Youth Sentencing and Reentry Project on Righteous Crowd this Week!
An image that YSRP created recently to lift up actions that they are taking in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Dear Righteous Crowd Members,
We are certainly living in challenging times.
Typically, we do our best to connect a relevant Jewish holiday or Torah portion to our recipient organizations. While this week’s portion is Naso, we are struck by the line from Parshat Kedoshim, “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor’s blood is shed.” Furthermore, we read the statement from Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Arnold Eisen who quoted Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel had said, “there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty but all are responsible.”
In this spirit, we feel it is our duty this week to support an organization that is working to fight racial injustice.
With appreciation,
The Righteous Crowd Team
Youth Sentencing and Reentry Project (YSRP)
Working to Keep Children Out of Adult Jails
Thanks to Righteous Crowd members Aviva Estiz and Rebecca Maltzman for recommending this week's organization.
The Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project is an advocacy organization that believes that children do not belong in adult jails or prisons, and that people deserve to return home and live full lives with dignity. YSRP, based in Philadelphia, works to keep children out of adult jails and prisons, and to bring home people who were sentenced as children to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Founded 6 years ago, YSRP’s goal is to transform the way the justice system treats children and, in Philadelphia, primarily Black children. Pennsylvania has sentenced more children to life in prison without parole than any other state in the country.
There are two primary components to YSRP’s work:
aiding attorneys with juvenile clients facing adult charges at the decertification and sentencing stages of criminal trials and
supporting incarcerated youth and their families as they plan for reentry into society from prison.
YSRP aims to bring the community back into the court process and restore the humanity of the individual charged.
*Content adapted from YSRP's website. We encourage you to read more about YSRP’s work here.
We also encourage you to read this piece in JTA, “ ‘Believe us’: Black Jews respond to the George Floyd protests, in their own words.”
To see past organizations Righteous Crowd supported, click here.