Left: Evelyn with her family in Victorville federal prison. Right: Evelyn and her daughter Venise at their home in Oakland 2020.
Dear Cape Ann Cannabis Team,
I wanted to write to express my gratitude for your generosity and support of the Last
Prisoner Project. This has been an incredibly difficult year for many of us, but perhaps
most difficult for our incarcerated constituents and their loved ones. Having served seven
years in federal prison for cannabis, I can’t imagine the added strain of being imprisoned
in the time of COVID-19, facing extraordinary health risks and being unable to
communicate with your family and friends.
That is why in 2021 LPP is focused not just on releasing our cannabis prisoners and
assisting them in rebuilding their lives, but also on ensuring correctional facilities have
the supplies and resources they needed to protect incarcerated community members.
We also provide additional financial support to our incarcerated constituents to purchase
any additional hygienic supplies they need, medical care, and funding to contact their
loved ones, as most facilities had suspended all visitation this year. With your support we
worked to ensure that this holiday season was a bit brighter for those still suffering due
to the criminalization of cannabis, many of whom were unable to see their loved ones
this year.
Along with protecting our incarcerated constituents, LPP is working around the clock to
get our cannabis POWs home in 2021. We had some big wins in 2020 including the
release of the longest serving cannabis prisoner, Richard DeLisi, and the longest serving
nonviolent offender in Michigan, Michael Thompson. We also saw monumental progress
for cannabis legalization and restorative justice on the state and federal level, with every
single state ballot initiative for legalization passing and the historic passage of the MORE
Act in the US House of Representatives. But there is so much more work to be done. We
are going to seize on this momentum in 2021, and with your support we are getting
closer and closer to the day that every last cannabis prisoner is truly free.
Without your support this work would not be possible. On behalf of myself, the entire LPP
team, and those still serving unjust sentences for cannabis, I extend my deepest
gratitude.
Towards Freedom,
Evelyn LaChapelle
Reentry Coordinator
Last Prisoner Project
