13TH

Beautiful. 👊🏾 https://t.co/C2262PjsVj

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) June 16, 2020

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In the last 3 weeks, millions of members (a 4,665% increase vs. 3 wks prior) have sought out 13TH, Ava DuVernay’s essential doc about the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the US.

The film is also available for free on YouTube as an educational resource. pic.twitter.com/EYOVgHaV82

— Netflix (@netflix) June 16, 2020

Your Actions Speak Louder

White folks: instead of lather, rinse & repeat your tweets for #GeorgeFloyd or about #AmyCooper, here are things you can *actually do* to interrupt that stems from which you benefit.

Compiled by white people who made the effort: https://t.co/z8rydxjNlkhttps://t.co/PJkFBM7dNm

— brittany packnett cunningham. (@MsPackyetti) May 26, 2020

https://twitter.com/melodyMcooper/status/1264965252866641920

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Ok I am nonbinary. But socially I am read as a woman. A white woman. And from that standpoint I wanna address white women/people socially read as white women because this is important:

we are weapons of white supremacy; in fact, we are THE weapon of white supremacy

— Elle Has Cats (and ADHD) (@ellle_em) May 26, 2020

Our supposed "purity" is the justification behind acts of racial violence and murder. Lynchings were so often committed because a black man was accused of assaulting/touching/looking at! a white woman. The specter of black men coming after white women was major racist propaganda

— Elle Has Cats (and ADHD) (@ellle_em) May 26, 2020

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And we were not innocent in this of course. This is pretty basic history. Think of "To Kill A Mockingbird," an entire book based on a white woman using the fear of black men's desire to hide her own shame and her father's guilt.

That isn't made up. That happened.

— Elle Has Cats (and ADHD) (@ellle_em) May 26, 2020

Emmett Till was murdered because of a white woman who lied. A white woman who has lived her life free from the consequences of her actions, a white woman who caused a child's violent lynching and got away with it.

White women we know of what we are capable

— Elle Has Cats (and ADHD) (@ellle_em) May 26, 2020

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And white women, when we call the police on a black person we are knowingly committing a modern-day lynching.#amycooper could very have killed that man, just as Carolyn Bryant Donham killed Emmett Till

— Elle Has Cats (and ADHD) (@ellle_em) May 26, 2020

This is a difficult truth to face, I know. White women, sometimes we (and those of us socially read as women) feel like we aren't as bad as white men because we're, you know, women.

But when it comes to racism in general and anti-blackness in particular, the dynamic shifts

— Elle Has Cats (and ADHD) (@ellle_em) May 26, 2020

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and white women we have social power--enough social power to get people killed.

So we cannot be passive here. We cannot assume we are doing enough. We have to be very clear that we will not tolerate racism done in our name

— Elle Has Cats (and ADHD) (@ellle_em) May 26, 2020

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From Clemency To The Dean’s List

Obama granted Danielle Metz clemency in 2016. Out of prison, she made the dean's list.

This week, Obama wrote her: "I am so proud of you, and am confident that your example will have a positive impact for others who are looking for a second chance."https://t.co/ylh0mevTwO

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 13, 2019

Early Bird Chat

BREAKING: @POTUS has now commuted the sentences of 1,176 deserving people—more than the past 11 presidents combined. https://t.co/NoOfhZTaXJ pic.twitter.com/VqRTtkKhzU

— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) December 19, 2016

673 And Counting. Thanks, President Obama

.@POTUS commuted the sentences of 111 largely nonviolent drug offenders—35 of which were serving life sentences: https://t.co/sTHkwyYhua

— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) August 30, 2016

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Carrie Johnson: Obama Grants Clemency To 111 Prisoners; DOJ ‘Confident’ It Will Clear Backlog

President Obama shortened the prison sentences of 111 inmates Tuesday, including 35 people who had expected to spend the rest of their lives in federal custody, authorities told NPR. Word of the new batch of clemency grants came as the second in command at the Justice Department told NPR that lawyers there have worked through an enormous backlog of drug cases and, despite doubts from prisoner advocates, they will be able to consider each of the thousands of applications from drug criminals before Obama leaves office in 2017.

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[CHART CORRECTION] @POTUS just commuted 111 people, bringing the total to more than the past 10 presidents combined. pic.twitter.com/bBDAUzLBXt

— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) August 30, 2016

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“At our current pace, we are confident that we will be able to review and make a recommendation to the president on every single drug petition we currently have,” Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates said. The early releases apply to mostly nonviolent drug offenders who would have received lighter punishments if they committed the same crimes today. The new commutations mean this White House has granted 673 commutations, more than the past 10 presidents combined. Tuesday’s grants follow 214 more earlier this month.

