Medium Town Hall

A few years ago, I read a report regarding a large prison that indicated that, at any given time, as many as 80% of their prisoners were former foster care youth. That is a sad indictment of our social systems, IMO. These folks had the misfortune of starting down a path that often leads to prison. They often were identified early in the school career…

We are at a critical juncture in our history, where we have an opportunity to exchange knowledge and push social change. My comment centered EDUCATION not RACE. It is irrelevant what race police officers are, the minimums I suggest apply to recruitment and training of all officers. And according to the link in your post, as you notice the disparities…

Yes, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights advances a philosophy of Truth and Reinvestment, meaning we need to acknowledge how this country’s racist history has led us to where we are today, and reinvest in the communities that have been most harmed.

The racial disparities that exist in state and federal prison systems are a direct result of a long history of racial injustice. Policies like the Black Codes, Jim Crow, systematic disinvestment from communities of color, redlining, and many others have led to the statistics that are referenced by Nazgol Ghandnoosh.

Certainly, lowering the ratio from 100:1 to 18:1 shows improvement. Yet our legislators and policy makers can do better. The next step may lower discrepancies from 18:1 to 1:1, since cocaine and crack share the same pharmacological substances. An even more progressive step would be to revisit the prudence of lengthy sentences, frequently measured in…

Hello, this Maurice Bell, from Planting Justice. I was incarcerated for six years, and have now stayed out of prison successfully for 15 months. I believe that the racial disparities in the prison system are designed to get rid of Black folks, without actually coming right out and saying it. You can go all the way back to slavery and see why we…