Prisoner Justice
Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.
Hebrews 13:3
RCHP takes very seriously the call to solidarity with the incarcerated and the legally disenfranchised, found throughout our scriptures and in the historical witness of our ancestors in the faith.
The United States incarcerates more of its own residents and citizens than any other country on earth, at rates that far surpass all other democratic nations. The racial disparities at every level of the legal and correctional system—in the U.S. and in New Jersey specifically—are an indictment of the inherently racist and oppressive nature of criminal justice policies.
As people of faith called to stand with the marginalized, comforting the afflicted and amplifying the prophetic demand for structural change, we are committed to justice on behalf of prisoner and their families; and this commitment is reflected in a variety of affiliations and programs.
NeighborCorps Reentry Services is a reentry program serving Middlesex County, NJ, through offering navigational services, referrals, and direct connections to the necessary supports for people reentering their communities from jail. NeighborCorps is founded and headquartered through RCHP.
New Jersey Prison Justice Watch was formed with strong involvement from RCHP (and organized by Pastor Amos), and has led two legislative campaigns to advocate for and affirm the dignity of people who are incarcerated in New Jersey. In 2019, after 8 years of advocacy, NJ-PJW ended the use of prolonged solitary confinement in all New Jersey prisons and jails through “the Isolated Confinement Restriction Act” (S3261/A314). During the pandemic, NJ-PJW led a legislative campaign to give prisoners “Public Health Emergency Credits,” which led to the release of thousands of incarcerated people beginning in November 2020 (the largest prison release in New Jersey history).
Salvation and Social Justice, founded by a close friend and colleague of RCHP, Rev. Dr. Charles Boyer, leads the prophetic work of exposing and engaging the racist policies that bolster the prison system in New Jersey. Pastor Amos works as a coalition director through this organization, and their work is actively engaged in decarcerating prisons and jails, building structures of equity and justice, and abolishing any systems of oppression that plague New Jersey’s most vulnerable communities.