RAPP initiated and helps to lead both the People’s Campaign for Parole Justice and the New Yorkers for Clemency Campaign
Parole Justice
The People’s Campaign for Parole Justice is a grassroots coalition started by 18 organizations across New York State that works to promote fair and meaningful release opportunities for incarcerated people in New York State prisons. The primary goals of our campaign are decarceration and family reunification. With our closest ally, the Parole Preparation Project, RAPP built this coalition to help lead a statewide strategy to expand release opportunities and end the cycle of endless punishment for people of color in New York.
Clemency
Another path to release for incarcerated New Yorkers, especially elders, is executive clemency. During the administration of former governor Andrew Cuomo, #CuomoLetThemGo, was a project urging the governor to grant clemency to thousands of older incarcerated New Yorkers who have transformed their lives, taken full responsibility for the damage their crimes caused, and pose little if any risk to public safety. Now that NYS has a new governor, we have launched #HochulBringThemHome and the website New Yorkers for Clemency to press Governor Hochul to grant clemencies with transparency, frequency, and inclusiveness. As part of RAPP’s clemency campaign, we offer an extensive website covering the in’s, out’s, and how’s of executive clemency in New York State.
Other Work With Partner Organizations
RAPP participates in coalitions across issues of injustice in the system of prisons, policing, and immigration
The Justice Roadmap NY is one example. It brings together 27 separate organizations advocating for a legislative agenda designed to address the harms caused by the deeply entangled criminal legal and immigration systems.
RAPP participates in the national movement to end life imprisonment
Since our founding, RAPP has worked with The Sentencing Project to promote expansion of parole systems nationally and to end life sentences. We partner with the California-based movement to Drop LWOP and the Pennsylvania-based movement to Decarcerate PA and Abolish Death By Incarceration. In all these coalitions we push for policies that do not exclude any incarcerated person, no matter the crime or the sentence. We believe in second chances for all individuals.