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 started using police and prisons in the first place — to keep Black people down. I actually believe that when the people in power see the racial disparities, they’re actually happy about it, because they know that the system is doing what it was designed to do — exploit and oppress Black people.

To change the disparities of Black people in the prison system, the whole country needs to start giving Black folks a fair shake. As long as I see people clutching their purse when they see me, or crossing the street to avoid me, I know that I’m looked at as a criminal because I’m Black. The media and politicians need to stop portraying Black folks as being all bad and all criminals. Once we deal with the stereotypes, we still need to make sure that Black people actually have good education and good jobs, so that we can have a chance. If we had that, there definitely wouldn’t be so many Black folks in prison.