Comrade, client, and human rights activist Kerry ‘Shakaboona’ Marshall – imprisoned since age 17 – is free after more than 33 years!
Shakaboona and his mother Patricia Vickers embrace outside the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia following his release on May 11, 2022.
At approximately 10:30 am yesterday morning, Kerry ‘Shakaboona’ Marshall walked out of the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia and into the free world.
Imprisoned in 1988 as a 17-year-old child and sentenced to death by incarceration in 1990, Shakaboona’s hard fought freedom marks a huge victory for inside-outside family organizing in Pennsylvania that began with the Human Rights Coalition (HRC) in 2000.
Shakaboona and his mother, Patricia Vickers, co-founded HRC in 2000 alongside other incarcerated and impacted community members, including ALC’s current Executive Director, Robert Saleem Holbook, who was imprisoned at SCI-Huntingdon at the time. ALC Legal Director and Shakaboona’s lawyer, Bret Grote, began volunteering with HRC in 2007 and six years later he co-founded ALC.
As a result of landmark Supreme Court cases Miller (2012) and Montgomery (2016) that deemed mandatory life sentences for juveniles to be unconstitutional, Shakaboona was resentenced in 2018 to 29-to-life. Upon parole in 2021, he was transferred to federal custody to serve time on a federal sentence of 110 months imposed in 2001. That sentence was revised to time served in federal court last week after a successful petition under the federal First Step Act.
His freedom is a testament to a protracted struggle led by Shakaboona himself and his mother Patricia, collaborating with impacted families and allied abolitionist lawyers at ALC, Amistad Law Project, and All Rise Law, who’ve fought tirelessly against unconstitutional sentencing schemes such as “juvenile life without parole,” and to protect loved ones against abuse, censorship, and medical neglect while centering the mission of bringing ALL lifers – like Shakaboona – home to their communities. In an uncommon judicial decision in March 2022, a federal judge cited Shakaboona’s work with prison and political advocacy organizations, including HRC and ALC, as evidence of rehabilitation justifying re-sentencing along with other factors.
From within the confines of a prison cell, Shakaboona co-founded the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration (CADBI) and HRC’s The Movement magazine. He’s held numerous leadership positions: VP of the PA Lifers Association at SCI-Huntingdon, Committee Chairperson of the NAACP Graterford Branch, President of the Paraprofessional Law Clinic at SCI-Graterford, and Secretary of the Regents Betterment Organization at SCI-Mahanoy. To date, Shakaboona has published over 120 commentaries on Prison Radio and was also a lead plaintiff (alongside Saleem and Mumia Abul Jamal) in ALC’s 2015 lawsuit that successfully overturned a state statute that would’ve silenced prisoner free speech and censored publications of incarcerated peoples’ writings.
ALC’s Legal Director, Bret Grote, noted: “Shakaboona’s family and his movement family packed the courtroom wall-to-wall and showed by their presence and participation that further incarceration was not warranted. They came to court to request that Shakaboona, who has given himself in tireless service to our movement, be returned to us and the judge was more than happy to oblige.”
Today is a proud and emotional day for our movement. We continue to be inspired by the unrelenting activism of Shakaboona and his mother Patricia.
We invite you to read more about this extraordinary journey to freedom in this blog post by Amistad Law Project, and join us in welcoming home ALC’s comrade and client, Kerry ‘Shakaboona’ Marshall.
Pittsburgh, PA – Today, a lawsuit brought by people serving Death-By-Incarceration sentences, commonly known as Life Without Parole, took their case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.Represented by the Abolitionist Law Center, Amistad Law Project, and the Center for Constitutional Rights, they seek an end to the ban on parole for those serving life sentences for participating in a felony that led to a death, even if they played no direct role in the death and did not intend or anticipate it.
“People change. After decades of incarceration, society should allow people the opportunity to demonstrate that they are not the same person who harmed their community so many years ago,” said Kris Henderson of Amistad Law Project. “Pennsylvania is uniquely cruel in denying a second chance to people who neither took a life or intended to. We urge the court to fix this injustice.”
The case concerns people convicted of so-called felony murder. Versions of the rule, which exists in 44 states, hold liable for murder a person who participates in a felony that leads to a death, even if the person played no direct role in the death and did not intend or anticipate it. The application of the rule varies from state to state. In Pennsylvania, people found guilty are automatically sentenced to life, and a separate provision of state law prohibits parole for anyone serving a life sentence. Critics say Pennsylvania’s total ban on parole for these crimes makes it unique among the states in the harshness with which it treats felony-murder convictions..
Scott v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, filed in July 2020, is the first case of its kind in the country. It argues that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole for those who did not kill or intend to kill serve no legitimate governmental interest and are illegally cruel under the Pennsylvania constitution. The plaintiffs belong to a movement of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated advocates and family members in using the term Death By Incarceration, which, they say, is the true impact of these sentences.
In 2021, a lower court ruled that the plaintiffs – and the more than 1,100 others in Pennsylvania serving Death-By-Incarceration sentences for felony murder – are not permitted to challenge the lifetime prohibition on parole, citing lack of jurisdiction. In today’s oral argument, their attorneys urged the court to overturn this decision and allow the case to proceed.
All four plaintiffs were convicted in their late teens or early 20s. Though none directly caused or intended to cause the death of the victim, they have spent between 24 and 48 years in prison ‒ the majority of their lives.
