Seattle FOR program on Criminal Justice System, Zoom

The majority of Tom’s professional career included twenty years as executive director of the Maine Council of Churches before he retired to Washington in 2006. Tom considers himself a “public Quaker,” meaning he combines his commitment to Quaker faith and practice with his leadership in civic engagement and advocacy around peace and justice issues.

One of his primary areas of interest over the past thirty years has been criminal justice reform, and he has continued to advocate for various prison legislation in Washington through his leadership with the Quaker Voice lobby organization and various other coalitions. For ten years he was deeply committed to legislation that would establish an independent prison ombuds program to provide public oversight of the Dept. of Corrections, and the bill was passed and implemented successfully in 2018. This past year he was part of a coalition that passed legislation to allow the formerly incarcerated the right to vote in Washington, and he is continuing to plan for passage of legislation that would permit voting for those who are still currently incarcerated.. Currently his primary advocacy if to restrict the use of solitary confinement. His larger goal in the corrections field is to normalize restorative justice as an alternative to the current retributive (punishment based) system.

Tom lives on Whidbey Island with his wife, author Cathy Whitmire. He writes a weekly blog, his “Saturday Evening Post,” that can be accessed and subscribed to at his website, www.tomewellconnections.org.