EEOC Accepting Public Input on the Issue of Criminal Background Checks

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Bruce Reilly
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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will publicly consider developing a policy on Arrest and Conviction Records as a barrier to employment.  They will take testimony via  Commissionmeetingcomments@eeoc.gov

DATE AND TIME:  Tuesday, July 26, 2011, 9:30 A.M. Eastern Time

PLACE: Commission Meeting Room on the First Floor of the EEOC Office Building, 131 “M” Street, NE, Washington, D.C. 20507.  The meeting will be open to public observation of the Commission’s deliberations and voting. Seating is limited and it is suggested that visitors arrive 30 minutes before the meeting in order to be processed through security and escorted to the meeting room.

See my letter below… and write yours even if it is the simplest two line email!

July 16

Re:  EEOC Enforcement of Title VII Protections Regulating Criminal Background Checks

Dear Chair Berrien and Commissioners Ishimaru, Barker, Feldblum, and Lipnic:

I commend the Commission for taking up this very timely issue, particularly as we have reached a critical mass of Americans bearing the “mark of a criminal record,” and we continue to seek a positive response to automation replacing jobs.  As machines replaced people in manufacturing, it is happening in retail, and the need for human labor is at an all time low.  If some sense of economic equity is not developed, or in the least, permitted, then the road ahead looks grim.

In 2005 I was released from prison after 11 years, 8 months and was restricted by an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet for one year.  Prior to my release, I was only able to find one job, and it took me two hours to get to work.  After a few months, and with school starting soon, I sought a job closer to home, at a Sears department store warehouse.  I did not check the “box” asking if I had been convicted of a felony in the past seven years.

My interview at Sears went well.  I submitted to a drug test, and upon the second interview I mentioned he would need to speak with my parole officer before taking the job.  When we got into my very distant past, it was clear I was not getting the job despite my willingness to work hard for under $8 per hour.  Friends of mine generally do not get that far, as most have been convicted in the past seven years.  He likely would have been more comfortable with a lighter crime, yet if only five years ago I probably would not have made the interview.

Two weeks ago I went to New Orleans to find an apartment, and my search led me to the River Garden Apartments.  I introduced myself as a Tulane Law Student.  After going through the process, I asked if they discriminated against anyone.  The agent assured me they did not, and requested my non-refundable $50 application fee.  I asked about “people with convictions.”  She did not know; they use a third party to do their background checks, but she was helpful enough to find their policy:

Anyone with a felony conviction within the past seven years is barred from living in River Garden, one of the largest housing complexes in New Orleans.  And anyone who ever had a crime of violence or property damage cannot live there.  I was not sure who owned the property[1] (I did not know it replaced St. Thomas Public Housing Authority), so I did not mention the HUD National Director’s recent letter advising local PHA Directors to allow people with convictions to live in public housing[2], and how the so-called federal ban is actually a myth.  What I did tell her, however, is how it is unfortunate that you would allow a third party to make a unilateral decision about where someone can live based on their worst day perhaps 20 years ago.  And how River Garden could miss out on some excellent tenants for this community.

I am one of the fortunate.  Most of my friends, family, and associates have criminal records; but few, record or not, have the wherewithal to repeatedly overcome these obstacles. Many are unemployed, and too many have given up hope.  Last year we introduced a “Ban the Box” bill in Rhode Island that would apply to all employers.   We have gained the support of many, including the largest network of people in recovery, the mayor of Providence, and leading representatives of both parties in the General Assembly.  Those opposed: a lobbyist who represents background check companies.  They could not provide any evidence of people with criminal records creating less effective workplaces, yet evidence of these policies decimating communities is overwhelming.

This issue is akin to the for-profit prison industry, ripe with billions of dollars in profits and millions of dollars in campaign donations[3].  My question to the Commission, the Administration, and other elements of government is simple:  Do you have a price?  If so, the industries will find a way to meet it, and find a way to profit from pain.  The background check industry has network television commercials promoting fear of our neighbor, and encouraging checks merely to go on a date.  “Tough on Crime” rhetoric has long since replaced overt racist sentiments, no differently than many of those who are in the Anti-Immigrant movement.  Engaging in the “criminal” debate is allowing oneself to be manipulated away from the true issue at hand: racism.

I am encouraged that Title VII is on the EEOC table, and Employment Discrimination is the arena.  The many layers of exploitation and oppression for anyone with a criminal conviction is so overwhelming, the rules of the road are condemning people to a life of unemployment and hunger.  I have known people who looked for work for months before returning to a life of crime.  One could almost feel happy for them, finally able to buy groceries, pay the phone bill, and the like.  And then they return to prison.  The status quo stifles our human capital, demoralizes and incapacitates us, and ultimately forces government programs to enroll us: for the most part, women go to TANF; men go to prison[4].   This is a broad and interconnected issue, including housing[5] and education, and a proper analysis cannot be found in a vacuum- it must include a legacy that extends back through the Drug War, Jim Crow, Prison Labor, and Slavery.

I would argue that there is a relationship between Title VII and the choice of where law enforcement is deployed[6].  Communities of Color are having their resumes tarnished in massive numbers, even as teenagers, disrupting their education prospects and relegating them as outcasts.  Between drug use, theft, and rape, college campuses have extremely high crime rates[7], yet the police are not on every corner, nor kicking in doors for the smell of marijuana.  Discrimination on employment applications is an “effect” that needs tending to, but a good doctor will always assess and take action on the “cause.”