Tyreem Rivers was 18 when he grabbed the purse of an elderly woman who fell as a result. She was hospitalized and died two weeks later from pneumonia she had contracted in the hospital. Tyreem is now in his forties. Marie Scott was 19 when she robbed a gas station and her accomplice killed the attendant. She is now in her late sixties. Normita Jackson, now in her forties, was also 19 when she participated in a robbery where her co-defendant committed homicide. Marsha Scaggs, in her late fifties, was 23 when she was prosecuted after an altercation resulted in her co-defendant killing the victim in her case. None of them committed the killings, nor did they have any intention for them to happenUnless their legal challenge succeeds or the law is otherwise changed, these four people and the more than 1,100 others will almost certainly die in prison.
Two of the original plaintiffs, brothers Wyatt and Reid Evans, had their sentences commuted after serving 37 years.
“Felony murder’s automatic life-without-parole is a death sentence, one that disproportionately impacts youth, women, and Black and Brown people. Death by incarceration serves no legitimate public safety interest – only the interests of racist, state-sanctioned retribution and punishment,” said the Abolitionist Law Center in a statement. “It’s time for the over 1,000 people sentenced to DBI under felony murder to be given the opportunity to be reviewed for parole – and to finally come home to their friends and families after decades in cages.”
Pennsylvania’s Death-By-Incarceration sentencing scheme both reflects and exacerbates the racial disparities in the state’s criminal justice and penal systems. While only 11 percent of Pennsylvania’s population is Black, about 70 percent of people serving Death-By-Incarceration sentences for felony murder are Black. Overall in the state, Black people are sentenced to Death By Incarceration at a rate 18 times higher, and Latinx people at a rate five times higher, than white people.
“This case is on behalf of Black elders and all of those who have been denied redemption,” said Samah Sisay, attorney and Bertha Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Through its mandatory sentencing scheme and an inability to seek parole, Pennsylvania has disproportionately and unconstitutionally denied rehabilitation for people of color and we are asking the court to right this grave error.”
A number of legal organizations have filed or joined amicus briefs in support of the lawsuit: The MacArthur Justice Center, The Sentencing Project, the International Human Rights Law Clinic at Berkeley School of Law, the Andy and Gwen Stern Community Lawyering Clinic at Drexel School of Law, Seton Hall Center for Social Justice Eighth Amendment Scholars, and the Defender Association of Philadelphia.
ALC sues ACJ Medical Director, medical staff, and former Deputy Warden, Laura Williams, for ADA violations, unconstitutional medical care, and medical malpractice that caused amputation of Pittsburgh man’s leg
Left: Clayton in 2018 prior to incarceration at ACJ and below-the-knee leg amputation in 2020. Right: Clayton photographed on March 29, 2022.
PITTSBURGH – On March 24, 2022 the Abolitionist Law Center (ALC) filed a lawsuit against Allegheny County Jail’s (ACJ) Medical Director, Dr. Donald Stechshulte, its former Deputy Warden, Laura Williams, and medical staff members, on behalf of Clayton McCray, a formerly incarcerated man who had an infected open-wound on his right heel and was routinely denied standard medical care, prescribed medical devices, outside treatment, and other deprivations for a year ultimately requiring him to have a right below the knee amputation when he was 26 years old.
According to the complaint, throughout McCray’s year-long pretrial detention on a probation violation from 2019-2020, the ACJ administration, doctors and staff knowingly subjected him to inhumane conditions and denied him prescribed medical treatments. McCray developed physical disabilities in his foot after suffering a gunshot wound to his spine in 2011. While McCray was incarcerated in two Pennsylvania state prisons from 2018 to the fall of 2019, he developed a small neuropathic ulcer or wound on his right heel. The prison staff provided McCray wound care and debridement treatments to heal the wound and prescribed him assistive or medical devices such as an orthotic shoe, brace, etc and other accommodations to prevent McCray’s wound from becoming exacerbated and allowing him to walk safely. However, when McCray arrived at ACJ in September of 2019, ACJ staff confiscated his medical devices (orthotic shoe and AFO brace) and continued to deny or severely limit his use of them despite ACJ receiving McCray’s medical records from the two prisons, that confirmed his disability accommodations and need for prescribed medical devices for the neuropathic ulcer on his heel. At Defendants’ direction or under their supervision, ACJ staff denied McCray critical medical care and accommodations:
Instead of being placed in a cell with disability access, McCray was either forced into solitary confinement or placed in housing that lacked access to medical support and prevented him from using his medical devices. Due to Defendants, McCray did not receive daily wound care and regular debridement treatments as prescribed by outside doctors and recommended by the Federal Bureau of Prisons wound care guidelines. McCray was routinely denied pain medication, antibiotics and adequate nutrition by ACJ medical personnel, and was barred by Williams from being examined by an outside specialist onsite at the jail. On many occasions, McCray was often forced to “hop on one foot or crawl to his cell door to retrieve his meals and medications,” when his medical devices—orthotic shoe, crutches, cane or wheelchair—were unjustifiably confiscated by jail guards.
“All patients, regardless of the environment or circumstances, deserve to be cared for and given the best medical care, to the best of our ability with the resources that are available,” says Charles E. Timbers Jr., a nurse practitioner and former employee of ACJ who has advocated for incarcerated community members who’ve endured neglect and malpractice under Williams. “Incarcerated people are human beings. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. It is our duty as healthcare professionals.”
Because Defendants denied McCray prescribed medical care, medical devices, and accommodations, his foot infection worsened into a life-threatening bone infection (osteomyelitis), and eventually required McCray to undergo an amputation of his lower right leg in September 2020.
