advocacy

What We Do

The Prison Society engages in advocacy work on a number of fronts. From our headquarters in downtown Philadelphia, we administer several innovative direct service programs.

However, our advocacy work stretches far beyond the borders of these programs. With our Official Visitor network of more than 250 volunteers who visit with prisoners, we are able to monitor prisons and prison conditions and respond quickly to any allegations of abuse, lack of care and services or simply visit those who have not been visited by family or friends in quite some time.

The publications Correctional Forum and Graterfriends are also an important part of our advocacy effort. Correctional Forum, our member newsletter, is distributed four times a year. Graterfriends is a monthly newsletter primarily for people in prison. This newsletter is inmate guided: with people in prison providing much of the content and exposing issues of concern in our correctional facilities.

The Prison Society is also responsible for administering the Lester vs. Shuler complaints. Lester vs. Shuler is a court ordered program designed to monitor and reduce guard brutality in the Philadelphia Prison System. As part of this program, the Prison Society interviews inmates who have been assaulted by prison staff. Interviewers write reports about each incident and submit them to Internal Affairs in the Philadelphia Prison System, which conducts an investigation.

Past and present advocacy activities include:

1. Regular meetings with legislators, top corrections and parole officials to discuss issues and concerns;
2. Participation in public hearings and criminal justice task forces;
3. Collaboration with and support of other advocacy and activist groups to affect reform;
4. Public lectures featuring such notable speakers as: Jeremy Travis of the Urban Institute; James Gilligan, M.D. director of the Center for the Study of Violence; Lawrence Sherman, Ph.D., director of Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania; Robin Casarjian, M.A., author of Houses of Healing; Todd Clear, Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York; Alan Elsner, Reuters journalist and author of Gates of Injustice; and J. Shane Creamer, former attorney general and chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia Prison System and currently on the Board of the Prison Society;
5. National Issues and Community Forums encouraging citizens to learn about key issues in criminal justice and raise awareness among community leaders and the public;
6. Distribution of articles, editorials and commentaries through the mass media and specialty publications to further the public's understanding of criminal justice issues.