[Courtesy of Prison Art Gallery]

Our wholesale fundraising catalog has arrived! Use it to advance your social issues and make a 300% plus profit for your organization or business. Choose from prison art prints, postcards, justice jewelry, prison music CDs, books, and more. All items are fully refundable, so there's no risk whatsoever!

Thanks to the generosity of our grantmakers, printers and manufacturers, we are able to offer our most popular prison art-related gift items at wholesale prices (up to 75% off) for fundraising resale by non-profit organizations and socially-minded entrepreneurs. Please call 202-393-1511 or email Staff@PrisonsFoundation.org for further information.

Pick and choose what you want for your fundraising and revenue enhancing needs. To access our new full-color catalog, please visit http://prisonsfoundation.org/afj/mayafj.pdf.

Wholesale prices below (of items in our catalog):

1. Prison Art Prints matted at $8 each (retail $20 each)
2. Prison Art Prints framed at $16 each (retail $40 each)
3. Prison Art Postcards at 50 cents each (retail $1.50 each)
4. Sterling Silver Justice Jewelry at $ 10 each (retail $30 each)
5. Prison Music CDs at $4 each (retail $13 each)
6. Handcuff Key Ring Greeting Cards at $1.25 each (retail $4 each)
7. Prison Poetry Books at $4 each (retail $12 each)
8. Jailer Whistle Key Ring at $1 each (retail $3 each)
9. Mug-Shots-of-the-Famous Playing Cards at $2 each (retail $5 each)

Become one our authorized outlets and get all the great items in our catalog and more at discounts of up to 75% off. That means a profit for you of 300%. Plus you'll generate the excitement of having reasonably priced prison art gifts at your location. Whether you're planning a one time fundraiser or an ongoing enterprise, you need look no further for fun and high profitability than these unique gift items. We even include free signs and free consultation to unlock very high the earning potential. Ideal for churches, schools, and nonprofit organizations and businesses of all types. For further information, please call 202-393-1511 or email Dennis@ PrisonsFoundation.org.

[Courtesy of LEAP]

My better half said: Yet another conversation in the hallway starting with my hat, ended in the elevator, crowded with mostly female staffers. Blah, blah, blah (spoken quietly), then raising my voice so all would hear, …."When it comes to drugs, as my wife and better half said; the state, thru its police department, can not stop personal stupidity." There was a murmur, light chuckle, and all smiles as the door opened.

Karen is indeed the author of the phrase, BTW (Ubrigens)

Ask the Governor what she thinks: In meeting with a hard-core drug warrior office from Michigan this week, I employed my new line, ‘can your state afford the free federal money to arrest dealers, when, back home, the state might have to spend 60 million to build a new 500 bed prison to keep them @ 30,000 per year times xx years?’

It was a ‘Kodak’ moment to get the aide to admit that the office had not considered the ‘downstream,’ state costs of the ‘free’ fed money. As I suggested he have the Congressman call Governor Granholm (D-MI) and ask if she had money in her budget to house the extra dealers, he did not dismiss my idea. His facial expressions and other non-verbal language told me that I had punched the idea into his brain. A little Crown that night to celebrate and another small step on this long journey.

PS: I was on the Hill a lot these past two weeks & thus the Stories are late. Congress was in recess and that is the best time to receive extra time with staffers. Apologies.

Washington, D.C.: Communities are bearing the cost of a massive explosion in the jail population which has nearly doubled in less than two decades, according to a new report released today by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI). The research found that jails are now warehousing more people--who have not been found guilty of any crime--for longer periods of time than ever before. The research shows that in part due to the rising costs of bail, people arrested today are much more likely to serve jail time before trial than they would have been twenty years ago, even though crime rates are nearly at the lowest levels in thirty years.

"Crime rates are down, but you're more likely to serve time in jail today than you would have been twenty years ago," said the report's co-author Amanda Petteruti. "Jail bonds have skyrocketed, so that means if you're poor, you do time. People are being punished before they're found guilty-justice is undermined."

