More than 50 people gathered at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church Parish Hall in Winthrop for a Martin Luther King Day program focusing on prisons and incarceration in Maine and nationwide. Co-sponsored by the Winthrop Area Ministers Association and the Capital Area Mulitifaith Association, the program featured prize-winning journalist Lance Tapley, Justice Organizer Grainne Dunne of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, and Neil Robertson of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition.

The panelists discussed how class and race drive high incarceration rates and miserable conditions in America’s prisons. Historian and moderator Chris Myers Asch explained the importance of the faith community in the Civil Rights Movement and the vital work of ordinary citizens in achieving change in our nation.

Additional Images

From left are Chris Myers Asch, moderator and historian; Neil Robertson, Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition; Grainne Dunne, Maine American Civil Liberties Union; and Lance Tapley, journalist and author. Contributed photo

All are invited to participate in a community read of “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander to learn more about incarceration the United States. Discussion groups will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, in the Maine State Library and at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 1, in Winthrop’s Town Hall. Interested participants should attend one session.