Black August
This year, we want to highlight advocacy in support of the multidecade movement to free incarcerated Black activist, journalist, and intellectual Mumia Abu-Jamal, and invite you to a screening of Sambizanga (1972) that we are co-hosting with the Highlander Center in Durham, North Carolina.
What to the Slave?
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Descendants Read Frederick Douglass' Speech | NPR
Call the main executive office at (518) 474-8390
At the end of the legislative session, four other bills that ENJAN supports were passed:
- Protect In-Person Visits (S5037/A4603): "Establishes visiting policies for incarcerated people, to provide incarcerated people opportunities for personal contact with relatives, friends, clergy, volunteers and other persons to promote better institutional adjustment and better community adjustment upon release."
- Commissary Mark-up Cap (S1692B/A2592): This bill places a limit (3%) on the amount prisons can markup goods sold in commissaries and canteens. It also requires that pricing of items for sale be published on the web.
- Reentry Health Act (S614B/A269): "Provides for enrollment of eligible incarcerated persons in the medical assistance for needy persons program; provides for enrollment of incarcerated individuals in other medical assistance programs, where eligible."
- Reduce Minimum Sentences (S8944/A10024): This bill is a subset (two provisions) of the Marvin Mayfield Act, which now gives judges more discretion to go below minimum sentences for "certain guilty pleas where the plea is in the interest of justice and which are entered into with both the permission of the court and the consent of the people."
These four bills still require Governor Hochul's signature. She has until the end of the year to sign these bills into law.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
The ENJAN Curators
To contact New York State Governor Kathy Hochul by phone, call the main executive office at (518) 474-8390. The office is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time.
ENJAN Members
The City of Poughkeepsie will be hosting the 2026 Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday, June 20th in Waryas Park on the Poughkeepsie waterfront.
The event in the park will run from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm right following the Juneteenth parade, which will start lining up at Main Street and Market around noon before marching to the park around 12:30 pm.
During the afternoon, there will be food, entertainment, vendors, and tabling by many local community organizations, including ENJAN. A flyer is attached below. We hope you can join us for this special celebration. Please spread the word. Thank you.
The ENJAN Curators
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