FOUNDATION
UPDATE
MORE THAN
A SLOGAN
A YEAR OR SO AGO, THANKS TO THE CREATIVE MIND OF FACTL AND ACTL FOUNDATION
OFFICER LIZ MULVEY OF BOSTON, THE FOUNDATION ADOPTED THE SLOGAN AND
HASHTAG “. . . BECAUSE JUSTICE CAN’T WAIT.” IN A BRAINSTORMING SESSION THAT
HAD SEEMED TO THAT POINT TO BE GOING IN CIRCLES, LIZ THREW OUT THE SUGGESTION;
THE TRUSTEES WERE IMMEDIATELY DRAWN TO IT. IT WAS SHORT, CATCHY, ON POINT;
AND, TO ADOPT A FAVORITE PHRASE OF MY LATE LAW PARTNER, THE GREAT JAMES D.
ST. CLAIR (A FELLOW, OF COURSE), “IT HAS THE BEAUTY OF BEING TRUE.”
Around that same time, we were reviewing
the Gumpert Award application of an organization
that, while it did not win that
award, drew the Foundation’s attention –
and a substantial grant. The grant was bestowed
for a project called The Third Strike
Campaign, under the auspices of a parent
organization named The Decarceration Collective
(“TDC”). TDC is an Illinois charity
that self-describes as “a woman-powered law
office fighting to free people sentenced to
life in prison for drugs and to end the policies
that put them there.” In 2019, TDC
launched the Third Strike Campaign to
seek the release of non-violent drug offenders
sentenced to a mandatory minimum
sentence of life in prison under America’s
old Three Strikes Drug Law, which applied
to every third drug conviction without regard
to how trivial any of the offenses may
have been. TDC has actually compiled a
substantial compendium of the comments
of judges, stripped of their discretion, who
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