On the The Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration

by Brian Dugas

For today’s Social Action Minute I would like to tell you about a few of the sermons we will be having this month, and our Collection for a Cause.

On January 11th Rabbi Laurie Green will be speaking to us in person. Rabbi Green is the new Rabbi at Temple B’nai Brith here in Kingston, and is a distinguished speaker and Social Activist having served congregations in CO, DC, MD, NY, OH and now Pennsylvania as an Interim Rabbi, a Settled Rabbi, an Associate Rabbi and a Rabbi Educator. She is an activist for Social Justice, having won the Phylis Silver award for Social Action, and having taken part in a number of successful campaigns including Marriage Equality in NY and labor organizing in CA. In her sermon called “Angel Tears of Empathy” she will speak about how we have lost the ability to have empathy for anyone who disagrees with us. Empathy is central to our religious teachings. This demonization of empathy is at work in negative ways in our own country, in Israel/Palestine, and in other places around the world. Please join us on January 11th as we welcome Rabbi Green for the first time.

Then on January 18th we will have speakers from the “The Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration” CADBI which is our Collection for a Cause this month. CADBI is working to build a mass movement both inside and outside of prison to take a stand against Death By Incarceration and other harsh sentencing practices. Pennsylvania prisons currently hold approximately 5,100 people serving life sentences. In Pennsylvania, life means your natural life, with no possibility of parole. You receive mandatory Life Without Parole (LWOP) in Pennsylvania if you are convicted of first or second degree murder, even if you were only present at the incident and were not accused of being the person who pulled the trigger.

On September 24th I had the privilege of working with members of CADBI when they used our church as a stop on their state wide caravan aimed at increasing awareness and support for their cause. I have to admit that as a former law enforcement officer, I was a bit skeptical about what they were trying to do, but just like I have learned repeatedly over the years, I still have a lot to learn. I used to be well aware of the felony murder rule (2nd Degree) that says that if someone is killed during the commission of a felony (robbery, arson, burglary) then everyone who was involved with that crime is liable for murder, even if they did not have the intent to kill. My old self would have said “good - if you do the crime, you do the time”, but my new self went to this meeting with an open mind and learned that maybe this isn’t always fair. I heard from a mother whose son was the driver of a getaway car, and wasn’t aware that someone had a gun, a gun that was used during the crime to kill someone. So they all go to jail together right? Wrong, the actual killer provided information to the DA and walked away with less time, while the rest continue to serve their life sentences.

In my mind there used to be no distinction, they were all guilty. I said to myself “I’ll just do my job and leave the rest to the lawyers who will surely do the right thing, right?” Wrong again. This is not justice, this is injustice, and if I’d known things like this was happening…….well I don’t know what I would have done, but I know what I can do now.

Please join us on the 18th to learn about their cause, to hear their stories, and join me as I learn another one of those hard life lessons.