Slavery, prisons and justice: Can we talk?

Give this post some attention.

Then tell me what you think by voting in the poll that is in the right hand column of this page.

Bryan Stevenson makes a masterful case for honest conversation about tough subjects.

My friend Frank

If you haven't seen the report, be sure and read Adam Liptak's piece, "Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations" that appeared in The New York Times on Wednesday, April 23, 2008. Here's the opening paragraph:

"The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but almost a quarter of its prisoners. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations."

I plan to work through more of the content here in the near future.

If you want to read the full report, go to:

http://www.nytimes.
com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html?_r=1&sq=
prisons%20and%20the%20U.%20S.&st=nyt&
adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&scp=1&
adxnnlx=1209056856-5mBssQBFH1NIjySZbyqD1w.

But for today, consider my friend Frank.

Years ago, Frank was arrested for burglary of a building. Bad mistake.

He served time for his felony, including a fairly long period of probation which he completed in 2002--six years ago. Since that time, Frank has not had so much as a parking ticket. He has been clean. Never arrested again. No problems with law enforcement of any kind.

Problem is Frank still can't lease an apartment or get a job or function as a productive member of our community because of a mistake he made over a decade ago.

He is stuck.

He's been "living" out behind one of our buildings for some time now. Homeless. No where to go.

Until now. . .he moved into one of our apartments yesterday, thanks to our staff and members of our AmeriCorps team.

He has been working on obtaining Social Security disability due to several rather severe and chronic health issues, including congestive heart failure to name just one of the most serious issues. Life on the street leads down this health path so often. He recently received those benefits.

Frank's case reveals that our criminal justice system is not working, not if we want to maximize productivity among those who really want to do better with their lives.

Read The New York Times' article.

But, more importantly, don't forget Frank.

He has lots of company out there today.

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Prisons and the Destruction of Life and Community

Too many of our men and women, especially African Americans, end up in prison. Too often innocent people land in prison without relief for years and years. Thanks to advances in DNA technology, a number of people enjoy freedom today. But, their release doesn't return the years lost locked up unjustly.

The entire question of prisons and inner city communities is one we face again and again.

On Monday, our own Gerald Britt (VP of Public Policy and Community Program Development) published a strong Op-Ed piece in The Dallas Morning News.

Here's a bit of what he said:

Gerald Britt: Prisoners of the streets At the risk of overstating the obvious, the world was a different place 27 years ago.

There were no cellphones, DVDs were unknown, and VCRs were budget-busting toys. "Green" was just a primary color, the Cold War was still raging, and the Reagan era had just begun. And Charles Allen Chatman was sentenced to 99 years for rape.

On Jan. 3, Mr. Chatman became the 15th man in Dallas County to be released from prison, exonerated by DNA evidence. This will probably be categorized as old news by some readers; others won't even recognize the name or the case. And, for me, that's troubling.

Follow the link above to read the entire essay. Gerald's works are on target, as usual.

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Everywhere

It always happens. No matter where I am, it happens. It has been happening for as long as I can remember. For years and years now.

I've noticed that it often happens when things are complicated or when I have been distracted by something selfish or when I am supposed to be "away" from things.

My family has grown so accustomed to it that it has become a family joke of sorts--not exactly the right language, but I struggle to describe it. My daughters grew up watching it. My wife has seen it everywhere we go.

Whatever.

It happens to me again and again.

And, it happened again last Friday night when I stopped to get gas just across the street from the hospital where my dad is recuperating from surgery.

Now get the picture. This gas station is located in an extremely affluent part of our region.

For some reason the credit card reader on the gas pump wasn't working. So, I had to go inside to pay in advance. I first noticed the gentleman as I walked inside. He saw me and I realized that he saw me.

But, I thought, "Here I am in northwest Plano. This is one of the wealthiest parts of the Metroplex. . .surely there aren't panhandlers up here!"

I knew I was wrong, as I rehearsed my foolish logic with the little person living inside my head. Do you have one of those annoying little creatures in your life/head?

When I returned to my car to complete the fueling process, he approached me.

"Sir, good evening," he began. "I was telling that other gentleman that I'm trying to get enough money to get home to Greenville, Texas. I was wondering. . . ."

I cut him off.

"Don't go there, friend," I told him. "I am going to help you out, but don't give me any 'baloney' (not exactly what I said) because I know game and I'm not needing any game tonight!"

"Where you from, man?" he asked me with a smile breaking across his face.

"I live in Downtown Dallas in the 'hood," I replied. "I know game. But, tonight I'm not playing. So, why don't we start again and you just tell me what's going on and what you are trying to do tonight."

"I just got out of prison," he told me, as he pulled out his Texas Department of Corrections identification card. "I'm trying to get a bus pass, something to eat, and a job."

At this point I was encouraged by his complete candor. Refreshing for us both, it seemed.