The report, Jailing Communities: The Impact of Jail Expansion and Effective Public Safety Strategies, found jail population growth (22 percent), is having serious consequences for communities that are now paying tens of billions yearly to sustain jails. Jails are filled with people with drug addictions, the homeless and people charged with immigration offenses. The report concludes that jails have become the "new asylums," with six out of 10 people in jail living with a mental illness.

The impact of increased jail imprisonment is not borne equally by all members of a community. New data reveal that Latinos are most likely to have to pay bail, have the highest bail amounts, are least likely to be able to pay and, by far, the least likely to be released prior to trial. African Americans are nearly five times as likely to be incarcerated in jails as whites and almost three times as likely as Latinos. Further exacerbating jail crowding problems is the increase in the number of people being held in jails for immigration violations-up 500 percent in the last decade.

In 2004, local governments spent a staggering $97 billion on criminal justice, including police, the courts and jails. Over $19 billion of county money went to financing jails alone. By way of comparison, during the same time period, local governments spent just $8.7 billion
on libraries and only $28 billion on higher education.

"These counties just cannot afford to invest the bulk of their local public safety budget in jails, and we are beginning to see why--the more a community relies on jails, the less it has to invest in education, employment and proven public safety strategies," says Nastassia Walsh, co-author of the report.

Research shows that places that increased their jail populations did not necessarily see a drop in violent crimes. Falling jail incarceration rates are associated with declining violent crime rates in some of the country's largest counties and cities, like New York City.

"The investment in building more jail beds is not making communities safer," says Derrick Johnson, NAACP National Board member. "Instead these investments serve only to unfairly target communities of color and waste taxpayer dollars."

The report recommends that communities take action to reduce their jail populations and increase public safety by:

* Improving release procedures for pretrial and sentenced populations. Implementing pretrial release programs that release people from jail before trial can help alleviate jail populations. Reforming bail guidelines would allow a greater number of people to post bail, leaving space open in jails for people who may pose a greater threat to public safety.

* Developing and implementing alternatives to incarceration. Alternatives such as community-based corrections would permit people to be removed from the jail, allowing them to continue to work, stay with their families, and be part of the community, while under supervision.

* Re-examining policies that lock up individuals for nonviolent crimes. Reducing the number of people in jail for nonviolent offenses leaves resources and space available for people who may need to be detained for a public safety reason.

* Diverting people with mental health and drug treatment needs to the public health system and community-based treatment. People who suffer from mental health or substance abuse problems are better served by receiving treatment in their community. Treatment is more cost-effective than incarceration and promotes a positive public safety agenda.

* Diverting spending on jail construction to agencies that work on community supervision and make community supervision effective. Reallocating funding to probation services will allow people to be placed in appropriate treatment or other social services and is a less costly investment in public safety.

* Providing more funding for front-end services such as education, employment, and housing. Research has shown that education, employment, drug treatment, health care, and the availability of affordable housing coincide with lower crime rates.

For more information on Jailing Communities, contact LaWanda Johnson at 202-558-7974, ext. 308.

###

The Justice Policy Institute is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank dedicated to ending society's reliance on incarceration and promoting effective and just solutions to social problems. For more information, visit www.justicepolicy.org.

[Courtesy of Prison Art Gallery]

You are cordially invited to attend a free reception at the Prison Art Gallery, 1600 K St NW, Washington, DC (three blocks from the White House) on Sunday, March 30, 2pm, for a talk by Paul Wright, Editor of Prison Legal News, and Alex Friedmann, Associate Editor. Both are accomplished legal writers, researchers and justice advocates who are recognized experts in the fields of prisoner rights, sentencing reform, and related justice topics. There will be a question and answer period following their presentation. This is a rare opportunity to get your legal questions answered by knowledgeable professionals who closely follow the latest trends and court decisions...a must if you care about anyone in prison.