“No mother wants to see her child suffer. It kills me what they did to him. He had prescribed shoes and a brace; they took it away from him. He had wound care treatments he needed; they didn’t give it to him,” says Nicole Woodson, the mother of Clayton McCray. “I called every one possible at the jail, and they ignored me. Because they denied him medical care, my son is suffering a lifetime of pain.”
The lawsuit alleges Allegheny County and ACJ’s former Deputy Warden Laura Williams, current Medical Director Dr. Donald Stechshulte, physician Dr. Nancy Park, ACJ’s Assistant Director of Nursing Jen Kelly, along with physician’s assistant Natalie Austin violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, McCray’s Fourteenth Amendment rights, and committed medical malpractice from 2019 and 2020.
McCray is now seeking compensation for his injuries including the permanent loss of his right lower leg, significant pain and distress, severe mental anguish, and compensation for his future medical expenses.
The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Plaintiff Clayton McCray is represented by Jaclyn Kurin and Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center.
“We decided we would build our own table.” Notes from Saleem’s Freedom Anniversary
Saleem holds up a photograph of himself at age 16 while awaiting trial at the Youth Study Center. He is pictured with his nephew.
Four years since ALC Executive Director Robert Saleem Holbrook walked out of prison and into ‘the free world’, he shares the origins of his pledge to dismantle the carceral state and build together.
When I stop and reflect, and look back at the past four years since I’ve been home, it’s hard to believe it’s only been four years. I am reminded of how fast times move in the midst of upheavals and struggles. When I walked out of SCI-Greene on February 20th, 2018 after 27 years of incarceration, I emerged with a mission: to work every waking hour towards dismantling the carceral state, to weaken and abolish the powers of the police state. To free my comrades I left behind.
Looking back now, I can say with confidence that I have lived up to that pledge.
However, that pledge did not start on February 20th, 2018 – it started over two decades earlier when I, alongside other prisoners in solitary confinement, made a promise to ourselves that we would build a movement that reflected our visions, values and voices. We promised that we would never put ourselves or our families’ interests in the hands of any politician or social justice movement.
I can recall being 18-years-old, reading a worn out copy of the autobiography of Malcolm X in a dimly lit cell in solitary confinement. I was struck at how Malcolm wrote about how pathetic it was to see politicians that claimed to represent our communities being satisfied, eating the crumbs that dropped from the oppressor’s table.
Fast forward nearly 30 years later to a conversation in 2018. My comrades and I were discussing the fight for formerly incarcerated people and families of prisoners to have a seat at the table of power; we decided we would build our own table. We are building to lead the fight for decarceration and abolition.
We like to say, “It’s not the prettiest table, but it’s a sturdy table”, and it would not be possible without the relationships and community we’ve built over the past 20 years fighting for human rights, dignity, and total abolition.
And because of that community, I can celebrate four years of freedom.
– Robert Saleem Holbrook, 03/07/2022
We’re headed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Lead Plaintiff Marie “Mechie” Scott profiled in the a November 2020 issue of Philly-based Grid Magazine.
In July 2020, ALC joined the Center for Constitutional Rights and Amistad Law Project in filing Scott v. PA Board of Probation and Parole. The lawsuit is the first of its kind in the United States. The case argues that mandatory life without parole – aka death by incarceration (DBI) – for those who did not kill or intend to kill, does not serve any legitimate governmental interest and is unconstitutional. The complaint, filed on behalf of six individuals serving DBI sentences, seeks to end the lifetime prohibition of parole under Pennsylvania’s ‘felony murder rule’.
‘Felony murder’ exists in 44 states. The rule holds individuals responsible for murder if they participated in a felony that lead to a death – even if the individual played no direct role in the death or did not not intend or anticipate it. More than 1,100 people in Pennsylvania are currently serving DBI sentences for felony murder – 70% of these community members are Black. Individuals found guilty of felony murder in PA are automatically sentenced to DBI and prohibited from parole eligibility. Our lawsuit seeks to end this practice.
In May 2021, the Commonwealth Court of PA ruled that our clients are not allowed to challenge the lifetime prohibition on parole and dismissed the suit; we appealed to this decision to Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Almost a year later, the PA Supreme Court has agreed to hear our argument to overturn the lower court’s decision so our clients – and the human rights movement against death by incarceration – can proceed with the historic lawsuit.
Follow us on social media for the latest updates on our PA Supreme Court oral argument slated for April 13th, 2022.
Screenshot of one of Critical Resistance’s latest guides to abolitionist reforms VS reformist reforms. Visit their online abolitionist toolkit for downloadable PDFs.
Since the historic George Floyd Rebellion of 2020, many elected officials across the country who initially supported calls for defunding the police state and investing in basic human rights and life-affirming services (like housing, education and healthcare) have since backtracked on their promises. Many have embraced reactionary cop apologia and pro-carceral logics amidst media-hyped “crime wave” mythologies, advancing increased police budgets, proposals for new jails, and generalizing animosity to radical Black organizers and anti-fascist protesters in the news.
Despite all this, there are still signs of decarceral life taking shape, embodied in the unexpected potential of ‘reforms’.
As abolitionists, we often ask ourselves, “What are the limitations of reforms and electoral politics? Do incrementalist reforms that advance the liberation of some, but not others (or all), ultimately hurt our movements in the long run? Are there opportunities to pollinate abolitionist thinking and dialectics in city council meetings and state legislative sessions, in the form of local ballot measures and congressional bills?”
