The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Recommends - August 3rd, July 19 and 27

August 3
The Trump administration is wrong to bring back federal executions: While many states have moved away from the death penalty, the Justice Department plans to execute five people on death row.

Aug. 6 marks the 74th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima: In 2015, survivor Michiko Kodama wrote this moving testimony, calling for the abolition of what she calls "weapons of the devil."

Feeding communities in Baltimore: Tubman House, a project of AFSC's Friend of a Friend program and the Coalition of Friends, provides free, locally grown fruits and vegetables to Baltimore neighborhoods. (Baltimore Sun)

July 27

While Congress is on August recess use this opportunity to reach legislators on issues that matter to you: Here are some tips to talk to them about immigrant rights and ending the detention of Palestinian children.

The Homestead letters: Watch this short film featuring local students who took part in AFSC’s letter-writing campaign to stand with migrant children locked up at Homestead detention center in Florida. (CBS Miami)

New Jersey passed a law to limit solitary confinement, but we must do more to end torture in prisons: “We want to move forward to provide an environment which does no further damage either mentally or physically to the people serving legal sentences – and eventually abolish the mercilessness of these conditions of confinement,” writes AFSC’s Bonnie Kerness. (NJ.com)

 Banks divest from financing incarceration and detention companies: This week BNP Paribas joined JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, SunTrust, and Bank of America in committing to stop providing credit to private prison and immigrant detention center operators. AFSC’s Dalit Baum speaks to the significance of these commitments – and what needs to happen next. 

What you should know about the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA): What Congress passed last week and what it means, as explained by AFSC’s Tori Bateman.   

Meet the #MomsAgainstTheCamps who stormed Joni Ernst’s office for immigrant justice: Fifty moms, including AFSC’s Erica Johnson, occupied Sen. Joni Ernst’s office to demand an end to family separation and detention. (Ms. Magazine)