Project New Opportunity

Prison Fellowship assembled a powerful group of formerly incarcerated people and faith leaders for a Prayer March in Annacostia, Washington D. C. Joined by other residents, civic and religious leaders, some of PNO's great friends spoke at points along the march: Lashonia Thompson-El of the W.I.R.E and Shon R. Hopworth, now a law professor at Georgetown. Malcolm Young met up with Stefan LoBuglio, a national expert on reentry and formerly director of the Montgomery County (MD) Work Release Center, a model Bureau of Prisons contract halfway house.

PNO endorses national Second Chance Month while urging increased funding for reentry services. Check out 'Our Opinion' on our site. http://projectnewopportunity.org/our-opinion/

Second Chance Month - Prison Fellowship Every person has dignity and potential. Join with Prison Fellowship in celebrating "Second Chance Month" in April!

We're posting a 2 April 2018 NYT podcast on criminal justice and prison reform as it has changed, from the Obama era to Trump-Sessions. As has been clear from the start, Sessions is bent on killing any suggestion of sentence reform, whether it comes from advocates or a bi-partisan coalition in Congress . It appears Kushner and the White House together lack the will to overrule Sessions. They are instead focusing on "prison reform," which optimistically, we can hope, includes reentry.

But Sessions holds the cards here, as does the BOP which never really fully cooperated with reforms suggested by the Obama administration. Hence, we don't expect much actual change.

But nobody ---- and certainly no independently funded foundation committed to justice reform ---- has to accept the end of justice reform in the federal system or limits on prison and reentry reforms. We don't, at Project New Opportunity, and we know how to work around a recalcitrant DOJ and BOP to get results. We know, too, that by proving people can succeed after being released from prison, we build the case for sentencing reform and even clemency when the tide changes, as it will. We hope that you are with us.

This long segment from the New York Times is worth a listen. It's an accurate summary of where things are in the world of criminal justice reform.
----Malcolm C. Young

Listen to ‘The Daily’: The Prison Problem President Trump’s son-in-law wants to overhaul the penal system, but the attorney general is bitterly opposed. That has set the scene for a highly personal battle inside the White House.

The new federal war on drugs: not going to help reduce mass incarceration, but will surely increase the need for more reentry services at yet more cost to taxpayers.​
​https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/legal-pot/sessions-end-obama-era-policy-legalized-ma*****na-n834591​

Sessions to end Obama-era policy on legalized ma*****na Attorney General Jeff Sessions is giving U.S. attorneys the green light to enforce federal pot laws, even in states where its sale and use is legal.

USA Today has published an article on the challenges of reentry and the failure of prisons to prepare people to return to society upon completion of their sentence. Check out and share the links below to spread awareness of returning citizens and their struggle reintegrating back into society.

https://www.usatoday.com/topic/179b07dc-8a40-4081-881f-689e37ec232f/reentry-project/

https://www.usatoday.com/topic/179b07dc-8a40-4081-881f-689e37ec232f/reentry-project/

https://www.usatoday.com/videos/opinion/policing/reentry/video/2017/12/04/-one-inmate-re-entry-means-getting-beyond-past-demons/108180356/

Reentry Project - Policing the USA | USA TODAY

Our small office, Project New Opportunity, held a fundraiser to help us help President Obama's clemency recipients make the transition back to freedom as they leave the federal Bureau of Prisons. Our Reentry Consultants are a fantastic crew, the majority are formerly incarcerated men and women with keen insight, patience and commitment. Interested? Curious about the tree planting image? Want to contribute? Visit our website:

Project New Opportunity – Supporting women and men released by Presidential commutation and sentence modifications as they seek to successfully integrate back into society Supporting women and men released by Presidential commutation and sentence modifications as they seek to successfully integrate back into society

9 November 2017

Ed Chung, Center for American Progress and guest host for the Leslie Marshall Show (right) explores right to counsel in criminal cases with Kim Ball, Research Professor at American University, and, as described by Malcolm Young, the importance of council in the Obama-era Clemency 2014 initiative, where over 4,000 volunteer attorneys screened requests, prepared and submitted 2,600 petitions, and brought to freedom 894 of their clients. Click here, tinyurl.com/yaqp64ze, to listen to podcast. Director Young’s interview starts at 19:22.

In "How Prisoners on the Verge of Freedom Are Getting Screwed by the Feds", an article about BOP's recent halfway house closures: "There's a total lack of transparency,” says Malcolm Young, a longtime prison reform advocate who founded the Sentencing Project in the ‘80s. He says it’s remained unclear whether inmates affected by the closures—which according to the BOP only vacated 1% of available beds nationwide—are being diverted elsewhere or are simply having their sentences extended.

How Prisoners on the Verge of Freedom Are Getting Screwed by the Feds Last week, Lamel Diggs, a 32-year-old inmate in a Mississippi prison, sent Splinter an email through CorrLinks, the private email system used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

ALERT: In the last several months PNO heard rumors about halfway houses closing or contracts not being renewed. If true, this would be a concern because, if halfway houses are closed and there are fewer halfway house beds, federal prisoners will be made to serve more time in prison. Then, after a delayed release, they won't have the benefit of transitional housing, meals and support services but will be released directly "to the street."

Now Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) has verified the rumors, and then some. Last week FAMM surveyed its 30,000 members and contacts within the BOP. The results, writes FAMM President Kevin Ring, were "disturbing.” Halfway houses in many parts of the country are closing, and as a result the release dates for people who were expecting to be transferred to halfway houses have been set back as much as six months.

Watch PNO and FAMM’s webpages for updates and developments.

Our Opinion – Project New Opportunity Supporting women and men released by Presidential commutation and sentence modifications as they seek to successfully integrate back into society

Norman Brown (Project New Opportunity), Nkechi Tiafa and LaShonia Thompson El this morning at OSF's Justice Roundtable, speaking on reentry and mass incarceration.

Malcolm Young

Coming Up: 10 am 14 September 2017

Open Society Foundation's Justice Roundtable Assembly will feature Deputy Project Director Norman Brown, an Obama-era commutation recipient, to discuss his work and journey and Lashonia Thompson-El, current Restorative Justice Facilitator with the DC Office of the Attorney General to discuss her new book, "Through the Wire My Search for Redemption."

Coming Up: 10 am 14 September 2017

Open Society Foundation's Justice Roundtable Assembly will feature Deputy Project Director Norman Brown, an Obama-era commutation recipient, to discuss his work and journey and Lashonia Thompson-El, current Restorative Justice Facilitator with the DC Office of the Attorney General to discuss her new book, "Through the Wire My Search for Redemption."