June 25, 2018CCR ED signs letter to NFL about anthem protest policy CCR Executive Director Vince Warren has signed onto a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell expressing objection to the National Football...
New York, August 25, 2011 – Today federal district court Judge Nicholas Garaufis heard closing arguments in V ulcan Society, Inc. v. City of New York , ending a trial that began August 1st to...
March 22, 2019... In November 2017, Al Otro Lado filed a class-action lawsuit against then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly (since extended to Kirstjen Nielsen) and U.S. Customs and Border...
March 9, 2016When I spoke in White Plains, NY, Monday evening, at a community forum on body cameras, it was interesting to hear several Westchester County police chiefs talk about how their departments have...
April 27, 2017...NYPD’s body camera program came as a result of the Floyd v. City of New York case in which a federal judge found stop-and-frisk to be unconstitutional and ordered the police to use body cameras...
Join us on Saturday, December 8th, 2018 at OutSummit for a riveting panel discussing on advancing LGBTI rights through the courts featuring Center for Constitutional Rights Staff Attorney, Chinyere...
Updated: December 6, 2018
Join The Dream Unfinished for “Sick and Tired,” a live community reading of Fannie Lou Hamer’s 1964 speech. Featuring musical improvisation by bassoonist Monica Ellis, a...
Updated: August 25, 2020
Case to Be Heard by High Court This Spring February 5, 2020, Washington, D.C. – Today, Muslim men who were placed or kept on the No-Fly List in retaliation for refusing to spy on their communities...
CCR and The New School are delighted to co-host acclaimed Palestinian filmmaker Mai Masri for a screening of her new award-winning film 3000 Nights on Monday April 16 at 6:30pm. Mai Masri’s...
Updated: April 16, 2018
Marsha Scaggs is 56 years old and is currently imprisoned at the State Correctional Institution at Cambridge Springs in Pennsylvania. Marsha is serving a Death By Incarceration sentence (more commonly known as Life Without Parole) after being convicted of felony murder. Marsha was prosecuted after an altercation with the victim in her case resulted in her co-defendant killing the victim; she was not responsible for the killing nor did she have any intention for that to happen. She was 23 years old at the time. Marsha has been incarcerated since 1987 and has spent over 30 years—more than half of her life—in prison. She is a plaintiff in Scott v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, a lawsuit that argues that Pennsylvania's mandatory life sentences without the eligibility for parole for felony murder are unconstitutional.
When asked what she wants the outside world to know about people serving life sentences, she said, "We are human beings who have made mistakes but we are not defined by those mistakes. There are lifers that have taken the necessary steps to redeem ourselves and if given the opportunity, we will rise to the occasion and be role models."
Marsha wants to be released from prison. She wants the chance to use the certification and degree that she worked so hard to get while incarcerated. During her incarceration, she has lost loved ones on the outside. She wants to be free to be able to spend time with friends and family outside of the prison walls. Marsha says she also wants the chance to do things that many people on the outside take for granted. She wants to get a job, pay bills, and do her taxes.
Marsha says that aging in prison is, "no picnic...you do not get the proper medical attention that is needed, and the more you age, you can see and feel your body deteriorate. It's like a loss of life emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually."
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