A friend of mine was just released after 20 years in prison.  He is unemployed, living with his mother, and soaking up the fresh air of freedom.  I lived with him in a 5×8’ cell for over two years, and in the same block for nearly ten.  He is an honest, loyal, hard-working man full of spirit.  I encouraged him to learn all he could inside, and he has many certificates and capacities.  I encouraged him to be twice as good, twice as fast, and always on time as that’s what it takes to survive out here.  Somewhere in America some legislature, prison administration, or business just created another obstacle for us to overcome, while someone made a dollar implementing it, and someone else made a dollar helping us get over it.  When does it stop?   I hope my friend gets one chance, as its all he needs.  Whether he does or not, entire communities continue to pay interest on our “debt to society.”  Please help me to stand up for those who are suffering.

Sincerely,

Bruce Reilly

Coordinator, Criminal Justice Funder & Activist Network

Artistic Director, 1000 lbs Guerilla

Tulane Law School (’14)

Earl Warren Scholar, NAACP Legal Defense Fund

[1] River Garden is a project of HRI Properties, a major developer in New Orleans, committed to “recreating entire communities.”  http://www.hriproperties.com/  Their “callous” and illegal behavior following Katrina has been condemned by a Federal judge: http://www.gnofairhousing.org/pdfs/beerorder.pdf.  HRI would not be the owners if not for the 1999 Development Agreement (as amended) and considerable federal tax breaks and subsidies.  http://www.gnofairhousing.org/pdfs/beerorder.pdf

[3] See: Justice Policy Institute report, “Gaming the System: How the Political Strategies of Private Prison Companies Promote Ineffective Incarceration Policies.  (2011) http://www.justicepolicy.org/research/2614

[4] Millions of former TANF recipients are neither connected to the program nor work, while women’s incarceration rates have notoriously skyrocketed since 1996, when welfare was “reformed.”  http://futureofchildren.org/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=33&articleid=72&sectionid=404

[5] Federal housing non-discrimination policies, like at River Garden, fail to account for “convictions,” yet they do account for race.  However, if the Disparate Impact of convictions are acknowledged, then these policies demand review.  http://www.laborcommission.utah.gov/AntidiscriminationandLabor/pdfs/Sample%20Nondiscrimination%20Policy%20SJ%200106.pdf

[6] “Hot Spot” policing, strongly supported by the federal COPS funding can only account for “modest” decreases in crime “reporting;” meanwhile, they are only beginning to question the public perceptions and full impact on the community that is supposed to be protected.  Adding programs such as “Secure Communities” has only further decreased crime reporting, as the public grows more fearful of police activity than criminal activity.  http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/RIC/Publications/e040825133-web.pdf

[7] Reported crimes are well-known to be extremely low, just as colleges have a self-interest in showing a “safe” campus.  However, Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama have all admitted criminal drug use in college, which is the leading cause of convictions in highly policed areas.  http://ope.ed.gov/security/index.aspx


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Prison Town Economics 101: Pelican Bay (Crescent City, CA)

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Bruce Reilly
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With prisoners in Pelican Bay willing to die rather than endure what is being done to them in the name of “the People of California”, we should pause to consider some basic math.  The following example is a broad illustration only:

Pelican Bay State Penitentiary cages 3,128 people (131% of its capacity).

The PBSP staff is 1,627.  Over one in employee for every two prisoners.

The 2010 Census Population for Crescent City, CA is 7,643.  The Census counts prisoners as “residents” where their cage is, despite national efforts to end the practice.  Legislation in California is hung up over myths about federal dollars being allocated.  Given the current practice, 41% of Crescent City is behind bars.

4,515 Crescent City residents are not behind bars.  If the 1,627 prison employees lived close to work, then only 2,888 residents do not spend their day at this prison.  If the average employee has just one family member drawing support from the prison paycheck, this leaves a mere 1,261 residents of Crescent City who are not staked to the prison.  (*It is likely that the employees are spread amongst surrounding towns).

Pelican Bay is in its 22nd year of operation, and has a budget over $180 million this year.  Over $2 Billion has been funneled from taxpayers to the people who profit form cages… on this one small piece of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.  A place where the imprisoned would rather die than be subjected to the current “corrections and rehabilitation.”

 

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Dying for Human Rights: Prisoners Begin Hunger Strike Tomorrow

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Bruce Reilly
Djuna Barnes: How it Feels to Be Forcibly Fed

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What exactly is a hunger strike?  It is when someone, or a group of people, will choose death over their current living conditions.  But not an unknown pointless death; instead, they will commit a long, grueling, public death designed to create change- if not for themselves, then for those who live on in the horrid conditions, or those who are transported into that torture chamber sometime in the future.

