Drug Policy

On Saturday, January 23rd, more than 150 North Philadelphia community leaders and families with loved ones in prison met at the Philadelphia Recovery Community Center to discuss the services urgently needed to support those returning from imprisonment. And the group was serious about getting to work. Emcee Rev. Dr. McNear, Kingdom Care Reentry Network, was greeted with a chorus of responses to his calls for this not to be just another meeting with no action plan: “Yes, we can!” and “Yes, I will!”

This was the first in a series of Neighborhood Speak Outs organized by a new Philadelphia criminal justice coalition, the Support Center for Prison Advocacy.  The Support Center for Prison Advocacy was founded in July 2008 by the Institute for the Study of Civic Values, the Kingdom Care Reentry Network, and Philadelphia FIGHT, working in collaboration with CHAMP’s Project UNSHACKLE.

When someone goes to prison, the whole community is affected.  And community struggles do not stop when loved ones come home.  Once released, people will face difficulties accessing the services and mentoring they need to move forward and make new lives.  The Support Center for Prison Advocacy was founded on the belief that to address this prison reentry crisis, we all need to come together to build safer and more vibrant communities.
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Alan Perez first said what was to become the theme of Project UNSHACKLE’s first Community Forum in New York.  And it was almost an afterthought.  Alan is the Volunteer Coordinator for Gay Men’s Health Crisis’ Action Center.  On our presenter check-in call, he was explaining what he wanted to cover during his talk at the forum.  Pausing for a moment to find the right words to describe the Action Center’s work, Alan offered, “You know… We’re trying to turn thought into action.”  Those words caught the essence of our work on that call as they framed the efforts at the forum Wednesday, December 10th. 

There’s an often-quoted statistic from the Bureau of Justice that two-thirds of people will be rearrested within three years of their release from prison.

In a packed room on the LGBT Center’s third floor, forum presenters, Alan, Waheedah Shabazz-el, Stacey Thompson, and John Bell painted a vivid picture of what happens to the other one-third.  They all came to their work around HIV and imprisonment through stints in the New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore jail/prison systems.  And they all have now set their hands to changing the very systems they once found inescapable.  That’s how they have stayed home.  And that’s precisely the message they are trying to pass on to the members of their communities: Reach out.  Get involved.  Turn thought into action.

With the New Year nearly upon us, it’s this message that is guiding me in thinking about Project UNSHACKLE’s work in 2009.   read more »

When historical villains die, at least if they are white, male Americans, Conventional Wisdom and Miss Manners say one should simply move on neutrally, "not speaking ill of the dead." Or something.

I strongly disagree. Whereas I philosophically agree that there is no such thing as a totally evil person without contradictions, it is quite appropriate to draw a balance sheet on public figures who have greatly and directly impacted our lives ... in this case for ill.

Helms was such a voluble and prolific person, Rush-Limbaugh-cum-Senator-Claghorn, and his ascendance so felicitously intersected the rightward moving Zeitgeist, that his legacy of harm extends far and wide – from making overt racism politically acceptable in modernized ways, to eliminating civil liberties and the right to organize as workers, to restricting women's reproductive freedom domestically and around the world, to banning public support for art with any erotic or sexual content, to extending the HIV epidemic by forbidding any federal funds to be used on any materials that frankly portray and discuss sex and drug use.  read more »

Want the good news or bad news first?

I'll give you the bad news.

Sex columnist Dan Savage whose syndicated column Savage Love is read weekly by millions in alternative weeklies around the country, wrote a blog entry for the Seattle news site The Stranger about the NYT story on rising HIV infections among young MSMs. His blog post was his usual snarky self, but horribly misinformed. He writes:

" so long as gay health educators refuse to level with gay men--there's no "moderating" your meth use; you can suck too much cock; anal sex isn't a first-date activity and having anal sex with hordes of anonymous partners, even with condoms, is sure-fire way of contracting HIV--these new campaigns won't have much of an impact. And so we'll be reading this story again in a couple of years, yet another story about HIV infection that makes tragic heroes of guys like Javier Arriola and goes on to suggest that straight talk about HIV infection is part of the problem, not part of the solution."  read more »

In what seems like a space-filler on a slow news day, the New York Times reported yesterday that HIV rates among gay men under the age of 30 are on the rise.

Why do I say it must have been a slow news day? This data was issued in a press release by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on September 11, 2007. The NYT story, which was the front page of yesterday's Metro section, appeared nearly three months later. In any case, here's the main info from the Times:

"The number of new H.I.V. infections in men under 30 who have sex with men has increased sharply in New York City in the last five years, particularly among blacks and Hispanics, even as AIDS deaths and overall H.I.V. infection rates in the city have steadily declined.

New figures from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene show that the annual number of new infections among black and Hispanic men who have sex with men rose 34 percent between 2001 and 2006, and rose for all men under 30 who have sex with men by 32 percent."  read more »

Showing the “missing pieces” of HIV prevention puzzle in the United States, more than three hundred people poured into the downtown Atlanta streets for the PJM Unity Rally and March in Atlanta, GA, on Tuesday, December 4th, where the National HIV Prevention Conference (NHPC) ended on Wednesday. People from across different communities marched to demonstrate unity for a comprehensive HIV prevention in the US, not to be divided by community or issue.

In order to draw conference attendees from the hotel to the opening rally two blocks away at Hardy Ivy Park, a group of carolers sang an HIV prevention song to the tune of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” Other PJM folks were in the lobby, decorating marchers with the PJM sash—a white satin cloth with the red PJM Unity logo. Helping to sash people in the hotel was Miss Rhode Island 2007 Ashley Bickford, who was attending the conference as someone interested in HIV/AIDS issues.

The spirited marchers burst from the Hyatt onto Peachtree Street, blowing whistles and chanting, and made their way to Hardy Ivy Park to meet the crowd already assembled. The March MC Waheedah Shabbazz-el took the bullhorn and hyped the crowd to a frenzy, reminding the crowd, “HIV is more than a disease, It’s positive proof of injustice!” The marchers grabbed signs and flashlights from organizers and marshals, and the rally was in full swing.  read more »

A sharper approach to fighting AIDS
In today's Atlanta Journal Constitution!

By Sandra Thurman

Twenty years ago, as executive director of AID Atlanta, I would arrive at the office at the crack of dawn to find a cast of homeless intravenous drug users waiting at our door. Their faces and the countless more living with HIV I've met since still haunt my dreams. I often wonder if a clean needle could have saved their lives.  read more »

For those of you who can not join us here in Atlanta today for the Unity Rally, I wanted to share our custom Christmas Carol that you can hum to the tune of "the 12 Days of Christmas" right around 5 pm EST and it will be like you are there!  read more »

The latest issue of Solidarity Project, CHAMP'S monthly newsletter, focuses on "prevention justice," by profiling some of the nation's most compelling prevention justice work in action. Featured in this is are interviews with folks from:

• Georgia Prevention Justice Alliance
• New York State Black Gay Network
• The AFIYA Center
• Transforming Justice

There's also a good deal of resources, policy documents, and it's in English and Spanish! Dowload the English or Spanish.

You can also read the Solidarity Project at The Body.com.