Our Recent Youth Homelessness,
Environmental Justice and
Criminal Justice Reform Advocacy
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Dear Friends,
We are excited to share the work we have been doing in this month's newsletter.
In the months since the end of the February legislative session, EMO's Public Policy team has been working to begin developing our 2023 legislative priorities, as well as to collaborate with federal partners on key pieces of legislation to support youth experiencing homelessness and climate justice.
We are also delighted to introduce Lorena Ambriz, our Public Policy Associate working on criminal justice reform.
Federal Youth Homelessness Advocacy
In partnership with SchoolHouse Connection, EMO has been engaged with Oregon's congressional delegation, urging them to support key investments in youth experiencing homelessness. With the federal budget for fiscal year 2023 imminent, we worked with non-profits and advocacy partners in Oregon to express our support for two key investments: $800 million for the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program and $300 million for the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA). These investments would provide crucial support to Oregon's houseless youth as they continue their education, preparing them to move into stable and secure independent living.
As always, we are grateful for our partners who co-signed our letter to the Oregon delegation, and thankful for Oregon's legislators affirming their commitment to Oregon's houseless youth by signing on to support these investments. A link to EMO's letter can be found here.
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EMO Creation Justice Advocacy
EMO's Creation Justice staff members, in partnership with Interfaith Power & Light as the IPL affiliate in Oregon, are holding meetings with federal legislators to once again urge them to pass a bill with comprehensive climate justice provisions, in the form of the reconciliation package (termed the Build Back Better Act in the fall of 2021). The Senate is in discussions to decide on a bill that could pass. If the reconciliation package ends up being significantly different, it may have to again pass the House of Representatives. Here is how you can help:
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Send a letter to your US Senators and Representative about climate justice provisions in a reconstituted Build Back Better Act. (For Senators and Reps. Bonamici, Blumenauer, DeFazio, and Schrader, send this letter. For Bentz, send this letter.)
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Join our virtual meetings with your US Senators and Representative: email us (khogan@emoregon.org) and let us know who your representative is and we will send you information for joining the meeting. (Rep Bonamici: Weds 6/8; Rep Blumenauer: TBD; others have already occurred.)
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Invite your public policy team and other people of faith you know to send the letter and join the advocacy meetings with US legislators.
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Introducing Lorena Ambriz: EMO Criminal Justice Policy Associate
Lorena Ambriz is our part-time public policy associate, specifically working on our criminal justice reform policy. Lorena was born in Michoacan, Mexico but raised in Eastern Oregon and has always been concerned with issues of injustice specifically related to race, immigration, and economic inequality. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with minors in Social Justice and Philosophy from Oregon State University. Her undergraduate studies exposed her to the grave injustices found within the criminal justice system in the United States. The racial and economic disparities, along with the inhumane treatment of people who find themselves involved in the system led her to receive her Master of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Portland State University in 2020. She is hoping to enact change to the criminal justice system through policy.
Currently, Lorena is working on restoring voting rights for those who are incarcerated. Most people incarcerated will eventually be released into society and successful reintegration requires strong bonds to their communities. Voting rights from inside prison helps strengthen those bonds by allowing people to be involved in changes that impact their communities. Voting rights for incarcerated individuals is also a racial issue. Voter disenfranchisement laws have historically targeted Black people, in order to hinder the Black vote. Soon after slavery was abolished, the 13th Amendment and Black Codes made it so Black folks were still enslaved through criminal conduct, and soon after, Jim Crow laws disenfranchised felons from voting, which were disproportionaly Black. We now see this trend continued through mass incarceration. While Black people currently make up two percent of the population in Oregon, they make up 10 percent of the prison population. Removing a person’s right to vote is a gross injustice that merely separates the person from their community and serves no benefit in the interest of justice.
Additionally, Lorena is working with the group Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The death penalty is a cruel form of punishment and awfully inhumane. The death penalty has historically been arbitrarily applied, convicting some, but not others for similar crimes. There is danger that innocent people will be given the death penalty due to human error. Since 1973, 186 people sentenced to death have been exonerated of all charges. Troy Davis, Cameron Todd Willingham, and Carlos DeLuna are just three examples of men who were executed by the state but later found to be innocent of the crimes for which they were accused. Lastly, the racial disparity in death penalty sentences is astounding. In the early 1900’s, Black defendants represented 89 percent of death penalty cases for rape. By the late 1990’s, 75 percent of those on death row have been executed for killing a White victim, even though Black and White folks are equality likely to be victims of homicide. Currently, Black people make up about 13 percent of the population in the United States, but 41 percent of the population on death row. Finding alternatives to the death penalty is crucial to restoring justice in the criminal justice system.
If you have any ideas or suggestions related to criminal justice reform, please contact Lorena at lambriz@emoregon.org.
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Thank you for helping to make Oregon a better, more caring and more welcoming place.
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With gratitude,
Britt, Cherice, Lorena, Kelly, and Michael
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Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon
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