The next meeting of the Atlanta Branch will be held on May 6 at 11:00 am.

It will be held at the Cross Creek Country Club, 1221 Cross Creek Parkway, Atlanta, 30327. Parking is available in front of the restaurant.

You will be able to order individually off of a limited menu, and you must pay with a CREDIT CARD, no cash accepted.

Following the program, there will be a business meeting and installation of new officers for 2023-2025.  Please try to attend and don’t forget to RSVP via Sign-Up Genius.

The program, “Prisoners are People, Too,” will be presented by Lee Culpepper and Nicole Wieson, the Georgia Director of the Multifaith Initiative to End Mass Incarceration. People who are incarcerated had lives before prison. They are part of families, they have left friends behind, and there’s someone missing when families or friends gather.

Both presenters at our meeting have important stories to share about incarceration in Georgia prisons. Nicole Wieson, the Georgia Coordinator of the Multifaith Initiation Initiative to End Mass Incarceration and Program Development Manager for the National Incarceration Association, has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in clinical social work and additional clinical training.  Lee Thrasher Culpepper has a PhD in Counseling Psychology from UGA. Although now retired, she has much experience counseling with people who are experiencing difficulties.

Both of these women know firsthand what many prisons are not doing and what they could be doing to improve the lives of those imprisoned, and they are both passionate about improving our prisons and about the negative consequences of long sentences.  You may have heard our president, Velma Tilley (who is also very involved in ending mass incarceration), quote this statistic: “If Georgia were a country, it would be 4th in the rate of incarcerated people in the world.” This is shameful!