Date: Tuesday, February 24th | Time: 6:30 PM |

Location: VIRTUAL

TeAna Taylor (they/them) RAPP's Associate Director.

TeAna advocates for children of incarcerated parents, informed by their father’s nearly two decades of incarceration and working with We Got Us Now and the HALT Solitary Campaign. They have been engaging their community in restorative justice work for the past five years. They created and maintained a peer mediation program at a local middle school, leading mediations between youth, parents, and teachers; facilitating circles that ranged from community building within classrooms to repairing harm between community members; providing conflict coaching sessions for students; and training students in peer mediation and conflict resolution.

Jose Saldana (he/him) RAPP's Executive Director

Jose was released from state prison in January 2018, after 38 years of incarceration and four parole denials. During his decades in prison, he obtained a college degree. More importantly, he committed himself to organizing and advocating for racial justice and meaningful changes to the criminal legal system, including transformative changes to parole and sentencing. He is an alumnus of the Resurrection Study Group, which espouses the Non-Traditional Approach to Criminal and Social Justice.

Since his release from prison, Jose has been a critical advocate pushing for key policy changes for incarcerated people and building strategic partnerships to end mass criminalization. He was chosen as RAPP’s director by Mujahid Farid and the entire RAPP leadership collective just before Farid’s passing in late 2018.

As an advocate, Jose is a prominent national speaker on issues of mass incarceration and ending life sentences. He is the recipient of the 2019 Freedom Fighter Award issued by Citizens Against Recidivism.

He mentored hundreds of men during his years inside and continues to inspire all of us with his energy, commitment, and leadership.

Stanley Jamel Bellamy (he/him) RAPP's NYC Regional Organizer

Jamel was released from a New York State prison in April 2023, after serving 37.5 years of a 62.5 years to life sentence, by way of clemency from New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul. During his incarceration, he led social awareness groups and developed and implemented therapeutic programs that helped individuals understand the harm, pain, and suffering their crimes caused the victim’s family, their family, and the community. For the past thirty years, he has been an active participant in the struggle to end death by incarceration sentences, drafting resentencing bills and working on criminal and social justice issues that impact communities of color and marginalized communities. He has an Associates in Liberal Arts and a Bachelor’s in Social Science. He is also a published author and curriculum developer.

A RECKONING: Black Leaders Speak

By Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP)

A RECKONING: Black Leaders Speak

Release Aging People in Prison Campaign in Conversation