Urgent Appeal from Jonah House
Jonah House Community is located in the inner city of Baltimore. It is a Biblically-based community that practices the mandates of the Beatitudes both in service to those made poor and in the works of justice. The community prays, works together, has a common purse, grows food for its own use and for people of the neighborhood, cares for the earth, and actively works for nonviolence and peacemaking as a vision for future generations.
The community has a long history of civil disobedience and resistance to systemic evil and is well-known for its attempts to speak truth to power regarding violence and injustice. That the probation department would keep members of the community from returning home is an additional level of punishment, not imposed at the time of sentencing but added by the Baltimore Office. This Office has made allegations that Jonah House is A PLACE OF ON-GOING CRIMINAL ACTIVITY. There has been no substantiation to this allegation;
It is only right and just that this forced exile of members of Jonah House be lifted and, therefore, all exiled members be able to return home to work together for the alleviation of this unjust dictate by the Baltimore federal probation office. Please join us in this quest.
[signed] Philip Berrigan, Gregory Boertje-Obed, Susan Crane, Sr. Carol Gilbert, Jen Kipka, Elizabeth McAlister, Michele Naar-Obed, Sr. Ardeth Platte, Coretta Warren
Address correspondence to: David E. Johnson - Chief U.S. Probation Officer - 250 West Pratt Street, Suite 400 -Baltimore, MD 21201-2423 (Phone - 410-962-4741)
Chief Judge J. Frederick Motz - 101 W. Lombard St. Rm 510 - Baltimore, MD 21201
Attorney General Janet Reno - U.S. Department of Justice - 950 Pennsylvania Ave NW - Washington DC 20530
Senator Barbara Mikulski - 253 The World Trade Center - Baltimore, MD 21201
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1999
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited