Events
Upcoming Events
Date and Time: Saturday, April 1st, 2023 4-6pm
Location: First Unitarian Church, 90 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01608
Worcester No Longer 3/5ths Coalition
Join the fight to restore the #right2vote to people incarcerated in Massachusetts and become no longer 3/5ths!
Check out our Facebook page for upcoming virtual events.
Past Events
Springfield No Longer 3/5ths Coalition
Date and Time: Saturday, February 4th, 2023 1-3pm
Location: East Forset Park Branch, Springfield Public Library, 138 Surrey Road, Springfield, MA 01118
Springfield Mass POWER Final Push
Date and Time: Saturday, November 9th, 2019 11am-3pm
POWER Session Supporting Families and Children
Date and Time: Sunday, November 10th, 2019 3-5pm
Public Hearing to Protect Visits and Make Prison Phone Calls Free!
Date and Time: Wednesday, November 13th, 2019 2-5pm
Boston Mass POWER Final Push
Date and Time: Saturday, November 16th, 2019 11am-3pm
Struggle Session
Date and Time: Saturday, October 19th, 2019 1-2:30pm
Public Hearing on S.826/H.3358, An Act to Reduce Mass Incarceration
Date and Time: Tuesday, October 8th, 2019 11am-5pm
This hearing will be an opportunity for us to testify (3 minutes per person) in support of S.826/H.3358, An Act to Reduce Mass Incarceration, which would end the sentence of death by incarceration (or life without parole) in Massachusetts. Here are resources you can use to prep your testimony. We are also happy to review it. You can email it to: emancipationinitiative@gmail.com.
Struggle Session: End LWOP
Date and Time: Saturday, September 21st, 2019 1-2:30pm
Struggle Sessions in 2019
Date and Time: Every other Thursday from 6:30-8 pm (July 25th, August 8th, etc). Inquire for details or check our Facebook page
Struggle sessions are the Emancipation Initiative’s organizing meetings against incarceration in Massachusetts and for the strong communities we want to see. All are welcome. We especially welcome formerly incarcerated individuals, as well as any family members or people who have loved ones who are or were incarcerated. We want this space to be accessible to everyone, so please let us know in advance if there is anything we can do to help you participate, including childcare!
Mass POWER Meeting!
Date and Time: Monday, May 6th, 2019 6-8pm
Location: Union Capitol Boston, 1544 Columbus Avenue, Roxbury, MA 02119
Accessibility: Open to ALL, particularly formerly incarcerated people and people with loved ones locked up. Free childcare provided. Please contact us with any questions – emancipationinitiative@gmail.com or 617-869-2773
Join us for the second meeting of MASS POWER – Massachusetts Prisoners and Organizers Working for Enfranchisement and Restoration – which was founded to restore the #right2vote to prisoners in Massachusetts. Come learn more and get involved in the fight to restore the #right2vote!
Mass POWER Kick Off
Date and Time: Monday, April 1st, 2019 6-8pm
Location: Union Capitol Boston, 1544 Columbus Avenue, Roxbury, MA 02119
Accessibility: Open to ALL, particularly formerly incarcerated people and people with loved ones locked up. Free childcare provided. Please contact us with any questions – emancipationinitiative@gmail.com or 617-869-2773
Join us for the kickoff of MASS POWER – Massachusetts Prisoners and Organizers Working for Enfranchisement and Restoration – which was founded to restore the #right2vote to prisoners in Massachusetts. Come learn more and get involved in the fight to restore the #right2vote!
The Meaning Of Life: The Case for Abolishing Life Sentences
Date and Time: Thursday, February 28, 2019 6-7:30pm
• Rachel Corey, Emancipation Initiative – Against Life Without Parole
• Sean Ellis, exoneree
• MA State Rep. Jay Livingstone, 8th Suffolk District
• Radha Natarajan, Executive Director, New England Innocence Project
• A family member of a person serving LWOP
Cosponsored by: Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice; Coalition for Effective Public Safety – CEPS; Criminal Justice Policy Coalition; Emancipation Initiative – Against Life Without Parole; HGSE Office of Student Affairs; New England Innocence Project; Prison Studies Project; Prisoners’ Legal Services; Transformative Justice Series.