In picturesque Crescent City, California, a coastal town 6 hours north of San Francisco, roughly 1 in 5 “residents” are prisoners.  Several cell blocks of these isolated men are beginning their hunger strike on Friday, July 1st.  After decades of living in one of the most deplorable human conditions of America, they have organized themselves to say “Enough!”  Pelican Bay State Penitentiary is in many ways the protypical American prison, illustrating the historical gap of “Haves” vs. “Have Nots,” and is quixotically surrounded by the peaceful beauty of Klamath National Forest, Jerediah Smith Redwoods, Tolawa Dunes, Lake Earl, and Pelican Bay.

A petition of solidarity (directed towards Gov. Jerry Brown, the head of DOC, and the prison warden) has gained nearly 4000 signatures without a single piece of mainstream media.  The petition lists their core demands, including a letter sent from these men to the prison administration.  A website has been set up as a base of community support for the hunger strike.  With 2.4 million people in American cages, every prison administration will certainly be on full alert to crush solidarity efforts elsewhere, with the First and Eighth Amendments being of little obstacle in these mini-fiefdoms run by wardens in every jurisdiction.  This action comes less than a year since the Georgia prisoners organized a massive work stoppage.  The need for “order” and control will likely override any violations of human rights… For now.

The famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevski once stated, “If you want to understand the humanity of a society, go to their prisons.” His book, House of Death, is not as celebrated as Crime and Punishment, but it is his true account of life in the gulags, where he got 7 years worth of 19th Century Tsarist “humanity.” Have we progressed in the  Western world?  Has the Age of Enlightenment and Liberal values created a more humane and civil approach to the problems of violence, poverty, mental illness, and addiction?  It is easy to argue we have not.  The American penal system is as barbaric as any in the history of governments who choose to build such warehouses of mass cages.

This hunger strike cannot be taken out of context, as prisons have always been a place for self-advocacy.  Throughout the 20th Century, names like Attica, San Quentin, Pontiac, and Lucasville (where a recent hunger strike won concessions)  are known for prisoners fighting back against overcrowding, lack of food, absence of medical treatment, lack of education, and guard brutality among other issues.  This is another chapter in the American encyclopedia of anti-oppression, to be added with Watts, L.A., Stonewall, Cincinnati, and Harper’s Ferry.  Nat Turner’s Rebellion may have seemed “savage” to some, who can’t grasp the full nature of slavery; but keep in mind that John Brown’s uprising was just a few months before the Civil War resulted in the deaths of millions.  And so what can we glean by the latest chapter?  For that, the uninitiated must learn about the conditions inside prisons.

The Pelican Bay Secure House Unit (SHU) was created, as all supermax prisons are, to house the “worst of the worst.”  During the challenge to build it, at considerable cost, California prison guards upped the ante on their own violence and the so-called need for this dungeon along the coast.  Their notorious “shoot to kill” policy from the ominous guard towers were supposed to be precipitated by a warning shot.  Most witnesses claimed the string of dead came with no such warnings, and at times the guards (now known as “Correctional Officers”) would set up a prisoner by using a lackey to start a fight.

This prison holds 1100 of it’s 3500 people in SHU, a sensory deprivation unit with 24 hour fluorescent lighting, no windows, and a place where food is withheld as a weapon of control.  It is a torture chamber well documented, with an average of over 15 people per month being released from these conditions to the free world.  The average SHU stay is about 2 years, which is about 23 months longer than the typical prison punishment for a basic infraction within American prisons.  Pelican Bay is over 150% capacity, so it remains to be seen what the U.S. Supreme Court ruling (ordering CA to stop overcrowding) will mean to this piece of the gulag.

I spent about two years in segregation, often with no books, left to my paper and pen.  My longest single stretch was about 90 days, and it started to wear upon my mind.  I saw no light and could only keep track of the day by what meal came.  After a few weeks, I would constantly wonder if I had already put a mark on the wall representing the day.  Friends of mine spent years in isolation, “buried” in seg, we would say.  Those who emerged were often a little different, clearly having post-traumatic stress disorder, yet with nowhere to get help.  I believe only a small percentage ever overcome such trauma.  And I can hardly imagine the scale of brutality, over decades, the Pelican Bay prisoners have been enduring.

Why are people in the SHU?  Various reasons of violating internal institutional rules, but sometimes it is merely due to a label: “Gang Affiliated” is the leading cause of long term segregation in America.  And how might someone ever un-affiliate?  Or prove they are not actually in a gang?  This is a leading source of problems, as overzealous gang task force investigators have sprung up in every prison.  They need to prove their value, and yet they merely identify people.  If they truly sought to decrease factions and violence associated with rivalry (prison violence is often a continuation of street violence)… They would be working in a peacemaking manner, and trained as such.  Instead it is tactical violence to suppress violence.  But as many tacticians recognize, suppression in one area only results in a bulge at another.

In Pelican Bay, someone labeled as a gang member must “de-brief” in order to be placed back on general status and get out of the SHU.  To do this, they need to “name names” of the other gang members.  Those who are truly not affiliated would need to fabricate names to gain freedom.  This causes problems, as one can imagine.  If one truly de-briefs as intended, some would consider that a death sentence.  This person could never safely serve their time in general population, and for some: they could never return to their home communities after prison.

