Tuesday, February 14, 2012

“Have A Heart for Advocacy” Meet-and-Greet.in the Rotunda of the Arkansas State Capitol

NEWS RELEASE & PRESS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT:
Advocacy Meet & Greet to Convene at State Capitol.

A press conference will be held, 12:30pm, in the Rotunda of the Arkansas State Capitol building on Thursday, February 16, 2012, by over two dozen groups participating in the “Have A Heart for Advocacy” Meet-and-Greet.

The 25 groups are looking to draw constituents together in support of 'positive change' represent a broad spectrum of social topics, including:

Arkansans Organizing for Justice is a grassroots initiative dedicated to addressing the issue of long prison sentences with no chance for release.

The Arkansas Community Dispute Resolution Centers,Inc., helps Arkansas communities resolve all types of disputes and improve access to justice. with family, childsupport, visitation, mediation services, neighborhood dispute resolution services, landlord/tenant disputes, consumer disputes, business disputes, facilitation services, conflict resolution training services for individuals, neighbors, families, consumers, churches, schools, businesses, groups/organizations, police and government entities.

Arkansas C.U.R.E. advocates for regular visits with juvenile detainees, working with them to piece together opportunities and services that will enable them, upon release from incarceration, to establish and build a meaningful life in society.

Arkansas Innocence Initiative investigates claims of innocence from persons in the Arkansas prison system, helping to exonerate the innocent and raise public awareness about the issue of wrongful convictions.

Arkansas Time After Time, which advocates for safer communities by reducing recidivism with a special focus on eliminating the unintended social and economic ramifications of current sex-offender laws.

Arkansas Voices for the Children Left Behind serves children of incarcerated parents and other children left behind, including children of deported immigrants. Additionally, services for the incarcerated parent and caregivers are provided in the jail, prisons, and for two or more years following re-entry, focusing on family reunification and community re-entry. Advocacy and policy initiatives are also part of the work, plus TA and training.

Ban The Box is a national movement for community organizing to bring down the established employment roadblocks for people retuning from prison, which is being initiated in Little Rock to help make state legislators aware of the needless number of systemic barriers to ex-offenders successful return to society.

Canvas Community United Methodist Church provides an 'emergency warming shelter' and other support services for those enduring homelessness; works in partnership with other groups to host 'Dinner and a Movie' outreach and also with Dunbar Community Garden which enables community members to learn about small-scale agriculture while growing fruits and vegetables to feed themselves and the hungry of Little Rock.

Catholic Charities Immigration Services Crime Victims Services works with law enforcement agencies and parish/community teams to educate the public about immigrant victims' rights when they are victims of a violent crime and to provide access to critical resources for victims in crisis.

Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) advocates regular visit with juvenile detainees, working with them to piece together opportunities and services that will enable them, upon release from incarceration, to establish and build a meaningful life in society.

The Center for Women in Transition offers programing, mentoring and basic assistance to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, helping them successfully transition back into society and lead lives of self worth, self reliance and self discipline.

The Clemency Action Committee is a grassroots concept that began in August of 2008 and is continuously searching for avenues of release for those sentenced to life or those that have a sentence equivalent to life. With a primary focus on Juveniles sentenced to Life, the CAC supports any and all organizations who are working toward a better quality of life for all Inmates. Current advocacy is to Amend Arkansas Code 9-27-510 (c) (1) (B) concerning Juveniles placed in the Arkansas Dept of Correction; or to cause Retroactivity for Same.

Compassion Works for All is dedicated to the transformation of society's view on prisons, educates the public on the root causes of crime and violence and encourages a transformation of the criminal justice system for optimal well-being.

Goodwill Industries (TEO Program) enhances the dignity and quality of life of individuals, families and communities by eliminating barriers to opportunity and helping people in need reach their fullest potential through the power of work.

Homecoming Mothers Coalition concerns mothers returning and the various supports they need, include trauma-informed peer support groups.

KABF 88.3 FM, Voice of the People, Little Rock, is an 'all volunteer' community news, talk-radio, education and musical entertainment radio station, which has been in continuous operation since 1984.

Lewis-Burnette Employment Finders, Inc. helps ex-felons and others find gainful local employment within their community.

Little Rock Alert Centers works to create a climate of achievement and reclaim neighborhood power by building trust, providing easy access to city services and coordinating neighborhood drug-prevention and crime-abatement programs.

Occupy Little Rock (OLR) is the local chapter in a global network of civilian political action and advocacy groups dedicated to attaining full accountability of and true representation by government officials.

Partners Against Trafficking Humans (PATH) provides a safe haven for rescued victims of human trafficking to heal and re-build their lives, including residential treatment in a safe, caring environment to promote restoration and reintegration for exploited women and children.

Safe Places provides a 24-hour crisis line, counseling, support groups, therapeutic victim impact sessions and violence prevention education. Children and families harmed by sexual violence, child abuse, family violence, community violence, trafficking, stalking, exploitation and other forms of victimization find help at Safe Places.

Simone's Home is a transitional residency and life-skills foster care program for 'at risk' juvenile girls.

SOAR Network promotes and supports the collaboration of agencies, churches, businesses, and individuals who coordinate and focus knowledge, skills, talents, and resources on eliminating homelessness in Central Arkansas.