Paul spent more than a decade in prison where he began publishing Prison Legal News. A monthly news journal, it is now the pre-eminent source of information about criminal justice and prison developments. It is circulated and used by men and women in virtually every jail and prison in America. Get the latest issue FREE at the reception. Paul will also be bringing and signing copies of his new book, Prison Profiteers, a critical look at over-incarceration in America and who profits from it.

Don't miss this rare opportunity to gain important knowledge and understanding from two professionals in the know. Free refreshments will be served.

Also at the reception, the Prison Art Gallery will unveil its new media blitz marketing campaign featuring DC Mayor Adrian Fenty. You'll be astounded at what the mayor (his childhood friend was in prison with our director) is willing to do (in addition to the grant money the city has provided us).

For further information, please email staff@PrisonsFoundation.org or call 202-393-1511.

You are cordially invited to attend a free reception at the Prison Art Gallery for a talk by Paul Wright, Editor of Prison Legal News, and Alex Friedmann, Associate Editor. Both are accomplished legal writers, researchers and justice advocates who are recognized experts in the fields of prisoner rights, sentencing reform, and related justice topics. There will be a question and answer period following their presentation. This is a rare opportunity to get your legal questions answered by knowledgeable professionals who closely follow the latest trends and court decisions.

1 in 9 African American Males, 1 in 100 Adults in Prisons and Jails Highlights Need for Criminal Justice Reform Now!

Please join Congressman Danny K. Davis and other members of Congress, TASC's Center for Justice, Open Society Policy Center Legal Action Center, Sentencing Project, Council for State Governments and others at this national press conference to highlight the recently released Pew Charitable Trust report and its implications for criminal justice reform.

[Courtesy of Prison Art Gallery]

It's time that word got out in the nation's capital (and across America) about your organization or business, and we're prepared to do it with our planned Prison Artmobile. This unique prison-art filled vehicle is bound to capture the media and public's attention.

With spring upon us and the opportunity to showcase the more than one thousand pieces of beautiful art in our Prison Art Gallery throughout Washington (thanks to a legal challenge the ACLU won for us that allows us to use any public space), we're looking for a donated vehicle that we can convert into the Prison Artmobile. Ideally, we'd like a van, but will consider a station wagon or pickup. Any year after 1998 will do. If you have one to donate, there's a big tax advantage since we're a 501(c)(3) organization and we're not going to resell the vehicle. So it will be counted at full book value.

We'll put your Name/Logo/Message on the Prison Artmobile at our own expense.

Thousands of people will see the Prison Artmobile (starting in Washington and eventually traveling cross country). In addition to featuring your Name/Logo/Message, the rest of the Prison Artmobile will be attractively decorated by a skilled formerly incarcerated artist. It will also feature the famous Pablo Picasso quote: "Even in a prison, or in a concentration camp, I would persevere in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell."

Please contact us today about your vehicle. In the event that you do not have a used vehicle to donate, please consider donating funds to help us outfit the Prison Artmobile. The same offer to include your Name/Logo/Message applies.

For further information, please call 202-393-1511 or email staff@PrisonsFoundation.org. But please hurry. Spring is about to be sprung.

CURE invites you to join in the thanking and congratulating of Alan Pogue for his book "Witness for Justice."

Alan Pogue has been CURE's volunteer photographer since its first statewide prison reform convention in Texas in 1975. As CURE has expanded nationally and now internationally, so has the geography of Alan's photography.

[Courtesy of MPP] 

Our nation is currently incarcerating a record one in 99 adults, according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States. You can read The New York Times' article on the U.S. government’s war on the American people here.

This horrifying statistic was calculated by adding the number of people in federal and state prisons (almost 1,600,000) to the number of people in local jails (723,000). With American adults numbering about 230,000,000, the report concluded that one in 99 adults is currently behind bars.

