By C1 Staff
Prison reform is slowly gaining a foothold within the U.S., and one group is hoping to foster such beliefs within the millennial generation.
Strong Returns is touring college campuses to teach students and faculty about how the justice system in America needs change, according to Red and Black.
The group has former convicts speak about their experiences.
“I felt like a victim. For the rest of my life, this will follow me,” said Jackie Edwards, a convicted felon and recovered drug addict.
“All prison did for me was keep me from getting high for a while.”
“Sharing stories is integral to creating prison reform,” said Pete Davis, one of the group’s representatives. “One hundred percent of people who have met someone or who have been involved themselves in the prison system believe it should be reformed.”
Davis went on to say that prison reform is as pertinent an issue for the millennial generation as LGBT rights, immigration reform and poverty.
“Felonies have become life sentences,” he said. “The question ‘Have you ever been convicted of a crime?’ stops people from voting, receiving public housing benefits, stops other government benefits, and worst of all, stops people from becoming self-sufficient and getting a job.”
He also says the system is racist, incarcerating more black men than were enslaved in the 1850s.
Davis suggested some examples of prison reform: building a coalition of businesses that would hire convicted felons, reinstating college courses inside prisons and creating ties between prisons and universities, and keeping up interaction with prisoners’ families to ease transition back to outside life.
Veronica O’Grady, a third year law student at UGA, said that this was the millennial generation’s civil rights movement.
“Everyone is one stupid mistake away from being that person,” she said. “It can happen to anybody.”