On Thursday, Oct. 29, JLUSA hosted a press telebriefing with formerly incarcerated people and voting rights advocates to brief reporters on voter awareness actions in Kentucky, in the run up to the election. The outrage over the failure to convict police for killing Breonna Taylor, as well as the 175,000 formerly incarcerated people in Kentucky who have recently gotten their voting rights back, have become powerful forces this election season.
Keturah Herron, Justice Votes Kentucky and JLUSA Leader, as well as Marcus Jackson, Organizing Coordinator from ACLU Kentucky and Savvy Shabazz, from All of Us or None Louisville, shared their experiences with uplifting the voices of directly impacted voters, and their efforts to stop voter suppression and disenfranchisement.
DeAnna Hoskins, president and CEO of JustLeadershipUSA, Marie Ndiaye, supervising attorney, Decarceration Project at the Legal Aid Society, and Monica Smith, Criminal Justice program officer, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights briefed local and state reporters on the new laws, and how bail reform has empowered both marginalized communities and formerly-incarcerated people throughout the state.
Media Briefing: The CARES Act Doesn’t Care, April 22, 2020
On April 22, JLUSA hosted a press telebriefing with directly-impacted small business owners nationwide, to call on reforms to the Paycheck Protection Program, which unfairly excludes formerly-incarcerated entrepreneurs from receiving much-needed funding because of the pandemic.
DeAnna Hoskins, President and CEO of JustLeadershipUSA, Teresa Hodge, co-founder and CEO, R3 Score Technologies, Caliph Muab’El, founder and CEO, Breaking Barriers Mentoring Inc., and Dontae Thomas, CEO, Team Chizel LLC discussed how the U.S. Small Business Administration loan program includes language that denies formerly incarcerated people who own small businesses access to relief.
They called on Congress to act now to address this critical gap.
You can also tweet to demand Congress address this gap, as well:
Exclusion from CARES Act relief unjustly harms formerly incarcerated business owners. Congress must address this critical gap now. http://ow.ly/3DaQ50zzPQQ
CARES Act relief should be accessible for everyone, and not just those deemed deserving by the Small Business Administration. Congress must address this critical gap now. http://ow.ly/3DaQ50zzPQQ