Has American culture bent far enough towards justice to support true reforms to our brutal punishment process?  Judges need to understand what people may be subjected to when sentenced to 2, 10, or 50 years.  Juries need to recognize what they are punishing people with; if it were a late night beating, or sensory deprivation: they need to understand their role in the infliction of all this.  They, and the prosecutors, police, and defense attorneys need to face their complicity in creating this Hunger Strike.  America needs to see how possession of drugs as a teenager can result in something like this within a few years of being tossed to the gladiator pit of prison.

We on the outside of prisons, regardless of how direct our connection to prisoners, must unite to create a massive Movement away from this ‘Violence Begets Violence’ method of social control.  We know how to create healthy and sustainable communities; we know what Justice and Equity are; we know what inhumanity looks like… we just need to open our eyes and hold our public officials’ feet to the fire.  Whereas we have historically sent troops abroad to install “democracy and freedom” in other lands, and to stop brutal regimes… we should not require Americans to die for such a cause within America.

Click HERE to Sign the Petition of Solidarity Today!

Go Here for more about taking Action:  http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/take-action/

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HUD Director to state directors: Allow People with convictions to live in Public housing

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Bruce Reilly

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Director Shaun Donovan sent a letter last week to executive directors of public housing authorities (PHAs) clarifying HUD’s position regarding people with criminal record’s eligibility for public housing. Donovan encourages PHA executive directors “to allow ex-offenders to rejoin their families in the Public Housing or Housing Choice Voucher programs, when appropriate.”

It is a long held myth that all formerly incarcerated, or all those with drug offenses, are banned from public housing and Section 8. The fact is that those local directors have wide latitude to allow people to live there, and it just so happens that those people have chosen to promote oppressive policies that destroy families.

The only circumstances under which a PHA is required by law to ban a person from federally assisted housing is if he or she was convicted of methamphetamine production on the premises or is subject to a lifetime registration as a sex offender.

Like his predecessors, President Obama’s administration continues the overall trend of the incarceration nation, and neither this letter nor reducing crack/cocaine federal sentencing disparity, has reduced the amount of money the federal government gives to states to police and incarcerate low income communities. Attorney General Eric Holder’s letter a few weeks ago, attempting to intimidate state moves towards Medical Marijuana and Decriminalization of marijuana, is a classic scenario.

“As President Obama recently made clear, this is an Administration that believes in the importance of second chances – that people who have paid their debt to society deserve the opportunity to become productive citizens and caring parents, to set the past aside and embrace the future,” Secretary Donovan and Assistant Secretary Heriquez wrote. “Part of that support means helping ex-offenders gain access to one of the most fundamental building blocks of a stable life – a place to live.”

It is important for Activists and advocates in Housing and Social Justice to push their local PHA Directors to stop their discrimination.

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What’s Going On In Detroit?

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Bruce Reilly

If for no other reason than the passionate remarks by Congressman Hansen Clarke (D-MI) at a House hearing on June 15th, an outsider can see that there is a strong will in Detroit that is rebuilding a city.  Clarke was infuriated by the accusations and denigration put on all the Muslim prisoners throughout America, the vast majority of whom are Black Americans who convert to Islam in the process of their development and renewal behind bars.

Clarke knows why people go to prison in massive numbers.  Clarke has the personal experience as a kid from Detroit who can reflect on so many friends and neighbors becoming trapped by the prison industrial complex.  Furthermore, Representative Clarke benefits from the knowledge of people like Yusef Shakur, a formerly incarcerated man, a Muslim, who also works to revitalize Detroit.  Shakur’s book, Window to My Soul: My Transformation From A Zone 8 Thug to a Father & Freedom Fighter, comes with a curriculum guide.  Although the average prisoner usually say they have a “colleague” doing things to liberate and empower people in places like Detroit… not many people in Congress can say the same.

This week in Detroit marks the annual Allied Media Conference.  People across the nation will gather to share and learn skills around independent media, whether it is old school printmaking or building wireless mesh networks.  The program is separated into “tracks,” with several of them overlapping in scope.  I will be busy with the prison-centric track:

RESISTING THE INCARCERATION NATION

Coordinators: Nick Szuberla, Thousand Kites; Paul Wright; Prison Legal News; Critical Resistance, Silky Shah, Detention Watch Network; and Bruce Reilly, DARE

This track will build off the foundation laid by the Communication Strategies to End the Prison Industrial Complex track at AMC2010.  The twenty grassroots organizations who participated in that track have spent the past year building partnerships and launching campaigns, including a state-wide effort to challenge the no-parole law in Virginia, the launch of a national grassroots prison radio project and many others.  This year’s track will continue to build and advance media strategies for those working to dismantle the prison industrial complex in all of its forms, including: immigration detention centers, isolated prisons, prisoner renting, human rights violations, ICE raids, militarized police occupation of neighborhoods and the separation of families. Bringing together urban and rural community media organizations we will develop powerful of narrative campaigns—combining different forms of media (flip video, radio, print, web, phone, and viral communication) to organize resistance to policing, surveillance, and imprisonment.

Saturday (4-5:30pm) I will be part of “We Must Live As If We Will Never Die: Prison Writing & Liberation.”  Like Yusef Shakur, I found that creative expression, particular that which reinterpreted the world in a way people could learn and develop themselves, was my path to sanity and purpose.  The panelists involved with this workshop are pure fire.