Oakland-based Critical Resistance (co-founded in the late 1990’s by abolitionists including Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Ruth Braz) recently updated their online abolitionist toolkit to include dynamic new charts that help activist-scholars and organizers delineate between “reformist reforms” and “abolitionist reforms.” The difference? In short, reformistreforms strengthen policing and imprisonment under the guise of “progress,” whereas abolitionist reformsreduce reliance on the carceral state, and create improved material conditions for individuals and their communities.
Creating delineations between abolition and reformism have always been salient in ALC’s work, particularly in the ongoing struggle to end solitary confinement. While some organizations perceive the state as a neutral, benevolent force, ALC recognizes the state as the opponent; any organizing and litigation against solitary that is not grounded within an abolitionist framework ultimately run the risk of creating a “constitutional prison”. This is a prison that provides the bare constitutional protections, born of a circular reformist fight that misses the larger political movement and underlying purpose of solitary confinement: to repress prisoner resistance to racist mass incarceration.
You can check out the highlights from our summer 2021 staff retreat on solitary confinement & abolition here.
During last August’s Abolition: Can it be a Reality? panel hosted by Alliance for Police Accountability, ALC Staff Attorney Dolly Prabhu, author of ALC’s 2020 report, Apartheid Policing in Pittsburgh was asked, “What is a reform that is moving us towards abolition versus a reform that is reinstituting the state?” She replied, “If this requires giving more money to policing, prisons, or jails, it’s a reformist reform, no matter how good it sounds. Probation and cash bail were created as ‘reforms’ but are now some of the major drivers of mass incarceration. Just because something seems like an alternative to incarceration doesn’t mean it’s going to increase decarceration.”
Five months later, Prabhu has been integral in drawing attention to the deceptive fault lines of a new Pennsylvania senate bill: SB913. The bill is a shining example of a “reformist reform,” cited as “a fake progressive probation reform bill” that now lays before the General Assembly despite widespread opposition from over 50 major social justice orgs. Pointing out the harms of the bill that will keep people trapped in cycles of incarceration, Prabhu calls for meaningful decarceral initiative including “abolishing use of probation detainers and prohibiting incarceration due to technical violations, poverty or homelessness.”
Using abolitionist reformsas a framework and tactic in the protracted struggle to abolish police and prisons, we can seek out opportunities to weaken the carceral state however they present themselves. Since its inception in early 2021, our lobbying arm, Straight Ahead, has heralded the liberatory potentials of two Pennsylvania senate bills, SB135 and SB835. These bills can be conceptualized as “abolitionist reforms” since mass parole eligibility and decarceration of 1) community members sentenced to death by incarceration (over 5,000 people), along with 2) elders and those who are chronically ill, are the end goals of these two bills. With their passage into law, thousands of community members could be freed from state prisons.
At the local level in Allegheny County, ALC has pushed for abolitionist reforms: ones that reduce harm against incarcerated community members (such as ending solitary confinement at ACJ, abolishing cash bail, banning a racist paramilitary private prison contractor from the jail). And ones that decrease Black people’s proximity to police violence (such as curbing traffic stops and stop-and-frisks carried out by the Pittsburgh Police). While the recent proposed ordinance to limit Pittsburgh Police’s discretion in pursuing traffic stops does not outright abolish stop-and-frisks in their entirety, we continue to call on elected officials to go harder in defense of Black lives and pursue the absolute dissolution of the racist practice: ban ALL stop-and-frisks.
From the streets to the courtrooms, from city councils to Harrisburg, we’re creating space for abolition, whenever and wherever we can.
Growing Participatory Defense
An Interview with Walter Harris and Autumn Redcross
In December 2021, ALC and other community groups began quietly laying the groundwork for an organizing model that is situated within a larger nationwide movement: participatory defense. We sat down with our Movement Director, Autumn Redcross, and Walter Harris of the Pittsburgh Participatory Defense Hub to learn more about the origins of participatory defense and the goals of their new project.
Rooted in community care and transformative justice, participatory defense is a framework by which community members self-organize to support individuals navigating pretrial detention, court hearings, probation and the entire punishment system, with the ultimate goal of “time saved, as opposed to time served…the goal is to keep people out of jail,” said Harris.
Autumn and Walter at a hub meeting.
The Pittsburgh Participatory Defense Hub is a decentralized network of local orgs, featuring members from JailBreak, Bukit Bail Fund, CADBI West, and ALC Court Watch, along with formerly incarcerated organizers, abolitionists, families, and individuals “who believe in being in service to their communities.” Harris noted, “You don’t need a degree – you just need to be a voice for change.” Working together, the hub has launched mutual aid support for bail & legal fees, provided commissary funds to loved ones on the inside, partnered with public defenders to support clients, packed courtrooms to support community members facing charges, and provided referrals for community members seeking legal advice.
When a community member is put in touch with the hub, “One of the first things that we say is, ‘We are a support group’,” Redcross explained. “We’re not offering legal advice, we’re looking to support people who are caught up in the system. We’re looking to work with their defense team, so the person in need can have the outcome that they are looking for.”
The Pittsburgh hub’s most recent work focused on demanding immediate pretrial freedom for a 15-year-old boy who’d been confined to Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) without bond for over two months (as of 02/24/22 there are 24 individuals trapped inside ACJ who are under age 18). Centering the needs and demands of the family, the hub crowdfunded, circulated media by Narrative Justice and Allegheny County JOB Watch, called for in-person court support, and phoned the local judge’s chambers when motions hearings were chronically postponed without a rescheduled date. “He’s out [of ACJ] now. We would’ve still been waiting here had people not made those calls,” said Harris.