This is madness. As previous studies have found, our nation imposes harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses than for many violent crimes, creating a steady, unconscionable increase in the prison population. Visit www.mpp.org/victims to read stories of nonviolent marijuana prisoners.

The Pew report points to the urgent need to tax and regulate marijuana, as fully 3% of our nation’s 2,323,000 prisoners are incarcerated because of marijuana offenses. Indeed, Pew’s recommendations included diverting nonviolent offenders away from prison.

The report also highlights how the U.S. criminal justice system inordinately penalizes people who are not white. Appallingly, one in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, as are one in 15 black adults, not to mention one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34. And these numbers don’t include people on parole or probation, which means even more than one in nine black men aged 20 to 34 is caught up in the criminal justice system.

Who are our nation’s drug laws helping by locking up so many young black men — or by forcing so many adults into jails and prisons? True drug addicts? Nonviolent drug offenders? Their families?

If you're as outraged by these statistics as I am, please turn your anger into action by helping MPP restore some sense to our nation's laws by ending marijuana prohibition: Become a monthly pledger today.

MPP is the largest organization focused solely on releasing from jail/prison the 3% of inmates who are marijuana offenders. In 1995, we helped to reduce the federal sentencing guidelines for marijuana cultivation, resulting in the release of hundreds of federal prisoners. Every time we pass a medical marijuana law — as we did in Maryland, Vermont, Montana, and Rhode Island, and as we hope to do in Michigan this November — we protect seriously ill marijuana users from jail. We’re assisting a campaign in Massachusetts to decriminalize marijuana via a ballot initiative in November, which would end the arrest of marijuana users (and therefore 6% of all arrests) in the state. And we’re supporting bills that are currently moving in Vermont and New Hampshire that would eliminate the threat of jail for marijuana possession.

We face a long battle in rolling back the entrenched tradition of using incarceration as the solution to our nation’s woes. Please join MPP for the long haul by signing up for our monthly pledge program today.

Thank you for standing with us in this worthy fight.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2008. This means that your monthly pledge will be doubled.

[Courtesy of Prisons Foundation]

It's time to get out of the house (if you're a member of congress), or the office (if you're a justice advocate), or the street (if you're a justice activist), and start networking with like-minded movers and shakers.

1. Concert for Prison Musicians featuring Lamont Carey of "The Wire," Friday,
February 22, 7pm

Come to the always-jumping Potter's House,1658 Columbia Rd, NW, Washington, DC, on Friday, February 22nd, 7:30pm to 10:30pm for a benefit concert to raise funds to purchase musical instruments for prisoners. Lamont Carey of "The Wire," ex-con jazz guitarist Dennis Sobin, Jim Dugan, Joe Shade and others will perform. There is a suggested donation of $5 to $15. Prison art will also be on view and available for purchase to help raise funds.

Lamont Carey is a spoken word artist and actor who spent 11 years behind bars. He has made appearances in several stage plays, films and most recently the HBO hit series "The Wire." He has appeared three times on HBO's Def Poetry show and has published a collection of his poetry entitled "Why I Keep U A Secret." Dennis Sobin spent 10 years in state and federal prisons where he learned jazz and classical guitar. After being released in 2003, he cofounded the Prisons Foundation, which promotes the arts and education in prison. An accomplished guitarist with ten CDs to his credit, Dennis recently performed at the Kennedy Center. Jim Dugan's music has been used in various soundtracks for film and television. MusicMonthly.com in a review of Jim's CD "Marigold" said it was "Great music, great songs." Joe Shade is a performing singer and songwriter whose style and proficiency have been widely acclaimed. For further information, please call 202-393-1511

2. Free Justice Sunday reception featuring Prison Legal News experts, Sunday,
March 30, 2pm

You are cordially invited to attend a free reception at the Prison Art Gallery, 1600 K St NW, Washington, DC (three blocks from the White House) on Sunday, March 30, 2pm, for a talk by Paul Wright, Editor of Prison Legal News, and Alex Friedmann, Associate Editor. Both are accomplished legal writers, researchers and justice advocates who are recognized experts in the fields of prisoner rights, sentencing reform, and related justice topics. There will be a question and answer period following their presentation. This is a rare opportunity to get your legal questions answered by knowledgeable professionals who closely follow the latest trends and court decisions.