Sunday (2-3:30)  I am excited to combine with Paul Wright, founder and editor of Prison Legal News, to present “Frame the Debate: Strategic Messaging for Social Justice Campaigns.”  Paul and I have both been part of many layers and avenues of fighting an issue, from lawsuits to constitutional amendments, and building knowledge about tactics is crucial.  It isn’t enough to know something is wrong; we need to learn how to effectively describe the problem, and effectively promote the solution.

While in Detroit I aim to get together with Yusef Shakur, a fellow National Steering Committee member of the Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted People’s Movement, and see if I can be helpful.  His backpack giveaway campaign is in full swing, and is a perfect opportunity to bring people together (parents, children, teachers, etc.) and discuss how people within the struggling communities will need to revitalize the social structure.

For decades the federal and state governments have chosen to make police and prisons the number one priority in certain communities.  Whether we call them “Urban,” “Communities of Color,” or whatever the tagline of the month is, it is all the same across America.  For 40 years the Drug War has raged on, creating intergenerational poverty and intergenerational soldiers.  Representative Hansen Clarke gets it.  Once you make something intergenerational, once it is cemented into a culture, so-called “choice” becomes clouded in social norms and expectations.

While the distance between rich and poor in America continues to widen, scapegoats and distractions continue to be targeted, like Muslim prisoners, but as noted at the hearing:

“Sociologist Charles Kurzman has identified 178 Muslim-Americans who, since 9/11, have committed acts of terrorism-related violence or were prosecuted for terrorism- related offenses,” Useem said.  This is 17 cases per year in a nation of 300 million people, that arrests thousands of people every hour.  “For twelve of those cases, there is some evidence for radicalization behind bars. There have been zero suicide (or attempted suicide) attacks undertaken by former prison inmates. Putting these data points together, Muslim-American terrorists are not especially likely to emerge from our prisons.”
In my neighborhood, 20 million dollars is spent on police and prisons while roughly 10 million is spent on education.  Clarke needs to stay pissed off.  For the sake of us all: stay pissed off.

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War on the Drug War

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Bruce Reilly
Nederlands: Ku Klux Klan leden en een brandend...

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The War on the Drug War must escalate, and it must be Total War.  June 17th marks the 40th Anniversary since Nixon declared the War on American people known as the War on Drugs.  It is the 39th anniversary since the same president declared “we are winning.” And what does winning look like?  What would the Ku Klux Klan say to the fact that more Black men are in prison today than were enslaved in 1850?

There are ample signs that the tipping point has passed, as people around the world are condemning the Drug War as a phenomenal failure.  Legislation proposing legalization, or (more modestly) Decriminalization of marijuana has become standard fare across the nation.  This week, people and organizations in all parts of the country are holding actions and events to mark this line in the sand, to say No More Drug War.  The push has been helped by Drug Policy Alliance, and their dozens of partners, including the chapters of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

I will be in New York City on Friday with several of those partners, including Women On the Rise Telling Herstory (WORTH) and VOCAL, for a roundtable discussion in the Harlem State Building followed by an outside vigil.  The roundtable starts at 1pm.  On Saturday, I will be in Providence at the Block party put on by Direct Action for Rights & Equality.  A 3pm War On The Drug War rally will highlight a day of live music, BBQ, and fun for the whole family.  Check the DPA website for events happening in your area.

So, what does “total war” look like, you might ask?  It means everywhere is a battleground, and every element needs to be considered as pieces on the chessboard to move or eliminate.  A new civil rights movement must recognize the history of the past 40 years and the broad shoulders of responsibility that can carry the blame, shame, or remorse for developing a Trillion dollar investment in 40 years of tears.

There are many in the world of government and non-profit organizations who grew fat on their complicity; those who chose to sit at the table, take the money, and believe in the basic concept of incarcerating someone for what they consider to be amoral behavior… And then will take responsibility for helping these people with chains figure out how to walk with them on.

Prisons have developed their own “rehabilitation” arm of operations, with the stated intention of helping the formerly incarcerated to stand upright, yet refuse to advocate for the removal of these chains in the first place.  Government itself has been taking over the roles once solely in the hands of community organizations, clinics, and faith groups.  But of course, it is not “prisons” that do anything, it is the men and women who make their living working for them… And the tendencies of bureaucracies to produce conservative results.

Consider that one narrative lost in the official Caste-erization of the community is the one of redemption, transformation, and change.  By focusing support solely on those who are akin to “first time, non-violent offenders,” we are looking at people who many would argue should never have been in prison in the first place.  We no longer want to confront the process of the Prodigal Son returning, nor deal with the moral conflicts of redemption and the challenge that presents to family and community.

We need to emphasize De-Entry over Re-Entry.  People should not be going to prison in this War on Drugs that has spawned our Prison Industrial Complex.  So let’s pause to take a grim look at economic realities, and understand what’s really going on:

There are not enough jobs.  There have been excess “baggage” (a.k.a. People) for about 40 years… Since the Baby Boomers came of age.  Since that time, multinational corporations have responded to their prime directive (make their shareholders money) by moving operations to where labor is cheapest, and automating as much as possible.  The theme is that workers cut into profits, and overeducated workers can be troublesome… But the bottom line is that there is an excess of people in the American economy- the one that enriches the few, who justify this imbalance by claiming they will provide everybody with jobs.