When asked if there are issues unique to Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania’s political and carceral landscapes that the hub hopes to focus on, Harris said, “The judicial system that’s set up in Pennsylvania is ‘strategically biased’ to put it lightly. Whatever you receive on the front end, you receive on the back end – sometimes even greater,” referring to probation, which is commonly misconstrued as an alternative to incarceration in the liberal imagination, yet the practice has actually expanded surveillance and racist control of communities, keeping people cycling in and out of prison for decades.
“I know the brokenness of the system.” Harris was confined to more than 20 years in prison; he will be celebrating his one year freedom anniversary this month. “It’s important for people to see those of us with ‘colorful backgrounds’ out here supporting one another. We’re growing the hub, learning what participatory defense looks like and feels like as we go. It’s a community effort – it’s not about getting credit.”
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Over the past nine years, the scope of ALC’s work has grown tremendously: from a small movement lawyering firm in Pittsburgh to a statewide abolitionist project that uses litigation, community organizing, court watching (ALC Court Watch), and lobbying through our 501(c)(4) arm, Straight Ahead, to dismantle all forms of state violence.
We are grateful to be in service to our communities and to be in constellation with movement supporters who know that a world without police and prisons is not only possible, but precedented; we witness this every day through acts of collective caring and transformative justice.
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It is with overwhelming sadness, we join our communities in sharing this news.
Our beloved friend, comrade, mentor, client, and inspiration, Russell Maroon Shoatz transitioned from this life on Earth today. After 49 years in prison, Maroon was finally released on October 26th. He passed away at his sister’s home 52 days later, surrounded by the love and care of his family.
There are few words, if any, that will do justice in describing Maroon, the impact he’s had on all of us, the gigantic legacy he leaves behind. If you are reading this, chances are, at some point you came in contact with Maroon, either directly – or subliminally: many projects in the struggle for Black Liberation and abolition can be traced back to him, the contemporary Political Prisoners’ rights movement in Pennsylvania beginning with him.
Some of us were lucky enough to know Maroon personally, and for that, we are infinitely grateful. We commemorate him by carrying out his life’s work, by reaffirming our commitments to see the dissolution of Empire and advance absolute, unconditional liberation for Black people everywhere. Maroon reminds us, “history records the stories of multitudes who risked their lives to obtain or regain their freedom” (2012).
We are grieving for Maroon. He has left us physically on this plane, but his spirit and visions live on in the movements he inspired and animated from a prison cell, the countless hearts and minds he filled with hope and wonder when so many of us felt lost and helpless, the iconic essays he wrote that will continue to galvanize future generations of young people in the struggle.
In his own words,
“Rest easy fighting maroons. There are many now and to come who will derive inspiration from your valorous examples – inspiration that will ‘arm their spirits’ to fight the good fight. . . til victory or death!!!” (1995).
Rest easy, and in power. Long live Russell Maroon Shoatz.
ALC Staff Attorney Dolly Prabhu calls for decarceral initiatives including abolishing use of probation detainers and prohibiting incarceration due to technical violations, poverty or homelessness
We are disheartened to learn that Pennsylvania’s Senate Bill 913 was voted out of the Senate on Wednesday, December 15th, in a 46–4 vote on the senate floor. We applaud the four senators who listened to community members and opposed this terrible attempt at Probation reform in Pennsylvania. SB 913 is a so-called probation reform bill. Many of its provisions appear positive at first read, but ultimately SB 913 only sounds good to those unfamiliar with the day-to-day functioning of the probation system. At best, the reforms proposed appear superficial and conditional — they are subject to numerous restrictions and will not assist the vast majority of individuals on probation. In fact, SB 913 will primarily impact rural white Pennsylvania and its impact on Black and Brown communities most impacted by mass incarceration will be negligible. If the objective of legislators was to create a bill that would leave behind Black Philadelphians, they have succeeded with SB 913. For these reasons, the Abolitionist Law Center cannot support this shallow and disingenuous attempt at probation reform.
SB 913 proposes mandated probation review conferences for individuals with lengthy probation sentences. Individuals are eligible for these conferences after 3 years on probation for a misdemeanor or 5 years on probation for a felony. This is an exceptionally long period of time that right off the bat will apply to few, even if they are eligible for the 6-month waiting time reduction. Most individuals on probation for several years or more are on probation due to the imposition of new probation terms after revocation — not necessarily because of lengthy probation sentences. Additionally, eligibility is also subject to many limitations, including not having committed any technical violations in the past 6 months, nor having been previously convicted of certain crimes.
Most importantly, judges already have the authority to terminate probation early. Even if restitution is still owed, many judges will still close out probation if all other conditions are met. Individuals with complete conditions and without restitution owed or new technical or direct violations will likely have no trouble getting off probation, so this proposed reform will do little in reducing the volume of people trapped in long cycles of needless supervision and incarceration. Early termination of probation is already permitted; the creation of probation review conferences may in fact reduce the amount of early termination as judges may rely on this mechanism rather than take action themselves. It may also further confuse what is now a relatively straightforward process of early termination. In some counties, early termination is an institutionalized process that occurs relatively frequently.