Free and open to the public.
Ballots Over Bars: The Fight for a Voice
Date and Time: Thursday, May 3, 2018 at 4 PM – 7 PM
Location: Jed D. Satow Room, 5th floor of Lerner Hall, Columbia University, New York, New York
This 5-minute powerpoint presentation was delivered as part of Columbia’s third annual Graduate School of Arts and Sciences SynThesis Competition.
People incarcerated in Massachusetts have a long history of fighting to make their voices heard on the outside, from staging protests, to forming political action committees. This oral history project and grassroots campaign is a collaboration with currently and formerly incarcerated people in Massachusetts to document and learn from their creative acts of resistance in order to secure and make real their right to vote. My research explores the motivations that drive people to risk years in solitary in order to have a say in government, the history of resistance including different tactics employed, and what the future holds for this national movement to re-enfranchise people convicted of crimes. Using the power of aurality, I argue that in order to create any truly transformative change, criminal justice reform organizations and advocates must incorporate structures that recognize the agency of ‘the people they are trying to help.’
Photos and video available here: https://gsas.columbia.edu/blog/2018-masters-synthesis-competition
Ballots Over Bars: An Oral History of Incarcerated People’s Fight for the Right to Vote in Massachusetts
Date and Time: Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 5 PM – 8 PM
Location: Union Theological Seminary, New York, New York
This installation was a part of HEAR & NOW: An Interactive Oral History Exhibit, showcasing multimedia projects and stories recorded by the 2017 cohort of Columbia University’s Oral History MA program.
From staging work stoppages to forming political action committees, incarcerated people have a long history of fighting to make their voices heard. Ballots Over Bars is a grassroots campaign and oral history collaboration with currently and formerly incarcerated people in Massachusetts who are fighting for universal suffrage. Join us to learn about incarcerated people’s creative acts of resistance and explore your own relationship to voting rights and resistance.
Listen to 9 oral history clips from Bill C, Bill S and Greg here: http://oralhistory.columbia.edu/2018-ballots-over-bars
Parole Community Forum
Date and Time: Saturday, April 7, 2018 at 1 PM – 4 PM
Location: First Church in Roxbury, Roxbury, Massachusetts
This event was co-hosted by EI and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, CEPS: Coalition for Effective Public Safety, and Project Operation Change.
This will be a space for people on parole, people who have been on parole and their friends and relatives to share your experiences.
We will work to develop a plan of action to rectify the degrading and destructive consequences that government reactionary parole policies and methods continue to inflict on people on parole, our loved ones and our communities.
For more information, check out the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/emancipation.initiative/photos/gm.201385957260433/761204914090591/?type=3&theater
Ballots Over Bars: Incarcerated People’s Fight for the Right to Voice
Date and Time: Saturday, February 3, 2018 at 10:50 AM – 11:50 AM
Location: Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York
This workshop was presented as part of Sarah Lawrence College’s first annual Our Liberation Summit, sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Campus Engagement at Sarah Lawrence College.
People incarcerated in Massachusetts have a long history of fighting to make their voices heard through many creative means. This oral history project and grassroots campaign is a collaboration with currently and formerly incarcerated people to document and learn from their creative acts of resistance in order to secure and make real their right to vote. Join us in constructing a chronology, listen to clips of formerly incarcerated people sharing their experiences in the fight, learn about current campaigns to restore voting rights, and explore your relationship to voting rights.
Further information available here: www.ourliberationslc.com/summit-scheduledraft/2018/1/22/ballots-over-bars-incarcerated-peoples-fight-for-the-right-to-vote
Returning the Right to Vote to Incarcerated People in Massachusetts: An Oral History and Data Analysis
Dismantling The Legal Institution of 21st Century Slavery
The Emancipation Initiative invites all Massachusetts residents to join us to strengthen the movement for criminal justice reform. We are particularly interested in hearing from those most impacted by crime and incarceration and those excluded from our political process here in Massachusetts via incarceration. We understand that the 13th amendment continues modern-day slavery, and we will not let that stand.
