Executive Director and General Counsel, Jamie Morris, discusses legislation that the MCC is following with Curtis Wichmer, Legislative Counsel and Dr. Guillermo Villa-Trueba, hispanic Outreach Manager

Missouri is now one of just 10 states in the country with a correctional nursery program. Before the program’s launch, incarcerated mothers were typically separated from their newborns within 24 to 48 hours after delivery. Infants were usually placed with relatives or sometimes were placed into the foster care system. This program offers a different path—one grounded in dignity, healing, and the belief in second chances.

MCC talks with Kim Perkins, nursery program manager at the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center (WERDCC) in Vandalia. Kim discusses the challenges and successes of the program.

The Missouri Catholic Conference’s Legislative Counsel, Curt Wichmer, recently met with Emmjolee Mendoza-Waters, Director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network’s (CMN) Death Penalty Abolition Program, on the MCC from the Capitol Podcast. Topics of discussion included an outline of CMN’s mission and various efforts to curb the prevalence of capital punishment in the United States, as well as how Missouri stands apart from virtually every other state in the country in its use of judicial override at death penalty sentencing trials.

Recently, Dr. Guillermo Villa-Trueba, Hispanic Outreach Manager at the MCC, spoke with Dr. Javier Orozco, Executive Director of Human Dignity and Intercultural Affairs for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, and Sister Tracey Horan, Associate Director of Education and Advocacy at the Kino Border Initiative, about the different ways in which Catholics can serve our immigrant brothers and sisters.

They shared their experiences at the Southern Border, in pastoral ministry at the archdiocesan level, and in the political arena through lobbying, to provide a broad picture of how the Church advocates for immigrants and refugees in our country.

Judy Henderson is a prominent advocate for criminal justice
reform and women’s rights. She was wrongfully convicted
of murder in 1983 and spent over thirty years in the
Missouri prison system before her release in 2017.
While incarcerated, Judy became a dedicated activist
and outspoken critic of abuses within the prison system.
She led campaigns for legislation to recognize battered
woman syndrome as a legal defense, and she spearheaded
programs to help mothers in prison maintain connections
with their children. Her courageous work earned Judy
broad respect among policymakers, attorneys, and fellow
inmates.

Since her release, Judy has continued her justice reform
advocacy beyond prison walls. She frequently speaks on
panels, gives media interviews, and meets with legislators
to provide insights only possible from her firsthand
experience. Judy also volunteers with groups that support
former inmates’ successful reentry to society.

Her book "When the Light Finds Us: From a Life Sentence to a Life Transformed," can be purchased on Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

The Missouri Catholic Conference reviews the 2025 Missouri legislative session. Discussion includes the passage of HJR 73, the demise of the immigration bounty hunter bill, and the passage of safe baby boxes.

With the Missouri General Assembly’s 2025 legislative session ending last week, the MCC is pleased to announce that SB 72 (better known as the Bounty Hunter Bill), SB 58, and other measures that posed a threat to the dignity of immigrants in the state, did not pass and thus will not become laws. The only bill related to immigration that will become a law makes translation and interpretation services for criminal, civil, and juvenile proceedings, payable from state-allocated funds. We thank lawmakers from both parties for listening to the concerns of the Catholic Church and ultimately protecting the dignity of every person in the state of Missouri.

In this video, Dr. Guillermo Villa-Trueba gives a brief recap of the immigration bills of the 2025 legislative session in Spanish (en español).

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