EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS
 Trading Up
A New Job, A Better Life, A Safer Community
Over 95% of prisoners are released back into our communities, and
employment is one of the key factors to their successful
reintegration. But over 40% of inmates have not completed the twelfth
grade. Therefore, Justice & Mercy, Inc. is excited to announce that we
are working with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) in
providing an employment assistance program called “Trading Up”,
beginning with the field of culinary arts and expanding into other
career opportunities in the future.
Since employment is one of three factors that correlate directly to
success or failure (the other two being housing and relationships),
the Pennsylvania DOC under Secretary Jeffrey Beard has begun to expand
its jobs programs.
The DOC is concentrating on providing training in the prisons.
However, Justice & Mercy saw the need to follow-up with graduates when
they re-enter our communities. Not only do we search for employers
willing to give ex-inmates second chances but we also hold our clients
accountable by cultivating mentors that will advise them over an
18-month period. Mentors not only help ex-offenders to retain jobs but
they also help to develop stable, functional interpersonal
relationships.
With new jobs, graduates benefit by succeeding in meaningful
employment that can support them and their families. The family
benefits by a stable environment in which children, who are seven
times more likely to turn to crime if they have a parent in prison,
can grow up learning positive choices. Our communities benefit in
former offenders obtaining productive, legal jobs reducing their
chances of repeating crime.
Justice & Mercy will start “Trading Up” by promoting culinary arts
graduates to prospective employers. Justice & Mercy will also connect
newly hired employees to mentors so they can help them to retain those
jobs. We will work with each employer to evaluate the new employee and
set goals. Justice and Mercy believes that individuals must change
from the inside out and will introduce a new way of life and
opportunities for personal enrichment.
We were able to do so because of a state grant but hope to get other
funding from donors to continue this effort.
To learn more, please contact:
Tom Armstrong, Director
“Trading Up”
tomearmstrong@yahoo.com
(717) 519-7981
Justice & Mercy's 9th Annual
Banquet!
September 18, 2008
Yoder’s Restaurant, New Holland 14 South Tower Road off Route 23. Click here for directions.
Doors open: 6 p.m.
Dinner/Program: 6:30 p.m.
Ticket Information: Click here
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Walter Everett, Pastor, St. John’s United Methodist Church, Sunbury, PA
Mike Carlucci
Emcee:
Laura Schanz, Community & Business Leader,Lancaster County
To learn more about Laura, click here to read her bio.
THEME: THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS
We all are called to embrace forgiveness, but if the ultimate devastation—murder—takes away a beloved child, can one truly forgive? How can one get beyond the rage that results from such an unjustifiable loss? Are there some acts that can’t be pardoned, acts that are too abhorrent to allow for reconciliation?
At Justice & Mercy’s annual banquet this fall, we will be privileged to hear from a survivor and an offender in such a tragedy--a father whose 24-year-old son was murdered and his son’s killer. Their profoundly moving story of reconciliation is a testimony to the redemptive power of God’s grace.
Struggling with rage following his son’s death, Walt Everett prayed for a way to be free from the anger that was destroying him. At the sentencing, he heard his son’s killer, Mike Carlucci, say, “I’m sorry”. Responding to the heartfelt apology, Walt began the long but certain path to healing and restoration.
Walt reached out to Mike, writing to him in jail and assuring him that he could accept his apology. In the aftermath of a tragedy, another life was changed: Mike Carlucci began a process of transformation brought about by the power of forgiveness.
Growing up in Stratford, Connecticut, Mike recalls that he only “occasionally attended school.” After his mother deserted the family and his grandmother--and primary caregiver--died when he was only 10, Mike gradually drifted into run-ins with the law. Falling into substance abuse, his life had spiraled out of control when on July 26, 1987, while high on drugs and alcohol, he shot and killed Scott Everett in his apartment in Bridgeport.
But his life changed dramatically when he received that letter from Walt Everett offering forgiveness and setting the stage for a redemptive encounter with God.
Since being paroled in 1991, Mike’s life has been a testimony to the power of God to restore even the most broken of lives. Today he works for a major trucking firm in Connecticut and speaks frequently to church groups, college students, and AA and NA groups as well as to inmates at various prisons in Connecticut. He also is the father of a daughter and stepfather of four other children.
The Rev. Walt Everett is an ordained United Methodist pastor currently serving St. John’s United Methodist Church in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Married to the former Nancy Bellmeyer Nogan, whom he met in a Bereaved Parents Support Group, he is the father of three children, two still living. Nancy has three children also, two living. Between them, they have eight grandchildren. Since moving to Pennsylvania, both have become official visitors of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, visiting Northumberland County Prison and three other prisons in North Central Pennsylvania. They are deeply committed to the principles of restorative justice and to serving as facilitators in victim-offender mediation.
Walt has accepted Mike as a son, and they stay in touch regularly.
Come to the Justice & Mercy Banquet this September and be touched by their amazing story that reveals the power of God to redeem, restore and renew lives.
Ticket Information
$30 Per Person
$240 for a Table of 8
Ticket price includes dinner and the keynote speaker program.
Payment by Check only.
Order by Mail:
Justice & Mercy, Inc.
PO Box 259
Strasburg, PA 17579
For more information call:
610-777-2222 or 717-687-7650
Please provide the following information for all attendees:
Name
Address
Telephone Number
Email (if applicable)
Company Name and Title (if applicable)
Directions to Yoders:
From the PA Turnpike:
Take Denver Exit: follow Rt. 222 South to the Ephrata exit. Take Rt. 322 East approximately five miles to the light in Blue Ball. Bear right onto R. 23 West. Go west for one mile to the light at the intersection of Route 23 and South Tower Road.
From Route 30:
From the New Holland Exit: follow Rt. 23 East (New Holland Pike) into New Holland. Turn right at the intersection of Rt. 23 and South Tower Road.
Benefit Golf
Tournament
September 25, 2007
 Justice & Mercy
teamed up with The Bridge Youth Center to host
a benefit golf tournament on September 25, 2007 at Foxchase Golf Club
in Stevens, PA. The event was a great success! Click the picture to
see a slideshow of the tournament.
Joint
Judiciary Committee For Wrongful Convictions
Enactment of the Innocence Commission,
Senate Resolution 381, was passed and adopted by the Senate on
November 21, 2006. This resolution, in place of SB1069, will have the
Joint State Government Commission set up the appointment of 35 people
to an advisory commission to study the causes of wrongful convictions
and make recommendations to the legislature for improvements in the
judicial system in our state.
So far, in the U.S. 180 people were found innocent of the crimes in
which they were accused through DNA testing. But DNA testing is only
available in 20% of crimes. The Innocence Commission would research
why the justice system failed in those instances and change the
policies and/or procedures to fix those errors. For instance, eye
witness testimony was a factor in 75% of wrongful convictions with
some cases having multiple eyewitness errors. False confessions were
found to be an error in 20% of convictions later proved innocent.
Justice & Mercy, Inc. is honored to have been asked serve on this
commission. "We currently are a member of the Redress Subcommittee that examines current practices and procedures as well as Pennsylvania law in regard to redress for wrongful convictions. The subcommittee will also study possible compensation statues, the effects on victims, and transitional services for those wrongfully convicted such as medical care, housing, employment training and placement and other social services. Recommendations will be made to the Committee for a report to the legislature in the fall 2008."
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