The Ground Is Shifting

Something shifts in April. The birds are back, singing before sunrise. Flowers push through soil that just weeks ago seemed frozen and spent. New life has a way of arriving before we feel ready for it - and maybe that's the point.

We're finding that same stubborn, surprising hope in our reading and learning this season. It turns out that even in the places that seem most broken — like our nation's carceral system — there are signs of movement, reform, and justice taking root.

And there is reason for hope:

• Since its peak in 2009, the number of people in prison has declined by 24 percent and, notably, the Black imprisonment rate has declined by nearly 50 percent since the country’s peak period of imprisonment in 2008 (The Sentencing Project)

• Several states have repealed or reformed mandatory minimum sentencing laws, resulting in measurably shorter sentences for nonviolent offenses — with Black and Latino communities seeing some of the most significant impact

• The First Step Act, along with state-level "Clean Slate" legislation now passed in over 13 states, has helped thousands of people — disproportionately people of color — clear their records and rebuild their lives

In our newsletter this month, we get to hear from one of our own. Flourish Collective member Cindy Herr reflects on her experience in Flourish’s first year-long allyship book cohort, where our community read Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow together — and began to see both the weight of the problem and the possibility of change within our systems of incarceration. 

Spring keeps showing us: new life is possible. We're celebrating this as we explore outdoors this season and we’re holding on to this in our learning, even as we recognize that so much more remains to be done.

Our question for you to answer in the comments below - What's one thing you've learned recently that changed the way you see a broken system?