How should the Power Brokers maintain their status quo?  And a status quo so potent that it survived the colossal failure due to the full support of the politicians they fund? Clearly they need a systemic approach to the excess people; nibbling across the board is too much diffusion of effort, and cannot yield the results of a major Swoop of an operation.  Enter: Urban Education.

There is no sense in educating 10% of your population if the only role they are serving is as the Savage, the Beast, the Anti-Social Unemployed Client that justifies prisons and the Rehabilitation Industry.  The Providence School Department, for example, is responsible for educating 22,000 students this year, 65% of whom are Hispanic; only 11% are White students.  How to eradicate a large percentage of an economy, and render them as residents of the Under-Caste?  One could demonize the teachers, destabilize the Working Poor parents that were born under this system, and militarize schools by putting police on every corner.  And the few who escape the gauntlet can take on $100,000 worth of education debt to Enter the Middle Class… Possibly.

Total War means we need to label “law enforcement” for what it is, and recognize what it is not.  It is the domestic military of the War on People known as the War on Drugs.  It is not a preventer of poor education, not a preventer of hunger, not a preventer of homelessness, not a preventer of addiction, and not a preventer of violence.  They do come after milk is spilled, and try to clean up the mess with the blunt instruments at their disposal.

The police are not a holy institution.  Their occupations are not as vital as most believe. Where in this militarized approach to safety have we prioritized our food supply as Monsanto and others play genetic experiments out upon billions of people?  Where is the environmental safety, such as British Petroleum’s self-enforcement of their offshore drilling procedures?  Where do the “Guns and Steel” fit into our national education and national health care compared with other nations?  Clearly, the Power Brokers have long since embraced two Americas within the same borders- one of which gets a Third World dictatorship form of rule, and the other we keep telling ourselves exists for those who “earn” it.

The War on The Drug War must acknowledge that criminalization is based on a policy of concentrating domestic military into urban areas…  Where People of Color have critical mass.  If the goal were to raid and suppress drug use, rather than destabilize and control certain communities, the U.S. Police forces would be raiding college campus and fraternity houses on a daily basis.  This is where one will unquestionably find the most intensive drug use, and in widespread numbers.

How often have you read the story about a DEA raid on Alpha Beta Delta House, or the like?  Case closed.

Total War demands politicians have clear positions on the War on People known as the War on Drugs.  They need to confront families of prisoners and former prisoners (who also make up the bulk of victims and victim’s families), to defend the policies of billions servicing this militarization on an annual basis.  There are many aspects, various participants, and many battlefields in this dilemma- thus a simple marching order will not do.

Many of the supporters of the Drug War are racists and elitists, no matter how cleverly they attempt to cloak themselves.  Such people will probably always exist.  They need not be converted; they need to be rendered irrelevant.  Whether it is by deconstructing and exposing their arguments, or simply outnumbering and outvoting them, they will fall by the wayside.  Consider that it is impossible to openly state racist sentiments and promote fascist policies.  This is progress, but we have been letting the closeted rationale hold sway long enough.

Be encouraged (or forewarned, depending on your position) that millions of people did not vote for Obama with the belief that we need more militarization and domestic oppression.  The fact that Obama has disappointed millions by maintaining the bipartisan status quo of surveillance, incarceration, prohibition, and war… This is yet another indicator of where the hearts and minds of America can be found: within the realms of peace, equity, and community.

The enemy has an economic incentive to maintain the War on People known as the War on Drugs.  Those enemies do not need to have malice in their heart, it is only their complicity that matters.

Why the military lens to frame the War on the War on Drugs?  Ask Richard Nixon who declared the war… And Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama.  None of these men felt any need to pacify the War, nor change the language connected to it.  They are the Commanders in Chief, heads of the Executive Branch that police and attorneys general work for… And the Bully Pulpit for legislators living in fear of a de-election.

Unlike those who declared the War and wage it, we know it will not be won through violence- a fact they have failed to recognize.  Our counter-offensive will be fueled by Love, Learning, Community, and Love.

Posted in Commentary, Drug Policy | 3 Comments

Governor Chaffee Signs Two Laws Supporting Civil and Human Rights in RI

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Bruce Reilly
Great seal of the state of Rhode Island

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Governor Lincoln Chaffee recently signed two important prison reform bills: the Healthy Pregnancies Act, (to unshackle pregnant prisoners), and another which would create a task force to develop procedures for recording interrogations in serious cases.   Neither are radical changes to existing practices, but both are improvements that could ultimately save lives.

 

The Healthy Pregnancies Act, sponsored by Senator Rhoda Perry and Representative Donna Walsh, was ultimately hashed out with the Department of Corrections.  It creates a firm policy that applies to all the prison facilities, ensuring the least restrictive restraints necessary are used.  The stumbling blocks were whether correctional officers or medical personnel are the best decision-makers when it comes to a woman’s pregnancy, and getting politicians to recognize that pregnant women aren’t escaping from armed guards and sprinting away to freedom.  The coalition in support of the bill included  the ACLU, RI Medical Association, RI Nurses Association, RI NOW, Planned Parenthood, Ocean State Action, and Direct Action for Rights & Equality.