The only way this particular provision would be helpful to people is if the stars aligned and all of the following occurred:
Individuals are sentenced to an uncommonly lengthy period of probation — over 3 years for a misdemeanor or 5 years for a felony. It is far more likely to have a scenario where an individual is sentenced to one year of probation that is revoked and reimposed for several years. These folks in the latter category will never be eligible for probation review conferences.
Individuals have not been convicted of misdemeanors or felonies in the past 6 months.
Individuals have not committed technical violations in the past 6 months, which can include missed appointments, possession of a weapon (even with a permit), absconding, not being able to afford mandated programming, or a host of other non-violent actions.
All fines and restitution are paid. Restitution can often be due to property damage and therefore sometimes 6 figures or more. It can also be owed to entities such as banks or large corporations. Due to their financial circumstances, some folks will simply never be able to pay off even small amounts of restitution. These are some of the folks who end up trapped on probation the longest, due to regular revocation and reimposition of new probation sentences.
All treatment programs are completed. These programs can be quite expensive and often they must be paid by defendants out of pocket, despite being mandatory (e.g. $75/class for anger management classes, $1000+ for DUI stipulations, etc.). For this reason, folks take a long time to complete certain programs.
Probation review conferences are actually scheduled when defendants are eligible for them.
The defendant is aware of when they are eligible for a probation review conference and files a motion demanding one if it does not commence on time.
The judge overseeing probation is unwilling to or would otherwise not terminate probation early on their own, despite all conditions being met and long-term compliance to probation rules.
The judge overseeing probation also does not perceive the defendant to be a “threat to public safety” — a vague and highly subjective standard. The commonwealth, victims, and victim advocacy organizations are all notified and may be present to object to early termination.
This is not meant to be a defense of judges or of Probation as it currently functions. Probation is one of the primary drivers of mass incarceration and its scale and power must be reduced to move towards decarceration. Legislation such as SB 913, which offers limited, conditional benefits yet creates a high risk for future harm and entrenchment, is not the way towards this goal. It is a shame that this momentum is not used to advance effective decarceral initiatives, such as advocating for any of the following:
Ending the use of probation detainers. Probation detainers are orders issued by judges to keep probationers detained pending their Gagnon II hearings, which can take months or even years, based on alleged probation violations that may even be non-criminal and non-violent. In many PA counties, probation detainers are the driving force of incarceration and are the number one reason why people are incarcerated pretrial. While bail hearings are supposed to be where determinations of public safety and flight risk are made, slews of individuals are held pretrial despite bail determinations that permit their release. Addressing probation detainers should be the main priority of any politician interested in criminal justice reform.
Rather than instituting a convoluted and lengthy process for highly conditional review conferences, simply instituting hard caps on probation length, as many other states do.
Prohibiting the use of split sentences — periods of incarceration followed by periods of probation. These sentences have become increasingly normalized and have swollen the scale of state supervision.
Prohibiting the imposition of consecutive probation sentences.
Prohibiting incarceration for technical (i.e. non-criminal) violations of probation. A sentence of incarceration for technical violations is already rare. It is far more common for folks to be incarcerated pretrial for months or even years while awaiting their probation violation hearings, rather than to be actually sentenced to incarceration. Because it is already uncommon, this reform should be low-hanging fruit, yet this bill even fails to outrightly prohibit this practice.
Prohibiting revocation for all non-willful “violations” due to poverty or homelessness, such as unpaid fines, unpaid restitution, incomplete programming, etc. Probation keeps people vulnerable to fast-tracked and lengthy incarceration for even non-criminal activity, but poverty is what keeps many people trapped on probation. The only “reform” proposed in this bill that addresses this issue does nothing more than repeat what is already the current state of the law: individuals should not be violated for nonpayment of fines or cost unless a finding of willful nonpayment is made.
Politicians assume that grassroots organizers are the uneducated ones who don’t understand the ins and outs of proposed legislation; in reality, they are the ones who clearly don’t understand the full context or potential impact of the bills that they advance. This bill’s unpopularity is blamed on “bad marketing,” when in reality it is just bad legislation. Legislation is risky — there is always the chance that it may be warped to do more harm than good. To be worth that risk, it must offer at least some guarantee of meaningful decarceration. Unfortunately, SB 913 does not meet that bar, and instead entrenches many of the harmful practices we should be seeking to end.
This has been a deeply inspiring, encouraging, and productive year in our shared fight for abolition at Straight Ahead and the Abolitionist Law Center.
In 2021, our toolkit and our reach expanded dramatically. And our many important victories delivered improved conditions and chances for freedom for our community members held captive in Pennsylvania’s horrendous jails and prisons, which are among the worst in the nation.
Over the last year we grew. We listened. We organized. And we fought and won.
And now we need your help to keep the momentum going.
Tell us you believe in freedom from state violence and the racist, classist incarceration machine, and that you want us to amplify our organizing, litigating, and lobbying efforts that will get us there.
Please make a contribution today to Straight Ahead or the Abolitionist Law Center (ALC).
Straight Ahead and ALC Staff holding #FreeOurPeople banner at SB835 press conference – Philadelphia, September 2021.
If you can make a gift that’s not tax-deductible, please donate to Straight Ahead, our 501(c)(4) lobbying organization.
Here are some highlights of what we’ve been able to do together in 2021:
We Grew
We launched and fully ramped upStraight Ahead – a 501(c)(4) legislative and lobbying organization – so that in conjunction with the Abolitionist Law Center, we can attack mass incarceration and state violence from every direction: in the streets, in the courtroom, and now also via legislation.
