Human Rights and Criminal Justice

Chairperson:

David Atwood
Email: dpatwood@igc.org
Phone: (832)693-5710

Description:

The Human Rights/Criminal Justice Working Group advocates on a broad range of human rights issus. Globally, we are concerned about human rights abuses in Darfur as well as other nations where citizens are being mistreated and abused. Locally, we advocate for improvements to the criminal justice system including elimination of police brutality; implementation of a public defender system for all felonies, elimination of racial and economic biases; and treatment rather than incarceration of youth, nonviolent drug offenders and people with mental disabilities. We advocate for abolition of the death penalty, humane prison conditions, stronger programs to rehabilitate prisoners, and a significant reduction in the number of Texas citizens incarcerated.

This working group also advocates for fair treatment of immigrants. We oppose the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants until humane, comprehensive immigration reform is implemented at the national level. We support immigrant families and the education of children of undocumented immigrants. We oppose militarization of the border between the U.S and Mexico, including the building of a physical wall between the two nations.

Finally, this working group is actively working to eliminate biased and hateful language in the community and build the "Beloved Community" envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The working group works closely with Amnesty International, Houston Unido, the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty to achieve these objectives.

Current Projects:

Abolition of the death penalty, public defender system for all felonies, improvement of prison conditions, elimination of police brutality, fair treatment of all immigrants, creation of the "Beloved Community", Houston Says No to Genocide (get detailed description from old HPJC website and print below).