Incarcerated people and their loved ones navigate a complex system of guidelines, grids, indeterminate sentencing review boards, and more. We’ll learn about Washington’s draconian sentencing practices and laws that doubled its incarceration rate, instituting life and long sentences, disproportionately affecting Indigenous peoples and people of color. This episode features an interview with Dan Berger, a historian and co-curator of the Washington Prison History Project.

The House Appropriations Committee will hear testimony Saturday, February 22 on HB1125 (Simmons), which would allow judges to reduce peoples’ long sentences if their ongoing incarceration no longer serves the public good. The Judicial Discretion Act (JDA) will reduce racial disparities, reduce the harms of long-term imprisonment, increase public safety, better serve survivors, and use state resources more effectively. 

Since it passed out of the Safety Committee, the Judicial Second Look Board has agreed to modify the bill — significantly reducing the cost in the “fiscal note.”

Click on the link below to learn how to sign in “Pro” by 8am on Saturday, February 22, and then tell a friend!

#JDA #SecondLook #HB1125

HB 1137 “No Violence, No Segregation Act” has a hearing scheduled in the House Appropriations Committee on Monday, Feb 17th at 4:00pm. Please Click on the link below to sign in PRO by 3pm on Monday! #unlockthebox #endsolitaryconfinement #HB1137

Ralph Dunuan was incarcerated in 1999, in the era of pagers. Co-host and friend Megan Ybarra interviews Ralph to learn about how he builds from his experiences to understand how Native communities are impacted by the criminal punishment system and his perspectives on family, abolition, and why prisoner-led media is important.

WA’s House State Government & Tribal Relations Committee will hear HB 1196 on Wednesday, January 5 at 1:30pm. This bill would restore voting rights to all Washingtonians behind bars except those convicted of a state crime punishable by death. Sign in pro (button below) and watch Ralph testify for voting rights restoration on Wednesday!

Please read and share Annie Nichol’s powerful op-ed published in the Everett Herald on January 25. She writes from the perspective of a victim’s family that was promised harsh sentencing laws that ended up prioritizing punishment over survivors’ wishes. She writes, “I urge Washington’s lawmakers to pass the Judicial Discretion Act. Survivors deserve a system that listens to us, supports us and prioritizes safety in ways that punitive policies never have. Justice is not about locking harm away and throwing away the key. It’s about breaking the cycle of harm so that no one else has to suffer the same kind of loss we have endured.” This is a call to support survivors in seeking accountability, safety and healing.

#JDA #SecondLook #CriminalPunishment #Advocacy