Paul spent more than a decade in prison, where he began publishing Prisons Legal News. A monthly news journal, it is now the pre-eminent source of information about criminal justice and prison litigation. It is circulated and used by litigants in virtually every jail and prison in America. Paul will be bringing and signing copies of his new book, Prison Profiteers, a critical look at over-incarceration in America.

Don't miss this rare opportunity to gain important knowledge and understanding from two professionals in the know. Refreshments will be served.
For further information, please call 202-393-1511.

3. Free Workshop to become a mentor to imprisoned artists, Saturday,
May 24, 10am to 4pm

Attend a Free workshop on Saturday, May 24, 10am to 4pm at the Prison Art Gallery, 1600 K Street. NW, Washington, DC to become a mentor to imprisoned artists. Learn what it takes to work in a jail or prison to foster artistic development among inmates. You'll receive information and insights from experienced correctional officials as well as accomplished ex-prisoner artists.

There will be a 15-minute break at 1pm for lunch, which will be provided. This is the approximate time that many inmates get to consume their meal (though you can continue to eat your meal as the workshop continues). The free lunch provided will be typical jail fare, nourishing and balanced though not necessarily gourmet.

We believe that you will find the workshop enjoyable and beneficial. Whether you're looking for a one afternoon per month volunteer opportunity in a jail or prison, or a full-time paid career position, we believe that you will find this workshop a great door opener and a way to gain important skills and understanding.

For further information, please email staff@PrisonsFoundation.org or call 202-393-1511.

[Courtesy of Prison Art Gallery]

Thanks to a grant we received from the DC Government, you can become a mentor to imprisoned artists. Work either as a volunteer or paid staff member in a jail or prison.

Attend one of our upcoming one-day workshops to learn what it takes to work in a jail or prison to foster artistic development among inmates. You'll receive valuable training from experienced and effective correctional officials while also benefiting from the insights and knowledge of ex-prisoner artists who will be additional workshop leaders. They will all share their experiences with you in a relaxed and fun setting at the Prison Art Gallery in downtown Washington, DC. Everything you need for a productive and nourishing day will be provided.

This is a rare opportunity to make contacts and obtain important information. And it's absolutely free!

Whether you're looking for a one afternoon per month volunteer opportunity or a full-time paid career position, you will find these workshops a great door opener. Meet the people who make hiring decisions while finding out what it takes to be effective in the challenging setting of a jail or prison.

Please call us at 202-393-1511 or email us at staff@PrisonsFoundation.org for more information. We are now setting up a schedule of workshops to accommodate everyone who may be interested. We would like to what days and times would work best for you. Thank you.

Phillip S. Smith, Writer/Editor

Please join us for this very special event. This day is a day for all of us. It is the chance to turn back the tide and NOT end up like Illinois, with 47 prisons and 30,000 inmates in re-entry each year. Or, Wisconsin, with 32 prisons.

[Courtesy of Second Chance Day on the Hill]

Greetings,

On February 13, 2008 in the Rotunda of the Minnesota State Capitol between the hours of 11:00 and 12:00, large numbers of people will converge for the first ever "Second Chance Day on the Hill."

In Minnesota, our prison population has increased by over 45% in the past five years. 6,000 people per year leave corrections and return to their communities. They cannot find jobs at a living wage. They have great difficulties finding affordable and adequate housing. They are ineligibile for Financial Aid to go to school and for many other basic services. Representative Michael Paymar, Senator Julianne Ortman, Anoka County Attorney Bob Johnson (Former Chair, ABA Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions), Dan Cain (RS Eden, former MN Sentencing Guidelines Commissioner), Les Green (SCSU, former Parole Board Commissioner), and our good friend, Sue Watlov-Phillips (Co-founder of the National Coalition for the Homeless, ED of Project Elim) will be amongst those speaking--full slate attached.