We added talented, passionate people to ALC’s organizing, legal, court watching, and operations teams, including beefing up our Philadelphia-based crew who are working to counter the city’s notoriously racist police and court system, and the county’s abhorrent record of having more people serving death by incarceration sentences than any other county or parish in the U.S. (and in fact, more than the entire prison populations of many other nations).
We set in motion initiatives to significantly scale up our advocacy for people with disabilities who encounter the criminal punishment system.
ALC staff and comrades at Free Mumia Weekend – Philadelphia, April 2021.
We Listened
We doubled down on our foundational commitment to taking leadership from people directly impacted by state violence, by continuing to hire formerly incarcerated staff, participating in decarceral networks across the state and around the country, and expanding our channels of communication to and from people currently imprisoned.
We held decarceration-focused community forums and rallies all over Pennsylvania, including in areas where we’ve never had an on-the-ground presence before, as part of our long-term plan to win substantive legal and legislative reform in this key swing state that has one of the harshest and most punitive criminal punishment systems in the country.
We conducted scores of jail and prison visits to hear firsthand from incarcerated people about the atrocious conditions they experience on a daily basis.
We recruited and trained over 100 Court Watch volunteers who collectively observed and reported on hundreds of criminal court proceedings, garnering invaluable insight about discriminatory and abusive practices by court officials.
We Organized
ALC’s Racial Justice Organizer, Saudia Durrant, with members of the Human Rights Coalition, protest outside SCI-Phoenix on July 6, 2021 uplifting demands of hunger strikers in solitary confinement. Photo by Joe Piette.
We penned powerful op eds and first person accounts of the agony experienced by elderly and seriously ill people in prison, the capacity for incarcerated people to change, the influence of the Black Radical tradition on abolitionist practices, and more.
We released groundbreaking, data-rich reports and calls-to-action based on our findings from our work in courtrooms, prisons, jails, and communities.
We dedicated resources and developed transformative justice-focused curriculum for our internal and external political education offerings, including organizing and training a cohort of people impacted by the prison system to be influential advocates for change.
We intensified our legal and public awareness campaigns aimed at ending death by incarceration (life without parole) and the use of solitary confinement.
We forced the Allegheny County Courts to grant the public virtual access to criminal proceedings during the months of remote proceedings necessitated by the pandemic.
We joined 1Hood Media and the Alliance for Police Accountability (APA) in the Reimagining Public Safety Coalition working group that reported on, and now is planning, implementation of concrete steps to reduce harm and trauma and increase safety and wellness in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
We Fought and Won
ALC Paralegal, Jonas Caballero, and allied partners from 1Hood, APA, and Bukit Bail Fund speak out against fascist paramilitary prison contractor, Joseph Garcia, and human rights abuses at Allegheny County Jail – Pittsburgh, September 2021.Photo by Kiley Koscinski.
We waged a rapid response, public pressure campaign that stopped a newly introduced mandatory minimums sentencing bill in its tracks.
After first forcing his release from 37 years of solitary confinement to general population in 2017, this year our legal work that began in 2013 brought our client Arthur Cetewayo Johnson home after 51 years of imprisonment.
Our medical neglect lawsuit on behalf of Tyrone Briggs, who was killed when prison staff attacked him with pepper spray and left him to die from a severe asthma attack, forced key policy changes regarding the use of chemical weapons by DOC staff and the largest-ever damages settlement against the DOC for Tyrone’s family.
We collaborated with APA, 1Hood, and many other allies to promote a voter referendum in the county surrounding Pittsburgh that overwhelmingly passed a ban – the first of its kind in the nation – on the use of solitary confinement, the restraint chair, and pepper spray at the notoriously horrible Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) where around 2000 people are held on any given day
We spearheaded an all-out pressure campaign with our allies that derailed ACJ’s attempt to end-run around the referendum results by hiring a contractor to train jail staff on violent, military-style tactics and weaponry for brutalizing incarcerated people
The fight to abolish the racist and classist systems of policing, courts, and incarceration, is a massive one. But it’s essential if we want to transform how we respond to harm, and create freedom, justice, safety, and wellness, especially for our most vulnerable neighbors.
With the combined forces of Straight Ahead and the Abolitionist Law Center building grassroots power and demanding freedom in every arena, we have the vision and the tools to get us there.
Now we need the resources and the continuing support of our community.
Please make a contribution of any amount today to Straight Ahead (if you don’t need your gift to be tax-deductible) or to ALC (if a tax-deduction is important to you.)
HARRISBURG ‒ A lawsuit brought by six people serving mandatory Death-By-Incarceration sentences, commonly known as Life Without Parole, will go before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which will decide if a lawsuit challenging the practice can proceed. Represented by the Abolitionist Law Center, Amistad Law Project, and Center for Constitutional Rights, they seek an end to the prohibition on parole for those serving life sentences under the state’s felony murder rule.
The felony murder rule, which exists in forty-four states, holds a person liable for murder if the person participates in a felony that leads to a death, even if the person plays no direct role in the death or does not intend or anticipate it. The application of the rule varies from state to state. In Pennsylvania, people found guilty are automatically sentenced to life, and a separate provision of state law prohibits parole eligibility for anyone serving life.
Scott v. PA Board of Probation and Parole, filed in July 2020, is the first case of its kind in the country. It argues that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole for those who did not kill or intend to kill do not serve any legitimate governmental interest and are illegally cruel under the Pennsylvania constitution. They join a movement of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated advocates and family members in using the term Death By Incarceration, which they say is the true impact of these sentences.
