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Community Conversations - Clemency and Beyond

The Fair Chance Criminal Justice Project hosted a Community Conversation, Clemency and Beyond, led by Hibah Elawad, Phyllis "Grandma Hardy," Jamie T Lau, Danielle Metz, April Scales, and Richard A. Taylor.

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Phillip Vance Smith, II Phillip Vance Smith, II

The Cost of Communication: NC Prisons Extort Families to Pay for Mail

“I will never again receive a postcard from Sandy with a corny pun scribbled in her shaky handwriting on the back. I will never receive a picture of Faye's daughters graduating from high school. I will never receive another newspaper article from Jack. I will never hold another letter written by a loved one and lose myself in nostalgic memories spawned by the way the paper smells and feels. I may never hear from my friends and family again.”

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Voice From the Inside

Organizers of the Vigil for Freedom and Racial Justice received a call from someone incarcerated at the Greene County Correctional Center about the unsafe conditions they are experiencing.

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Interview: Juvenile Justice with Rep. Marcia Morey

The ACLU of NC’s senior policy counsel Ann Webb met with state Representative Marcia Morey at the N.C. General Assembly to discuss juvenile justice bills at the legislature - what moved forward and what didn't, and why.

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Community Conversation: The War on Drugs

The NC Justice Center hosted a virtual community conversation on the War on Drugs. Speakers included community organizers and activists who highlighted the War on Drugs’ destructive impact on Black and brown communities and how it has been the driving force behind mass incarceration.

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Vigil Conversations: the Criminalization of Immigrants

Professor of Sociology Felicia Arriaga and ACLU of NC’s senior policy counsel Ann Webb hosted a presentation at the Vigil on the criminalization of immigrants and the role of sheriffs in the prison-to-deportation pipeline.

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Meet the Freedom Bus

The Freedom Bus is an old prison transport bus purchased at auction and is at the Vigil site most days. Decorated by community members with signs of solidarity, the Vigil re-appropriated the bus, which initially built to remove people from their community. It now is a tool used to recreate those connections. The Freedom Bus rides in direct defiance of the many ways the carceral state seeks to control and separate people from their communities.

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#FreeHer Block Party

The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls organized a #FreeHer Block Party on Saturday, December 11, 2021, to shed light on the need to end the incarceration of women and girls and transform the criminal legal system.

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A RECAP OF THE 2021 VIGIL'S FIRST WEEK

The day before the start of the 2021 Vigil for Freedom and Racial Justice, our coalition delivered our letter to Governor Cooper explaining why we are returning to stand vigil outside the Executive Mansion. On the Vigil's first day, we participated in a community block party at Planned Parenthood’s office in Raleigh to celebrate North Carolina's progress in ending the shackling of incarcerated pregnant people and show solidarity with Mississippi communities fighting for abortion justice.

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