Jeff Gerritt

Jul 29, 2023 | post-gazette.com | Jeff Gerritt

Ask any prisoner what causes the most pain and remorse. Most likely, he’ll say separation from family. Last week, three days before my brother-in-law, Shannon Keys, had a hearing before the Michigan State Parole Board, he talked to me, again, about “going fetal” and crying like a baby when his youngest daughter clung to his neck at the end of a visit, or when his oldest daughter reminded him that he had promised to never leave again.

Jul 25, 2023 | bradfordera.com | Jeff Gerritt

PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Statistics for the opioid epidemic are grim enough: 5,000 fatal drug overdoses a year in Pennsylvania; more than 1 million Americans dead and 3 million addicted. But those numbers barely begin to calculate the misery drug addiction has unleashed. Every fatal overdose devastates countless family members and friends. Addiction has ruined the lives of millions who have lost jobs, severed close relationships, or gone to jail or prison.

Jul 22, 2023 | post-gazette.com | Jeff Gerritt

Statistics for the opioid epidemic are grim enough: 5,000 fatal drug overdoses a year in Pennsylvania; more than 1 million Americans dead and 3 million addicted. But those numbers barely begin to calculate the misery drug addiction has unleashed. Every fatal overdose devastates countless family members and friends. Addiction has ruined the lives of millions who have lost jobs, severed close relationships, or gone to jail or prison. The costs to the U.S. economy exceed $1 trillion a year.

Jul 1, 2023 | post-gazette.com | Jeff Gerritt

I want Robert Bowers to live. I want him to spend the rest of his miserable life alone in a cramped cell, contemplating, if he’s able, the horrors his hatred unleashed. I want the spirit of the 11 Jewish worshipers he fatally shot at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, to haunt him forever. But the real reason I want Bowers, 50, to live has nothing to do with him and everything to do with us, and the government that acts in our name.

Jun 17, 2023 | post-gazette.com | Jeff Gerritt

Walking down Penn Avenue three weeks ago, I was hit up by a panhandler who wouldn’t take no for an answer, but I had a fist full of folders in one hand, a Starbucks coffee in the other, and a stuffed messenger bag strapped over my shoulder.  “Sorry,” I said. “Got my hands full.” Undeterred, the older woman followed me to Sixth Street. She hadn’t eaten for three days, she said. Standing at the crowded intersection, I relented. Placing my coffee and folders carefully on the pavement.