Profile of the Month

Mission and Vision:

Strength to Love is a group of hardworking and caring community members committed to battling and overcoming the injustices of the prison system. Named after a Martin Luther King book, Strength to Love is a community, a movement, and a ministry.

We want to offer the men and women returning home from incarceration practical support, spiritual direction, and a caring, community-network of people and organizations.

What We Do:

ON THE INSIDE: A group of volunteers spends time building relationships with inmates at DC's Re-Entry Unity in hopes of providing them the support they need before they are released and inviting them to join our community of support once they are home.

ON THE OUTSIDE: We match returning citizens with mentors, who offer spiritual direction and connections with our partner organizations like Jubilee Jobs or Columbia Road Health Services. We encourage the men and women to participate in our church community through Spiritual Support Groups and through attending our Strength to Love meetings.

TO CONFRONT THE SYSTEM: We have bought several shares of stock in the Corrections Cooperation America (CCA) and ascribed ownership of them to the returning citizens within our community. For the past two years, we have gone to the share holders meetings to speak with CCA's board about reforming the privatized, for-profit prison system. They have been very welcoming of us and our ideas and we hope to continue our respectful and honest relationship.

Why We Do It:

The prison system in America is broken.

Local, state, and federal governments contract corporations to manage correction facilities, paying them by the head: the more prisoners, the more money the corporations make.

The justice and prison systems disproportionately incarcerate African-Americans, low income individuals, and people of color.

America has the highest incarceration rate in world and a recidivism rate that is through the roof.

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