{"id":27323,"date":"2026-07-21T12:22:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/?page_id=27323"},"modified":"2026-07-26T12:23:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T16:23:53","slug":"10forten-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/10forten-2\/","title":{"rendered":"10forTen-2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Day 2: Choosing Values Over Pressure<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Dear friends,<\/p>\n

One of the defining moments of the past decade came during debate over the First Step Act. Many national groups endorsed it; others declined. Pressure was intense.<\/p>\n

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But UUSJ \u2014 volunteers, partners, and staff together \u2014 paused and asked a different question:<\/p>\n

What do impacted communities say?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Organizations led by formerly incarcerated people, as well as those centered on BIPOC perspectives \u2014 the directly impacted \u2014 warned that the bill would likely expand \u201cvirtual incarceration\u201d through ankle monitoring and extended probation. We listened. We aligned with them. And we raised moral concerns grounded in UU values.<\/p>\n

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This was a turning point. We began consistently centering impacted voices in our advocacy analysis \u2014 a shift that wasn’t Pablo alone, but all of us, maturing together as a justice-making community.<\/p>\n

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What Was the First Step Act?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The First Step Act (2018) was a federal criminal justice reform bill promoted as a bipartisan effort to improve sentencing and re-entry. Many national organizations supported it, and it was widely described as “the best deal available” at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

But organizations led by formerly incarcerated people raised concerns that the bill would:<\/span><\/p>\n