Join Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) leaders Jose “Hamza” Saldana and Stanley “Jamel” Bellamy as they discuss the paths towards true Abolitionist liberation. Their conversation will trace the history and accomplishments of the abolitionist movements that have freed Black people from plantations and prisons, both of which were built on stolen land, and consider the ongoing fight against systems of oppression, racial terror, and deprivations of human rights against Black people.This event is free and open to the public. ASL interpretation will be provided.

Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) is a grassroots campaign led by formerly incarcerated people and family members working to end the racist system of mass incarceration and bring people home. RAPP works to create meaningful pathways to release for people who have served long sentences and demonstrated transformation in New York State prisons by advancing parole justice and clemency as pathways home.

Grounded in the belief that people change, RAPP centers the leadership of those most directly impacted by incarceration and builds power through organizing, advocacy, and political education. The campaign is committed to healing, accountability, and community safety, working to reunite families and ensure that elders and long-serving individuals can return home as mentors, caregivers, and community leaders.

Stanley “Jamel” Bellamy is RAPP's New York City Regional Community Organizer. Jamel, age sixty-one, was released from a New York State prison in April 2023 after serving thirty-seven-and-a-half years of a sixty-two-and-a-half years-to-life sentence, by way of clemency from 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 caused by crime to victims’ families, their own families, and their communities. For the past thirty years, he has been an active participant in the struggle to end death-by-incarceration sentences, drafting resentencing legislation and organizing around criminal and social justice issues impacting communities of color and other marginalized communities. He holds an associate’s degree in liberal arts and a bachelor’s degree in social science and is also a published author and curriculum developer.

Jose "Hamza" Saldana is the executive director of Release Aging People In Prison (RAPP), He was released from prison in 2018 after thirty-eight years of incarceration. During the decades of his incarceration, he obtained a college degree. He also co-founded several therapeutic programs, such as "A Challenge to Change (C2C): A Comprehensive Approach to Addressing Criminal Thinking, Behavior, and Attitudes,” which helped him and many others learn how to take full responsibility for the harm inflicted on human beings and to develop insight into the lasting impact of this harm on families and communities. In search of a humane and effective way to address interpersonal harm without carceral punishment, he co-founded “The Restorative Community Project: A Therapeutic Alternative to Incarceration.”