 

Furthermore, it is about time that the general public recognizes that prisons are full of what many would consider as “normal folks” who go to prison for months due to poor choices, limited capacity to obey the court, mental health issues, or for substance abuse problems.  The general public would not be able to list the myriad reasons someone spends a few months in prison (which is the average sentence), and typically relate prisons to serious crimes.  Few (of the 17,000 annual admissions in RI) are there for malicious intentions or chronic violent behavior.

 

As for serious criminal behavior, it is far more important that the issues of Guilt or Innocence be decided prior to weighing out the questions of sentencing, parole, or reentry.  Senator Paul Jabour and Representative Edie Ajello have amended legislation (vetoed by former Gov. Carcieri) that would mandate an electronic recording of interrogations when there is a possibility of Life in prison.  Typically, this would apply to a murder investigation, but would also apply to arson, rape, and kidnapping.  The amended version, S 331, does not dictate the terms, but instead creates a task force to develop the procedures.  The RI Public Defender, always on the front lines of litigating questionable interrogations, have been perennial champions of the bill and supported by the Innocence Project, ACLU, and Direct Action for Rights & Equality.

 

The task force is, naturally, the usual members: The Attorney General and six other members of law enforcement; the Public Defender; two attorneys, and the executive director of the Rhode Island Commission for human rights.  With 7 of 11 members being the police, nobody can accuse the legislature or anyone else of calling the shots.

It is unfortunate that the task force does not contain a single person who has been interrogated, even someone who has been exonerated due to questionable police procedures, as much is riding on the facts and figures from the Public Defender.  As someone who was interrogated for 12 hours, throughout the wee hours of the morning, I can tell you that the police technique of rewinding the tape and re-asking the leading question until the answer is “perfect,” is one reason these interrogations need to be videotaped.  Some confessions will begin at midnight, end at 5 am, but be only 10-15 minutes of dialogue.  So what happened during the other 4:45?

 

It is amazing to have seen the push back on this legislation over the years, at times about the costs attached (yet two Flip cams for every police department would cost less than a two bullet proof vests for one department).  We heard about how an officer who fails to push “play” on the recorder could have a whole case thrown out, yet the past legislation always allowed for good faith exemptions.  There was fear of police tactics being known to the public, yet no collective outcry against the Law & Order television franchise, or other such pop culture.

 

Ultimately, sketchy confessions are one of the leading causes of innocent people being found guilty.  Or a leading cause of those committing Manslaughter being convicted of 1st Degree Murder.   This bill came up at a time when the Assembly is also calling for a posthumous pardon for John Gordon, the last man executed by the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.  Turns out, he was probably innocent, and clearly was not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  Across the country, innocent people have been executed while far more serve life sentences.  The few who are exonerated are typically released after 20 years in prison.  Considering the potential destruction caused by an innocent person, and their family, being utterly destroyed by a false conviction, the simple task of recording a confession is one small piece of a long overdue overhaul in the criminal system.

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An Easy Analysis for Prison Profiteering

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Bruce Reilly
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Registration Now Open for FICPM National Conference- Nov. 2nd

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Bruce Reilly
Los Angeles skyline and San Gabriel mountains.

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The Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted People’s Movement (FICPM) will host its inaugural national conference on November 2nd, 2011 in Los Angeles, with the primary task of ratifying a national agenda that illustrates the Full Restoration of Civil and Human Rights for all people, but particularly those who have been convicted under the United States criminal system.  Civil and Human Rights extend to arrestees, juveniles, and the communities being devastated by an aggressive and militarized form of policing.

The choice of date and location is not an accident, as it coincides with the Drug Policy Alliance bi-annual Reform Conference.  Some attendees will want to attend both, and DPA also is offering scholarship opportunities to defer the costs.  But more importantly, the War on People that is known as “The War on Drugs” has been internationally condemned as a total failure in terms of stopping drug production, reducing drug consumption, and treating addiction.  It has cost trillions of dollars as all wars do and created massive devastation and economic instability for those caught in the combat zone- regardless of their role or intention.

What the War on People has been effective at is transferring the American tax dollars towards prisons, prison guards, police, courts, attorneys, and arms manufacturers.  It has been very successful at stripping people of their voting rights, creating single-parent or “no-parent” families, and developing an under-caste of society that is expected not to work.  The formerly incarcerated and convicted people are expected to fail, and to fill prisons as a product for this industry.

Click the link HERE to register for the FICPM national conference.

In February of this year, a Steering Committee of eight formerly incarcerated activists called 50 others from across the nation to build a foundation for Los Angeles, out of which came a statement known as The Clarion Call.  This gathering came from a line of organizing that includes The Resolution made by a People’s Movement Assembly at the U.S. Social Forum of 2010, along with prior DPA Conferences and Social Forums.

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Young Man with Asperger’s Syndrome Faces 10 Years for Police Brutality

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Bruce Reilly

Reposted by request of the family:


Young man with Asperger’s syndrome responds appropriately to police
by George Sand

Posted on April 29, 2011.

