of my family, and the support I received inside from mentors and Black Liberation Movement elders who were already decades into their sentences when my incarceration began.

Twenty seven years later, in 2018, I stepped out of SCI Greene after the Supreme Court ruled that sentencing children to automatic life without the possibility of parole is cruel, unnecessary, inhumane, and unconstitutional. I immediately joined the staff of the Abolitionist Law Center, and in 2020 became Executive Director.

People who are currently or formerly incarcerated and their loved ones are the leaders here. Those of us who are directly impacted by state violence are building the strategic alliances and power to end it. But to succeed, we know we need a broad community standing with us as we fight for freedom.

Pennsylvania is a key battleground state with one of the most extreme carceral systems in the nation, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Any changes we make here can be models for the rest of the country.

So I’m personally inviting you:  Join us. Support us. Become a member of our abolitionist family today.

In solidarity and struggle,

Robert Saleem Holbrook
Executive Director