Prison Writes, Writing to #CLOSE Rikers seeks to bring the voices of those who’ve suffered from incarceration at Rikers to the forefront of the conversation about what to do about Rikers Island. They are our credible messengers. Glenn E. Martin, Founder and President of JustLeadershipUSA, is a powerful speaker on this topic. Glenn was the featured speaker at the morning plenary at the National Association of Social Workers annual conference at Columbia University March 14 of this year. Glenn, who is the epitome of a credible messenger, used his life narrative to illustrate the need for the change for which he is advocating, to close Rikers Island. #CLOSERikers. As he told his story, he wou
Dear Friend, We are writing to ask for your support. As a program providing services to formerly incarcerated individuals, you understand the impact of incarceration on people’s lives. This spring, Prison Writes is launching a Credible Messenger Writing Workshop, ‘Writing to #CLOSErikers’, in cooperation with JustLeadershipUSA. The goal of the workshop is to prepare individuals with the lived experience to join JustLeadershipUSA in meeting with elected officials to garner their support for closing Rikers. People do not need to be writers to participate; they just need to be willing to write. Spelling and grammar are not the focus. We seek to solicit genuine voices. The project will be
