Opportunity for change
Racial inequity pervades the U.S. criminal justice system, the political arena that governs that system, and the society that allows this injustice to continue. Interrupting that cycle to end mass incarceration requires change in every one of those spaces. And there are a few, but important, opportunities to push for that needed transformation.
Over the past eight years, we’ve seen an ebb in the total number of people incarcerated in the United States. The slight but significant declining trend began not because enlightened political leaders finally understood the devastation that these policies have caused, but because of the great recession of 2007. Economic woes meant that many states could no longer afford the cost of building and maintaining prisons.
This opening has allowed advocates and organizers to seize the part of the public narrative that has now forced and encouraged some mainstream political leaders to publicly wrestle with this issue. On the 2016 presidential campaign trail, we’ve seen politicians on both sides of the aisle calling for an end to the era of mass incarceration — not simply for economic reasons but because of the destruction it has caused, disproportionately for the poor and people of color.
In local communities, organizations like the American Friends Services Committee are providing support to formerly incarcerated people and their families. In the South, AFSC is blessed to work with other organizations, faith-based groups, and individuals committed to improving opportunities for people in and out of prison.
In Baltimore, our Friend of a Friend program works in several prisons in Maryland, providing training to inmates on nonviolent conflict resolution while supporting an environment where they can study the causes and effects of mass incarceration and how they can participate to dismantle this system. After they’re released from prison, Friend of a Friend accompanies them as they transition back into the larger community, connecting them to ongoing community organizing work.
In Atlanta, we have started a restorative justice program that helps young people who’ve been charged with crimes get involved with real community work, such as designing programs to prevent their peers from walking down the same path, as an alternative to having a criminal offense on their record.
Programs like these help, one person at a time. But working toward policy changes that affect thousands remains critical. Advocates across the country continue to chip away at the problem of mass incarceration from different angles, whether calling for decreasing sentences, decriminalizing certain drugs offenses, and alternatives to incarceration programs, to name just a few.
As individuals, communities, and organizations come together to challenge the imprisonment of our brothers, sisters, and neighbors, we can’t ignore the central role that racism plays in our justice system.
In this effort, we must continue to respect the humanity of every person caught up in this modern-day outgrowth of slavery. And we must ensure that the narrative is not one that treats the incarcerated as simply perpetrators, but as survivors of a system designed to control people based on the color of their skin and the need of those with power to withhold it from those without. In this way, we can do more to ensure that we move toward a conclusion in this painful chapter in this nation’s history.
Kamau Franklin has been a dedicated community organizer and movement attorney for over 20 years, first in New York City and now based in the South. For 18 years he was a leading member of a national grassroots organization dedicated to the ideas of self-determination and Malcolm X. He worked on various issues, including youth organizing and development, police misconduct, creating sustainable urban communities and led electoral campaigns. He blogs at grassrootsthinking.comand can be followed on twitter @kamaufranklin
Article Appeared @http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/08/08/how-mass-incarceration-developed-into-a-modern-day-outgrowth-of-slavery/