By Tom Moran
Two great friends of UU FaithAction NJ received clemency from lifelong parole in Governor Murphy’s Clemency initiative. Both have spoken to the Criminal Justice Reform Task Force breakouts at Fall Issues Conferences. The individuals are Antonne (Tone) Henshaw and Rev Russell Owen. Both are active in prison reform, community reentry for returning citizens, and counseling for returning citizens. They are also active in the “credible messenger” movement.
Tone became a paralegal while incarcerated. He spent countless hours working on court cases for his fellow incarcerated individuals. That is one reason he is active in the movement to end the slave labor of the incarcerated. He is the co-founder of the Transformative Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that provides a wide range of services to people, and families who have lived experience with carceral confinement. Tone also was the founder of the “meet them at the gate” movement in NJ. I call this a movement because it has been taken up by returning citizens groups around the state, and operates such that any male individual who is released from a NJ state prison after a major term, say 10 years or more, will be greeted by a group of returned citizens and family, and not left to stand in the prison parking lot alone after such a period of incarceration. We are pleased and honored to work with Tone just about every week.
Rev Russell Owen became an ordained minister while incarcerated. Rev Owen was an attending minister in the NJ prisons for a decade. As such, he attended to the sick, elderly, and otherwise compromised prison population. His stories of the many aspects of prison ministry are cherished throughout the state. He is a valued spokesman for the rehabilitative release of the aging prison population. He is active in our 2nd Look NJ campaign and has been a featured speaker at a number of their events.
Both Rev Russell and Antonne are active in the “credible messenger” movement, which works to reduce community exposure to the criminal legal system and the carceral state that stands behind that system. The work of credible messengers is not without danger; there are risks in attempting to work in environments that are not healthy communities, where poverty, lack of employment, and other factors open the door to risk-taking and violence. Credible messengers attempt to fill a mentoring space that stands between forces like the police and the less than fully functional community structures.
Finally, both Russell and Tone are forward-thinking members of the community, looking for opportunities to bring about change that makes a difference. It is a great pleasure for our Task Force to work with both of them.