Sign the Petition
Against Life Without Parole by Restoring Citizenship
Click Here to Sign the Change.org Petition
Families of prisoners, students, and local community members are unsatisfied with the current practices of our Massachusetts criminal justice system. Our discontent ranges from issues concerning prison conditions, mandatory LWOP sentencing statues, and lastly, prisoner suffrage. As a result of our collective grievances, we are unifying around an Emancipation Initiative and reaching out to our state representatives in hopes of setting goals, exploring alternatives, and collectively developing plans to infuse a sense of humanity to incarcerated persons throughout the state.
This letter is drafted on behalf of the Emancipation Initiative and is representative of family members, local residents, students, and MA DOC prison population, and their disposition concerning LWOP prison sentences and universal prisoner suffrage for the entire Massachusetts Department of Corrections.
Slave Narratives
The idea of E.I. releasing slave narratives, real thoughts and experiences from the perspectives of Massachusetts prisoners, originates from the former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s 1845 “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” Douglass used his narratives to create a human connection between the American people and their slave population. His writings were very detailed and people began waking up and realizing how horrific the institution of slavery was, which worked to fuel the flames for abolition and spark dialogue around ending slavery. His strategy was an exceptional tool in removing the ideological pins that legitimized slavery in the minds of those who have yet to question its moral standing, dividing the county between the perception of right and wrong, moral and immoral.
Our Emancipation Initiative aims to unify the country by infusing a sense of humanity and restoring dignity to those men and women entangled in the webs of mass-incarceration and branded as chattel property of the state (prison numbers) with no representation within a government designed to be by the people but operated through their elected officials (representative government). Our slave narratives give Massachusetts prisoners a voice where we have not had one and allows the American people to see us for “us,” as opposed to the maligned images projected by mainstream media, while we’re also able to expose the toxic conditions in which these slave houses (prisons) create. No human being is perfect, but they are also not incorrigible. Pay close attention to our words and stories and I’m confident something will empower you to fight along with us for true freedom and liberty—thank you for your attention.
Non-Partisan Voter Guide 2018
Ballots Over Bars – Statewide Voter Guide 2018 Downloadable PDF
Slave Narrative #42: Real Thoughts and Experiences from the Perspective of Massachusetts Prisoners
By Patricia Olsen If an inmate gets hurt or isn’t feel ingwell, you are told to put in a “sick-slip.” After a day, or two, or three, you are given an appointment with a trauma nurse who evaluates you and determines if you are “sick” enough to see a nurse practitioner. We do have a …
Slave Narrative #41: Real Thoughts and Experiences from the Perspective of Massachusetts Prisoners
My Letter to America Journal #8 Damn…don’t you know America? Men and women are dying. Not all but just a select demographic who’ve been marginalized to poverty, prisons and penal structures. They put people from these places in prisons because they’ve decided to no longer suffer from the many societal pains that derive from the …
Constructive Correspondence Effort (C.C.E.)
What is C.C.E.?
Emancipation Initiative is currently looking for participants for our Constructive Correspondence Effort (C.C.E.) Project.
C.C.E. is a new program through Emancipation Initiative, in which we are connecting prisoners, who have upcoming parole hearings within the next 18 months to two years with citizen participants. Selected prisoners wil be those who have accomplished remarkable feats (G.E.D., Bachelor’s Degree, Trade etc) throughout their incarceration, but no longer have the external support to advocate on their behalf at their prospective parole hearings. The function of C.C.E. is to establish a familiarity between prisoner and participant, in which the participant will discern whether prisoners have met specific personal qualifications throughout the C.C.E. process that will inform a low-likelihood of recidivism in which case, the goal would be for the participant to author a letter of recommendation on behalf of the prisoner that reflects their shared-experiences throughout E.I.’s C.C.E. process.
Get Involved
If you are interested in participating in this project and would like to sign-up or learn more about the process, simply contact us at:
Email: contact@emancipationinitiative.org
Phone: Meia Carter (216) 225-0442 OR Rachel Corey (617) 869-2773