We have one of the best corrections systems in the United States, yet I submit that if we continue to increase the number of incarcerated at the current levels, the system will break...as it has in 5 other States where, according to a recent study by the Justice Policy Centers, the budget for Corrections exceeded the budget for Education.

Whether you are driven to the table via work on; Racial justice: (3.5% of our citizens are Black, yet they form 35% of our prison population; Natives 1%, with over 7% of the incarcerated);

Homelessness: Wilder's last survey noted a 30%+ increase in the number of those without housing (of our 20,000+ homeless) who cited criminal records as a barrier to sustainabilty.

Mental Health: We have become the "New Bedlam" after the infamous hospital in 19th century England where the mentally ill were indiscriminately housed with predatory offenders. In a city (Minneapolis) where a schizophrenic panhandler who was homeless was arrested 47 times...how was his behavior corrected? Answer: It wasn't.

Veterans: In 1998 there were over 221,000 veterans in prison and Jail in the USA, and now we have over 200,000 on the streets, homeless. As our young women and men fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan they fight for Democracy and Freedom in the name of a nation that imprisons more of its own citizens than any nation on the face of the earth. No matter who you are, surely you see the problem in that set of statistics.

The Chemically Dependant: Since 1980, the number of those in prison for non-violent offenses in the US has increased 600%. Our corrections budgets exceed the costs of the current conflicts in the Middle East. In the words of Justice Kennedy (paraphrased) in his 2002 to the ABA Hall of delegates, "I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that an 18 year old sentenced to 10 years in prison cannot conceive of what 10 years means." How does a jail cell "fix" an addiction?

Members of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession: Surely, you must see this series of problems more clearly than all of us...the endless chain of men and women in their 20s who mull through the dockets day after day, year after year...in time, perhaps, they (we) become just numbers. Surely, what you see each day must strike you as an impossible equation to carry out for another 25 years.

This day is a day for all of us. It is the chance to turn back the tide and NOT end up like Illinois, with 47 prisons and 30,000 inmates in re-entry each year. Or, Wisconsin, with 32 prisons.

My grandfather was a physician at the Mayo Clinic. My Dad a College professor for 37 years. I, like so many of us in the 70s, strayed. I've been a soldier, a homeless veteran, a teacher and a social worker. I've come to see and understand the need for Second Chances. Once, we believed in and took pride in being the State that treated those who were ill...now we lock them up. Surely, this situation is not tenable for much longer and I think we all sense that.

Join us for this event. It is one last chance for us to pause and ask, "Is this really what we want for our children, for the next generation?" Surely, we were meant to be so much more.

Guy Gambill
Community Organizer
Second Chance Day on the Hill
(612)-208-1815
(612)-644-4817

You are cordially invited to attend a free reception at the Prison Art Gallery (three blocks from the White House) featuring a talk by Judge Arthur Burnett. There will be a question and answer period following Judge Burnett's presentation. Refreshments will be served.

How shall I respond when a prominent politician rejects drug legalization, while in the same breath criticizing the costs and consequences of our wildly bloated criminal justice system? Should I condemn his tacit endorsement of the drug war or give him credit for at least recognizing a problem that so many still pretend doesn’t exist? I guess I'll try to do both.

Here's what Barack Obama said when a questioner pointed out how lucky he is to have avoided arrest for his past drug use and asked if he would consider ending the drug war:

"I'm not interested in legalizing drugs,'' Obama said, adding that he prefers an approach that puts more emphasis on a public health approach to drugs and less emphasis on incarceration.

He said there should be more programs to keep young people from using drugs. And he said first-time offenders should be given help to overcome their drug use instead of being locked up at massive taxpayer expense from which they emerge as unemployable ex-convicts.

