Blog Post

Looking to boost candidates supporting criminal justice reform and fairer sentencing laws, more than three dozen Working America canvassers joined with members of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute to canvass in Pittsburgh’s Northside neighborhoods and encourage voters to hit the polls on November 8. As we’ve found during this angry, media-dominated election cycle, voters welcomed a friendly conversation about the issues. Many expressed gratitude that we were out talking with community members, especially about the need for criminal justice reform. Canvassers reported anecdotally that nearly half of the people they spoke with knew someone who had been incarcerated, and many were very eager to speak with us about this issue and its impact on their lives. Voters expressed concern that mandatory minimum sentences often led to severe punishment that didn’t fit the crime. We heard a lot about the need for alternatives to incarceration, as well as the need to educate those in jail so that they can get good jobs when out of prison. Canvassers also reported that most everyone they spoke to was planning to vote on Tuesday.