Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants
Adherence to the Rehabilitation Mandate
P.O. Box 84, Hopedale, MA 01747
KLSchulman@verizon.net

CURE-ARM

Holly Barnoski
President

Tara Sherman
Director of Programs

Brita Gill-Austern
V.P./Treasurer

Karen Schulman
Secretary

PRESS RELEASE
September 28, 2013
"OCCUPY PRISONS" RALLY

The newly organized grassroots organization CURE-ARM will be holding an "Occupy Prisons" rally at the Department of Correction headquarters on Saturday, September 28, 2013.

This event will allow organizations to present their views on what is needed for common sense criminal justice reform here in the Commonwealth.

Staging will take place at 171 Congress Street in Milford, MA, at 11:00 a.m. After the staging and preparations are complete the rally will move to headquarters of the Department of Correction on Maple Street, also in Milford.

Keynote speakers will present topic discussions on such matters as commutation, parole, compassionate release, reentry, and other topics related to the astronomical costs, both financially and socially, of our current criminal justice system.

National recording artist Joyce Katzberg will perform at the event and family members of prisoners will describe personal stories detailing how their lives have been impacted.

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CURE-ARM requests that you please consider covering this first annual OCCUPY PRISONS RALLY.

To find out more information about the event, contact Karen Schulman at:
klschulman@verizon.net

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September 28, 2013
"OCCUPY PRISONS" RALLY

CURE-ARM is a special interest group which is dedicated to the reduction of crime through the reform of the Massachusetts criminal justice system and holding the Department of Correction to their legal mandate to rehabilitate.

Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants
Adherence to the Rehabilitation Mandate
P.O. Box 84, Hopedale, MA 01747
KLSchulman@verizon.net

CURE-ARM

Holly Barnoski
President

Tara Sherman
Director of Programs

Brita Gill-Austern
V.P./Treasurer

Karen Schulman
Secretary

BACKGROUND TO THE "OCCUPY PRISONS" RALLY
on September 3, 2013

Signs of the criminal justice pendulum beginning to swing to effective, measurable policies and programs are evident throughout the United States. In an August 2013 recent speech before the American Bar Association, Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General, spoke on how wrong it is that our country, representing just 5% of the world's population, incarcerates 25% of the world's prisoners with no positive results. He spoke of how reforming laws, implementing early release of seniors/ill inmates who no longer pose a danger to society, and effectively using the enormous criminal justice funding would vastly improve matters. Mr. Holder stated, "We cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation." The USA Today reported on August 12, 2013 that the attorney general's position echoes a shift in law enforcement that has been sweeping the states in recent years.

Massachusetts is sorely behind the national curve for a more effective means of administering criminal justice - in our laws, our prison system, our "on-paper" commutation process, and our parole system. Change is not being asked for because citizens are not seeing both sides of the issue. News coverage regularly reports and sensationalizes arrests, prosecutions, tough-on-crime campaign rhetoric, prison disturbances, and accounts of failed paroles. There has been little effort to report the accounts of aged convicted individuals wallowing in poorly run prison "hospital" wards until they die, or of the prison/parole/commutation culture stuck in penal/judgmental ideologies. Rather than managing the legal mandate to rehabilitate and employing sound criminal justice policy, tough-on-crime rhetoric continues to triumph in political circles while the taxpayer get little return on investment in criminal justice.

The Occupy Prisons Rally on Saturday September 28, 2013 will give the platform for the press to hear the WHOLE picture and get first hand accounts of what goes on behind the veil of these public safety departments.

Enclosed are the following documents concerning the Occupy Prisons Rally:

* Mission Statement/Platform Issue
* Agenda for Occupy Prison
* Directions to staging area 11 am to 12 noon for individual interview opportunity

CURE-ARM is a special interest group which is dedicated to the reduction of crime through the reform of the Massachusetts criminal justice system and holding the Department of Correction to their legal mandate to rehabilitate.