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This White House has now granted 673 commutations, more than the past 10 presidents combined. https://t.co/Sam8jqjWVD

— NPR (@NPR) August 30, 2016

.@POTUS cannot do it alone. Congress must act to enact a fairer federal sentencing system: https://t.co/eNv6u25429 pic.twitter.com/J4cL84Yjyc

— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) August 30, 2016

Early Bird Chat: #ThanksObama

BREAKING: Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons https://t.co/x0RP7zH2LX

— Matt Zapotosky (@mattzap) August 18, 2016

Early Bird Chat

Good news: 185 businesses answered @POTUS's call to give Americans with a criminal record a fair chance at a future. pic.twitter.com/O8c9ElYkWw

— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) August 16, 2016

‘A Nation Of Second Chances’

Breaking: @POTUS just granted clemency to 58 men and women who have earned a second chance: https://t.co/Dl2oXBCOHj pic.twitter.com/wmS5RxCM67

— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) May 5, 2016

A Ban On Solitary Confinement. Thanks, President Obama

Barack Obama: Why we must rethink solitary confinement https://t.co/JoIbYB2V69 pic.twitter.com/q3Z7T97en5

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) January 26, 2016

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Juliet Eilperin: Obama Bans Solitary Confinement For Juveniles In Federal Prisons

President Obama on Monday announced a ban on solitary confinement for juvenile offenders in the federal prison system, saying the practice is overused and has the potential for devastating psychological consequences. In an op-ed that appears in Tuesday editions of The Washington Post, the president outlines a series of executive actions that also prohibit federal corrections officials from punishing prisoners who commit “low-level infractions” with solitary confinement. The new rules also call for expanding treatment for mentally ill prisoners. The president’s reforms are expected to affect about 10,000 inmates. The reforms come six months after Obama, as part of a broader criminal-justice reform push, ordered the Justice Department to study how solitary confinement was being used by the federal Bureau of Prisons.

“How can we subject prisoners to unnecessary solitary confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our communities as whole people?” the president wrote in his op-ed. “It doesn’t make us safer. It’s an affront to our common humanity.” He said he hoped his reforms at the federal level will serve as a model for states to rethink their rules on the issue. At least a dozen states have taken steps in the past two years to curtail the use of solitary confinement, either in response to lawsuits or through legislative and administrative changes. An increasing number of studies show a connection between isolating prisoners and higher rates of recidivism.

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BREAKING: President Obama is banning solitary confinement for juvenile offenders in the federal prison system https://t.co/WMaCuTIsmM

— “Mark Berman” (@markberman) January 26, 2016

Obama is announcing the change in an op-ed in the @washingtonpost that begins with the story of Kalief Browder https://t.co/WMaCuTIsmM

— “Mark Berman” (@markberman) January 26, 2016

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Seems worth revisiting Browder's story and what we do - and don't - know about solitary https://t.co/SVQqMSmqwB pic.twitter.com/sumr4wOa0f

— “Mark Berman” (@markberman) January 26, 2016

Breaking: President Obama bans solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons https://t.co/utpmabEMZY

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 26, 2016

President Obama: Changing All Lives For The Better

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Alan Pyke: Why The Obama Administration Wants To Pay For Prisoners To Go To School

“My professor, Miss Jamie Mullaney, she cried the last day of class. And it made me cry,” Terrell Johnson said, sitting across from Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Loretta Lynch at Maryland Correctional Institute-Jessup on Friday morning. “I’m in a place where it’s not good to cry,” said Johnson, who’s in the middle of a prison sentence for selling drugs. “But I didn’t care. I felt like this lady genuinely cares if I get this education. That made me wanna try even harder, because I don’t want to let her down.” Mullaney, the head of Goucher College’s sociology department, wasn’t there to hear Johnson recount how his coursework in the Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP) has changed him.

The Goucher program these men participate in is funded entirely through money the school has raised itself. No state or federal education dollars provide GPEP books, teachers, tutors, and work materials. The program’s costs — about $5,000 per student per year, a sliver of what it costs to incarcerate an adult for 12 months at Jessup — have come entirely from private sources who believe in what professors like Mullaney and renowned historian Jean Harvey Baker and their 70 uniformed, caged students are doing here and at a neighboring women’s facility. But under the pilot program Lynch and Duncan unveiled Friday, partnerships like GPEP will be able to apply for Pell Grant funding. “The cost-benefit of this doesn’t take a math genius to figure out,” Duncan said. “We lock folks up here, $35,000, $40,000 every single year. A Pell Grant is less than $6,000 each year.”

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Why the Obama administration wants to pay for prisoners to go to school https://t.co/i5hc4ZkRMt pic.twitter.com/DchiTIgcKQ

— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) January 1, 2016