"All we do is give them a master's degree in criminology,'' Obama said. [AP]

What a shame that Obama's most forward-thinking comments on criminal justice reform must be prefaced with a rejection of the one idea that has a chance of working. The inherent flaw in Obama's narrow, palatable rhetoric is revealed unintentionally by The Weekly Standard's Jonathan Last:

The only problem with this is that there are very, very few people incarcerated for first-time drug use.

Last goes on to laboriously downplay the persecution of first-time offenders in our criminal justice system. It's an outrageous attempt to argue that everyone in prison deserves to be there. But it does have the effect of reminding us how limited Obama's proposed reforms truly are.

The root of our drug war-fueled incarceration crisis lies in the practice of vigorously arresting and criminalizing people for having drugs. As long as this machinery remains in place, our prison population will continue to grow exponentially. Obama's first-time offender focused model of criminal justice reform is like trying to drain an olympic swimming pool with a pint glass.

Meanwhile, the drug war itself continues to function as a massive black market job recruitment program; a fully functional drug offender factory whose participants are often much more addicted to grocery money than drugs. Treatment-focused reform strategies don't address or even acknowledge this. Still, it remains perfectly commonplace for proponents of partial criminal justice reform to insist that we continue imprisoning suppliers while searching for ever more suppliers to imprison, all while failing entirely to disrupt supply.

The silver lining here is that important people are becoming increasingly comfortable admitting that something is wrong. When the reforms they've agreed upon fail to address the problem, they can't just go back and pretend to be cool with it. They've promised to fix our criminal justice system and if they continue to follow the trail of clues, they will eventually find themselves face to face with the war on drugs.

DC Corrections Director Devon Brown and Representatives from Prisons Across America To Receive Donated Guitars for Inmates

A press conference will be held to present new guitars to DC Corrections Director Devon Brown and other officials representing prisons from across America. The guitars are intended for use by prison inmates for therapeutic and rehabilitative purposes. They were donated by well-known English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg.

In addition to Devon Brown, other officials who will attend the press conference to receive guitars include Jolene Constance, Assistant Warden of the C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center in Louisiana; Chaplain George Holley of the Craggy Correctional Center in North Carolina; Barbara Allen of the Maryland Correctional Training Center; officials from St. Elizabeth's hospital John Howard forensic unit, a 200-bed prison in Washington, DC; and a representative from the Handlon Correctional Facility in Michigan.

On hand at the press conference to test and play the guitars before they are presented to the prison officials will be two former jailhouse guitarists, Ron Kemp and Dennis Sobin. Since their release from prison, Kemp and Sobin have had success with music, both having recorded CDs and having appeared at the Kennedy Center. Sobin also serves as director of the Prisons Foundation, which is sponsoring this program.

The guitar giveway initiative began this past summer when Joe Shade, along with the Prisons Foundation, organized a concert to raise money for guitars for a local prison drawing inspiration from Billy Bragg's Jail Guitar Doors program in Great Britain. After hearing of the success of his program stateside, Billy Bragg raised money during his recent US tour specifically for the US based Jail Guitar Doors instrument donation program.

"We are a musical country and we know that the demand is huge for musical instruments in prisons in America," Shade says. "We are pleased that Billy Bragg has helped us get this project going." The guitars being donated were provided at cost by Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center. Shade and Sobin hope that the press conference will encourage musical instrument donations from others.

All donations of instruments are tax deductible since the Prisons Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. For further information, please call 202-393-1511.

[Courtesy of Prison Art Gallery]

Our new Prison Art wall clocks are now on sale for the introductory price of just $16.99. Choose from among ten images created by imprisoned artists from across America. You won't fine a more beautiful, socially-conscious, or TIMELY holiday gift anywhere, even if you spend three times as much. Order yours today before TIME runs out! To view and order these gorgeous and practical works of art, please visit http://www.cafepress.com/jail/4246550. If you have any questions, please call 202-393-1511 anytime.