Our Mission
To organize with incarcerated people and their families to defend human rights inside prisons, stop abuse and inhumane conditions, advocate for release—especially for people who are sick, aging, or deserving of a second chance—and prepare people inside prison for life after incarceration through pre-release navigation and job and education pathways.
Our Vision
The current prison system is built on a foundation of exploitation, punishment, and corruption. It reflects our society’s deepest inequalities—disproportionately claiming the liberty of those who are poor, Black and brown, and under-resourced. HRC recognizes that this system does not work.
Our ultimate goal is to dismantle and abolish the prison system as it exists today, replacing it with a foundation of accountability, safety, fairness, and resilience that focuses on healing instead of punishing.
A New Standard for Pennsylvania
We envision a Commonwealth where prisons no longer operate in secrecy and no one is above the law. Our work strives for a future where:
Human Rights are Upheld: We end the torture of solitary confinement and the cruelty of condemning people to die behind bars—especially for harm committed as children.
Transparency is Absolute: Prison officials and administrations are held strictly accountable for their actions, ensuring that the same outrage we feel for international human rights violations is applied to the rights of people incarcerated here at home.
Communities are Restored: We envision families supported, individuals returning home with genuine opportunity, and communities strong enough to hold each other up.
Power Through Coalition
To achieve this, we are building a coalition of families and organizations dedicated to eliminating prison abuse. By educating the public, advocating with officials, and lobbying state legislators, we stand as a united front to protect human rights and demand systemic transformation.
What We Believe
Human rights don’t stop at the prison gate.
Families are not collateral damage—we organize with them.
Second chances must be real - no one should die behind bars with no pathway home.
Solitary confinement is torture.
Reentry starts inside: people deserve a plan before coming home.
Mission in action: what we built in 2025
In 2025, we met the moment with organizing, public education, legislative advocacy, and community-based programming—led by directly impacted people and our allies.
Published three issues of The Movement magazine to amplify directly impacted voices and movement analysis.
In coalition with CADBI Mobilized statewide through the Power-Up Caravan Tour across seven Pennsylvania counties to end Death by Incarceration (DBI).
Organized in coalition with ALC at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg to abolish solitary confinement and advance a statewide legislative agenda.
Developed in coalition with ALC a Prison Oversight Board within Philadelphia government over the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, strengthening public accountability.
Worked in coalition to create an Ombudsman bill to establish a PA State Ombuds Office that is autonomous, separate from the Department of Corrections (DOC), and will truly look out for the needs of both those incarcerated and those employed in our state’s prisons.
Advanced the Toxic Prison Campaign (TPC) through organizing, a major report, and 45 legislator visits, helping build momentum that resulted in two state prisons closing.
Expanded environmental justice work through two Community Solar town halls, two justice-impacted resource fairs, and a $250,000 restricted Thriving Communities Grant (Green & Healthy Homes Initiative) supporting a citywide solar education campaign.
How We Work
Organizing + public education
We build people power through families, communities, coalitions, supporters, rallies, and movement communications—so impacted communities set the agenda.
Campaign pressure + legislative advocacy
We turn lived experience into policy demands—meeting legislators, mobilizing at Harrisburg and City Hall and across the state, and pushing for accountable systems.
Community resilience + environmental justice
We expand access to clean energy knowledge and pathways—because stability, health, and power are part of liberation.