“We know that people are more than their worst moments in life,” said Nikki Grant, Policy Director of Amistad Law Project. “Our clients are simply asking for a chance to demonstrate to the Parole Board how they have changed. Everyone deserves the opportunity to show how they have rehabilitated themselves, that they can be redeemed and become an asset to their community.”
All of the people bringing the case were convicted in their late teens or early 20s. Though none directly caused or intended the death of the victim, they have spent between 24 and 48 years in prison ‒ the majority of their lives. Marie Scott, for example, was 19 when she robbed a gas station with a person who killed the attendant. Another plaintiff, Tyreem Rivers, was 18 when he grabbed the purse of an elderly woman who fell as a result. She was hospitalized and died two weeks later from pneumonia she had contracted in the hospital. Unless their legal challenge succeeds or the law is otherwise changed, these six people will almost certainly die in prison.
Earlier this year, a lower court ruled that the plaintiffs, and the more than 1,100 others in Pennsylvania serving Death-By-Incarceration sentences for felony murder, are not even allowed to challenge the lifetime prohibition on parole. Their attorneys will urge the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to overturn this decision, so that their clients may proceed with their lawsuit.
“Consigning anybody to die in prison is a disgraceful practice. Imposing this indignity on an overwhelmingly Black and Brown population on the scale that Pennsylvania does is a severe human rights violation and a primary mechanism for enforcing an apartheid justice system,” said Bret Grote, legal director of the Abolitionist Law Center. “Our movement intends to end this practice, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court allowing this lawsuit to go forward would be an important step in the right direction.”
Pennsylvania’s Death-By-Incarceration sentencing scheme both reflects and exacerbates the racial disparities endemic to the U.S. criminal justice and penal systems. While only 11 percent of Pennsylvania’s population is Black, approximately 70 percent of people serving Death-By-Incarceration sentences for felony murder are Black. Overall in the state, Black people are sentenced to Death By Incarceration at a rate 18 times higher, and Latinx people at a rate five times higher, than white people.
While this lawsuit focuses on a subset of people in Pennsylvania serving Death-By-Incarceration sentences, both the plaintiffs and their attorneys see it as a challenge to a system that frequently condemns people to die in prison. Even more so than imprisonment for non-violent drug offenses, harsh sentencing for more serious crimes drives mass incarceration. Indeed, advocates say heavy use of the Death-By-Incarceration sentence is perhaps the most distinctive and emblematic feature of the U.S. system of mass incarceration.
“Prolonged incarceration serves no legitimate public purpose and is inherently cruel and dehumanizing,” said Samah Sisay, attorney and Bertha Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “This case is part of ongoing abolitionist efforts to end Death-By-Incarceration sentences and gives Pennsylvania a chance to prioritize redemption and liberation by providing predominantly Black and aging people a chance to be released from prisons.”
Pennsylvania is a global leader in Death-By-Incarceration sentences, which the U.S. Supreme Court has said are akin to the death penalty in their severity and irrevocability. In Pennsylvania, 5,200 people are serving such sentences, giving the state the country’s highest per capita rate and accounting for 10 percent of the country’s total. Philadelphia county alone has more people serving these sentences than 45 states – and more than any country other than the United States. In fact, Philadelphia’s rate of Death By Incarceration is higher than the overall incarceration rate of 140 countries.
Several legal organizations filed amicus briefs in support of the lawsuit. The MacArthur Justice Center submitted a brief that focuses on the racial disparities in Death-By-Incarceration sentences for felony murder; The Sentencing Project, which seeks an end to “extreme punishments,” submitted a brief, along with the International Human Rights Law Clinic at Berkeley Law and the Andy and Gwen Stern Community Lawyering Clinic at Drexel Law, that addresses the unconstitutionality of the lifetime parole ban and describes how such sentencing practices are outside the international norm; Seton Hall Center for Social Justice Eighth Amendment Scholars submitted a brief explaining why the lifetime ban on parole for this class of people violates the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment; and the Defender Association of Philadelphia’s brief explores the capacity of people to evolve in prison and the positive influence that paroled “lifers” can have on communities.
The Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm inspired by the struggle of political and politicized prisoners, and organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States. Abolitionist Law Center litigates on behalf of people whose human rights have been violated in prison, educates the general public about the evils of mass incarceration, and works to develop a mass movement against the American punishment system by building alliances and nurturing solidarity across social divisions. Follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter: @AbolitionistLC.
Amistad Law Project is a public interest law center that fights for the human rights of people in our community by providing free and low-cost legal services to Philadelphians and those incarcerated in Pennsylvania’s prisons. Additionally, we advocate for laws and policies that reflect our vision for a new justice paradigm and organize events and activities to educate the public on their rights and the law. Amistad’s vision is to abolish the prison industrial complex and create alternative systems of accountability and healing while reducing the harm of the system in the meantime. Follow Amistad Law Project on social media: facebook.com/AmistadLaw, @AmistadLaw on Twitter and Instagram.
The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org. Follow the Center for Constitutional Rights on social media: Center for Constitutional Rights on Facebook, @theCCR on Twitter, and ccrjustice on Instagram.
⭐ We’re hiring! Help us grow our movements against state violence and build community power in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County! We are seeking a passionate part-time contracted Disability Justice Advocate, a full-time experienced Community Organizer, and a tech-savvy Project Manager to maintain and scale ALC Court Watch‘s docket-scraping system.
For position overviews and application details, visit our Employment at ALC page and check us out on Idealist.