Reginald “Neli” Latson, a 19 year-old, sat in the grass outside the library and waited for it to open. Police allege that shortly after, some children purportedly were frightened and claimed there was a suspicious black male who had had a gun. A nearby school was put on lockdown, and a search ensued. Deputy Calverley then approached Latson, squeezed the front pocket of his sweatshirt and checked for a gun. No gun was found. The children questioned later also confirmed they never saw a gun. Calverly asked Latson for his name, and Latson refused. Calverly then grabbed Latson and attempted to arrest him. Latson struggled with Calverly, managed to flip him over, and caused Calverly’s head to hit the pavement. Latson hit Calverly several times and took his pepper spray.

After a 3-day trial, Latson was found guilty of assaulting a law enforcement officer, among other charges and 10 1/2 years in prison was recommended (read the full story here). Latson’s defense centered around the fact that he has Asperger’s syndrome, a condition caused by an abnormality of the brain. People with Asperger’s syndrome often have difficulty interacting socially, and may be unable to respond emotionally in normal social interactions.

Latson’s case has drawn sympathy from autism and Asperger’s syndrome advocates, and raised concerns about how law enforcement deals with the developmentally or mentally disabled. Surely, this case is a sad one. It appears to be another classic case of a young, innocent black man getting screwed because he wore a hoodie and was in the wrong place at the wrong time – and on top of that, he had a condition that may have contributed to these circumstances.

However, what is ultimately most disturbing is the fact that this has become an issue of autism/Asperger’s syndrome. Instead of defending Latson’s justifiable reactions to an unjustified detention and attack, his supporters seek to excuse it by characterizing it as the product of a mental disability. Latson had done nothing wrong and was completely within his rights to sit on the grass until the library opened, but was accosted by an officer who then proceeded to question, detain and arrest him, even after confirming he did not have a gun (and even if he did have a gun – so what? It’s called the Second Amendment).

Latson was under no moral duty to be groped by this officer. He was under no moral duty to provide his name. He certainly should not have been arrested, either from a legal or moral standpoint. This was a young man who simply wanted to be left alone, and the officer would not yield to this simple desire of a denizen of the alleged land of the free. Police apologists like to say, “if only he had complied, he wouldn’t have been (insert torture, beating or murder of choice here)!” But the most appropriate way to view these interactions (if in fact we are free people) is the other way around – if the police had just minded their own damn business no one would have been hurt. Yet in this case, Latson’s supporters do not decry his treatment on the basis of police abuse and the fundamental right to simply be left alone, they decry it on the grounds that police need to better learn how to deal with people who may suffer from certain conditions and/or disabilities.

This is what it has come to in this country. If you defend yourself against abusive authority, it must be because you are mentally disabled.

Significantly, people with Asperger’s syndrome sometimes are unable to pick up on social cues, and are unable to understand more abstract expressions such as sarcasm or humor. As a result, they may tend to take words more literally than most people. Thus, it isn’t a stretch to surmise that some people with autism or Asperger’s would not understand that even in the absence of provocation, a police officer has the legal authority to violate their privacy and freedom with detention and arrest. People with autism or Asperger’s syndrome see it for what it truly is –  an aggressive stranger with a gun, coming out of nowhere to interrogate, demand, and kidnap. Perhaps people with autism and Asperger’s are the only people left in this country who rightly fail to see how a uniform  and a title justifies initiation of aggression and kidnapping.

Yet general consensus among those sympathetic to Latson is not that police aggression has long exceeded acceptable bounds, but that Officer Calverly was also a victim in this, and that police need to be better trained for such situations in the future. Perhaps Latson did injure Officer Calverly more than he deserved. However, if one is going to arbitrarily initiate violence on innocent people, he should be prepared to suffer the reasonable consequences that may follow when the target of his violence tries to defend himself.

Calverly had no business disturbing a peaceful boy waiting outside a library. He negligently acted on reports of a man with a gun which were never substantiated. Even after he confirmed Latson did not have a gun, Calverly escalated the situation by demanding Latson identify himself. When Latson refused to do so, Calverly again escalated the situation by initiating violence and attempting to arrest him. If Calverly were any other ordinary person, Latson would be legally justified in attempting to walk away from a nosy busybody. If Calverly were any other ordinary person, Latson would be justified in fighting against Calverly’s attempt to physically restrain him and jail him for doing nothing wrong.

Latson’s only “mistake” was that he failed to understand the abstract idea that a fancy government title and a uniform legally creates a different standard for police. Police often do what Calverly did, on a regular basis, but most people are cognitive of social norms and perceive that a gun and a badge grant legal rights which demand submission, and do not defend themselves against unwarranted police violence either out of misguided deference, or justifiable fear.

Even in the face of this event, people continue to argue police merely need to be better trained. This perspective, while not limited to such supporters, is delusional. Police love violence. They use it daily in the course of their employment. If they didn’t love violence, they wouldn’t have signed up for the job. To think some training would make them more sympathetic or sensitive to their victim’s particular conditions is just stupid.

*After corresponding with Neli’s mother, Lisa Alexander, we have learned that Neli was in solitary confinement for 8 months for no apparent reason. They finally moved him to the general population in January after many requests by his mother.
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NOTE:  UPDATE – Neli may be sentenced to 10 YEARS on 5/31, we MUST NOT stand for this!  Visit www.avoiceforneli.com and sign petition today!  Please pass it on, this young man’s life depends on it!

Posted in Courts, Mental Health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment