Prison Advocacy at Cause for Hope

A community in downtown Atlanta

Telephone (404) 291-2234 Fax (404) 591-0213

Justice and Prisoner Advocacy

When members of our downtown community are caught up in the complex - and at times unfair − criminal justice system, we work to find solutions. An individual who is poor, particularly if homeless, can immediately disappear into the black hole of the legal system - rendered invisible. Many in our community get arrested for something as trivial as jaywalking or littering. Sometimes they are randomly stopped by police, and may be found to owe fees, or to have missed a court date or a meeting with a probation officer. Since they cannot afford bail and have few legal resources, they could stay incarcerated for weeks or months before seeing a judge. We intervene on an individual level, communicating directly with arresting officers, probation and parole officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges. This close personal involvement can result in removal or reduction of expensive and burdensome probation requirements, reduced sentencing, and in some cases outright acquittal. In addition to our advocacy, we provide emotional and spiritual support to those who are incarcerated by regularly writing letters and visiting. In doing so we hope to bring healing to the brokenness of the situation, with our efforts rooted in respect for everyone involved.

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Cause for Hope

Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 9012 Atlanta, GA 31106

Mass Incarceration: The New Jim Crow Legal scholar and civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander describes how the prison population in the United States has soared in the past 30 years. The war on drugs - treating addiction as a crime instead of the public health problem that it is - is the main reason for th e increase, giving this country the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Cause for Hope is a registered 501(c)(3) organization

In the United States at large, one out of every 31 persons is under correctional supervision (prison, jail, probation, or parole). In Georgia the rate is one out of 13. Corrected for people of color, the rate in Georgia is one out of seven, even though whites and non-whites use and sell drugs at remarkably similar rates.