Meet: Eddie Ellis

NYTS Graduate: 1989
Released: 1994

EMPLOYER:

The Riverside Church, Harlem, New York
Director, Prison Metro Ministry

The Riverside Church Prison Ministry is comprised of volunteers who conduct advocacy and outreach activities on behalf of people in prison, their families and the communities from which most come and to which most return.  The volunteers are lay people, community workers, students, family members and people formerly incarcerated.  They work inside the prisons through worship, and outside assisting families and sponsoring prison reform. I coordinate these activities. Doing justice, seeking peace and building community are central to our mission.  

Metro Prison Ministry is educating congregations and organizing other faith-based institutions into an effective state-wide voice for criminal justice policy changes and other reform measures.  While we provide some social services, our primary work focuses on systemic public policy reform in the areas of parole and employment.    

WBAI Radio 99.5 FM
Talk Show Host - On The Count
Saturday mornings, 10:30 am to Noon

Phone number: (212) 209-2910

Email address: onthecount@wbai.org

On the Count! is a 90-minute public affairs program hosted and produced by former prisoners featuring criminal and social justice news, analysis and commentary. Our objective is to provide a forum for discussion of criminal justice and related prison issues not regularly heard in mainstream media and to create a platform for voices historically excluded from the discussion and decision-making process.

The program evolves from the perspective of people formerly and currently incarcerated. It articulates a new vision of justice for local, state, national, and international policies and practices; profiles individuals and groups whose work is rooted in common sense approaches to reform; and serves as a networking resource. It offers action-oriented information and proactive strategies for people working on public policy formulation, research, service provision, advocacy and activism.

Peace.
Eddie Ellis