Lehigh Valley activists for criminal justice reform recently gathered at the Al-Ahad Islamic Center, South Whitehall, in preparation for a “day of action” rally at the state capital.

Members of the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration, Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, End Mass Incarceration-Lehigh Valley, local NAACP and ACLU chapters, religious congregations and other organizations traveled on Oct. 23 to Harrisburg for the “Rally to End Death by Incarceration and Heal Our Communities.”

The rally drew people from across Pennsylvania in support of efforts to end mass incarceration, especially offering parole eligibility for all, and abolishing sentences of life without parole.

Supporters planned to demonstrate on the steps of the Pennsylvania State Capitol, speak with state lawmakers, and listen to speeches by activists, elected officials and families impacted by life-without-parole sentences.

The mission was to help advance two pieces of pending legislation, SB135 and HB135, which would eliminate sentences of life without parole and allow individuals the opportunity to receive parole after 20 to 30 years, depending on the conviction.

In addition, rallygoers planned to highlight other criminal justice issues and support legislative efforts to rectify these concerns.

According to Robert Walden, local rally organizer and member of End Mass Incarceration-Lehigh Valley, these issues include inhumane usage of solitary confinement in prisons, especially for youth and young adults, excessively long and expensive parole and probation times, high rates of recidivism associated with these expensive processes, and lack of proper rehabilitation efforts.

Participants expressed a variety of reasons for supporting criminal justice reform and taking part in the rally.

Walden became interested in issues of mass incarceration through a workshop organized by The Lehigh Conference of Churches.

“That really sparked my interest in it, and when the opportunity came up to bring together a bunch of groups in the Lehigh Valley who have an interest in this, I just had to do it,” Walden said.

Mohammed Khaku, from Upper Macungie, primary organizer of the trip, mentioned his faith and a strong commitment to social justice.

“Faith is in all of this,” Khaku said. “In Islam, you are a brother in faith or a brother in humanity.

“At the end of the day, it is about what you did for that humanity. It is about social justice and social action.

“That is the most important part of what we are doing here.”

Erin Lindenmuth, from Whitehall, a Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration member, said she disagreed with current prison practices and was motivated to activism by organizations dedicated to abolishing life without parole.

“It seems like this is the way many people have decided to solve their problems today, by putting others in prison for life and forgetting that they are people, too,” Lindenmuth explained. “We live in a society where we think this is OK to do to people, and I don’t agree with it at all.”

Pennsylvania is one of only six states that denies parole to individuals serving life imprisonment.

Decarcerate PA, a coalition of organizations championing an end to mass incarceration, reported Pennsylvania has the second highest number of people serving life-without-parole sentences in the country, with more than 5,100 individuals serving these sentences as of 2018.

Pennsylvania also has more than 480 individuals serving juvenile life-without-parole sentences, the highest number of any state.