Stop The Violence Society is committed to programs, funding and legislation dedicated to ending domestic abuse, advocates for victims to be heard, supported and helped, and works to educate abusers that violence will not be tolerated.

The United Church Of Peace is strongly oriented toward outreach and service with a focus on contributing toward the existing efforts of local organizations and other churches which help the homeless.

Scheduled specifically to coincide with the opening week of the 2012 Arkansas General Assembly, the public meet & greet legislative advocacy program convenes in the Rotunda of the Arkansas State Capitol building on Thursday, February 16, 2012, at 10am and concludes at 2pm. A news conference will be held promptly at 12:30pm. The event is open to everyone and is free of charge.

For more information about the Have A Heart for Advocacy event, contact Christine Beems, 501-745-4153, gozarks@gmail.com or MiChelle Moore, 501-580-4857, simplyseachelle@yahoo.com
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NEWS RELEASE authored as a collaborative work of all those participating and distributed copyright-free by Christine Beems, editor/publisher gozarks.com, 223 Primrose Lane, Shirley, AR 72153; 501-745-4153 on behalf of all those participating. Questions about content or distribution may be emailed to gozarks@gmail.com Thanks!
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"When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect."
~Adlia Stevenson U.S. Vice President (1893–1897) and Congressman (1879–1881)

On a Personal Note

Thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts regarding the issue of citizens’ rights, particularly addressing certain sex offenders’ crimes that do not fit the devastating, inequitable and endless punishment given.


As you know, many young men and women lives across the nation are being destroyed by incarceration, life-time registry and restrictive laws that do more harm than good. For those individuals, there is no second chance.

Below is a personal letter to President Obama:
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“Dear President Obama,

I truly agree with your sentiments that individuals, such as ex-felons, should be able to receive a second chance at life. Since we all know that one can veer off that path of life and travel along rough, rocky terrain, sometimes running off and ending up in some ditch. We all have made our fill of mistakes and sometimes those held a costly consequence that changed life forever. So we lived through it, trying harder to make things right with family, friends and those around us, but what about those who aren’t able to make things right even if they tried…because they’re labeled as too dirty, a leper, a person who is rejected from society and home.

But what if they’re a seventeen year old and had sex with a fifteen year old, consensual at that? Or they’re a teen that had gotten so enraged after a breakup that he sent out naked pictures of his girlfriend on his cell phone or email? Or an individual urinates where someone just happens to see them?

All are wrong and a travesty but do they deserve the life of no second chance with a registry that ends all. They are labeled, no jobs, no where to live…they have been deemed a menace to society, a plague. These certain circumstances, and many other situations similar to these, I believe still deserve a second change.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

After my son’s early release and two years of prison, I thought I had handled that fact graciously knowing after serving his time he would be able to get that fresh start, that second chance. He was an exemplary inmate, GED, college courses and vocational classes. Little did I know that a second chance on the outside was the farthest from the truth? He now struggles and lives in a trailer park sharing a trailer with another and surrounded by others in the same rocking boat, one to float endlessly in shark infested waters. I see him little because of probation requirements (he couldn’t live with us because we were 800 feet near a school). My family is afraid of what would happen to them if he lived with them…vigilantism. My son has no other place to stay since others condemn him of his crime that is screamed from the highest rooftop. Sex offender, sex offender!

Not all sex offenders are pedophiles or predators but some are simply young kids that make one stupid and rash decision that eventually changes everything, and they have no idea what they’ve done until their life is never their own. Exactly, where is that second chance for those sex-offenders who are lumped together with pedophiles and predators? Now, it makes me sick to think of my son’s future and many like him that are on the registry and many with no second chance…ever. I am asking you as a mother and as another concerned citizen of the United States that these laws are looked at again and taken into serious consideration in what they are doing to the Constitution of the United States, not for sex offenders in general but the future rights of every citizen, before anymore are put into effect. They unjustly strip an offender of their rights and place them in a guillotine that can be easily set off by anyone and at anytime. Where is the second chance for ex-sex offenders in the present, pending and future laws?”
* * * *
What truly saddens me is the weakness and deterioration of what the sex offense issue is doing to our once, great nation. Across Europe, others are seeing the injustice and disregard of rights, but we ignore this problem and it makes me wonder where humanity is heading….

We have become a hysterical society in which our latest witch-hunt is a sex offender--no matter his/her crime.

Below is a email sent from a foreign advocate to a father of a sex offender:
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“The tragic story of your son's death is just so sad that it's difficult to explain how. It was very hard to read your letters. It seems almost unbelievable that this can take place in a democracy! From our point of view, there is no justice in this. Not in any way: not for you, your son, the former girl friend – or even the state.

It is an abusive legal system. It seems barbaric. And we are so very sorry that this takes place. That's why it's so important for us to try to neutralize the debate with this…, hopefully making some changes. ….. to show the every day life of the sex offenders, trying to show how they keep on being punished, even after served prison time…..But we will for sure tell the story of the injustice that your son has been exposed to.”
* * * *
I appreciate everyone's commitment and backing to protect everyone's civil rights, plainly as noted in the Constitution of the United States and is presupposed, giving ALL men are “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”