"I run an inner city ministry Downtown," I told him. "You need to come see us because we have lots of possibilities for you."

I explained all of the options we could make available to him, if he chose to take advantage of them.

"When you say housing, you aren't talking about the shelter are you?" he asked with a frown of concern.

"No, no," I assured him. "I'm talking about an apartment of your own--permanent supportive housing."

"That's what I need. . . and a job, but when you get out and tell people what I've told you, man, people just turn away and won't give you the time of day."

I didn't have a business card. Drat! So, I wrote down contact information and handed it back to him, explaining that I was only out in Plano because of my dad's hospitalization across the street.

"You don't want to go back to prison," I told him. "You and I know one slip up and you are going back. Black folks end up inside a lot more often than people like me!"

He laughed a long laugh.

"I haven't met a white man who talks like you," he said.

"Thanks to friends like you, it has developed over the years, believe me. What were you in for?" I asked.

"Robbery," he confessed. "It's hard without a job. You can make so much more doing bad. I don't want to go back, man."

We talked about racism, faith, Jena, Louisiana; prison, friendship and finding a new chance.

I handed him a twenty and he shook my hand and smiled a huge smile.

"I ain't going back," he declared.

I watched him walk away. He retrieved his backpack from the side of the station. He walked away into the night with what appeared to be a confident stride.

It always happens to me.

I wish it didn't.

I wish people weren't facing what that gentleman faces. I hope he will come by and hook up with us. It is good to imagine what we could discover together. I hope he believed me.

I wonder if he has any real reason to take me at my word.

We'll see.



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Kartieaa's Story (and video)

Below is a letter from my friend, Kariteaa, a young man who has been involved with our Transition Resource Action Center (TRAC), a one-stop shop for youth who "age out" of foster care at age 18.

I encourage you to read his letter, and then to hear his story in the attached video.

To watch the video in full screen, click here.

Dear Friend,

My name is Kartieaa, and I entered the foster care system at age 12 after my adoptive parents died in a car accident.

I was moved through 11 homes and wound up in jail before “aging out” of the foster care system at 18. I had no one to turn to and no place to live – until I got connected with Central Dallas Ministries’ Transition Resource Action Center (TRAC).

Now I have an apartment, a job and am taking classes at El Centro College.

Without your support of TRAC, I would probably be on the streets or back in jail.

Thank you for re-writing my future.

Sincerely,

To see more videos about your neighbors, click here.

"True Notebooks" reveal real heart

Mark Salzman spent a year teaching young men how to write. His students were extraordinary. Each was locked up in a juvenile prison. Most had created very serious crimes. Many were convicted murderers.

One result of his work turned out to be the book he wrote reporting on his own experience with the young men and sharing the words they recorded in their own notebooks as he taught them. True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall (2003) is worth a read.

Randy Mayeux provided a moving synopsis of the book during the July meeting of our Urban Engagement Book Club. The group meets at noon on the first Thursday of every month, rain or shine, to discuss some important book related to the work we are attempting in urban Dallas.

The book is filled with quotes like these:

Sister Janet explained that she'd been Catholic chaplain at the all for years, but the increasingly punitive trend in the juvenile justice system made her feel that ministry was not enough; she stepped away from her role as spiritual adviser to dedicate herself full-time to advocacy work and coordinating volunteer activities. "The goal is. . .to give these young people a chance to express themselves, and feel that someone is listening." (page 24)

It all boils down to one thing, really: the kids want to feel that they matter to someone. They want to please adults, they want to fit in, they want to model themselves after someone they respect. It's just that most of them have been brainwashed into thinking that they aren't capable of it. (Sister Janet, page 27)

These children have been abandoned. (Sister Janet, page 43)

When you are locked up, you think about your mother all the time. That's true of everyone here. (Jimmy Wu, one of the students, page 75)

Writing also helps me feel free. I can create anything with my imagination, pencil and paper, and before I know it I've created something that was in me the whole time, my pencil and paper just helped me let it out freely. (Kevin, one of the students, page 98)

My students were violent criminals, but I no longer thought of them as bad people. In fact, I felt almost no curiosity at all about what they had done to get arrested; all I cared about was what they wrote and what happened during our meetings. Was that healthy? Was that fair? (Mark Salzman, page 104)

Our world cannot be complete without you, and without hearing what you have to say. True justice cannot exist without compassion; compassion cannot exist without understanding. But no one will understand you unless you speak, and are able to speak clearly. And that's exactly what you have been doing in your classes. (Sister Janet to all the students, page 155)

I had to say goodbye to my roommate just now and all we could do was shake hands. It makes me wonder--if I'm like that now, not even able to hug my friend on the worst day of my life, what am I gonna be like after fifteen years in the pen? (Jimmy Wu, page 197)

Although I don't touch on this subject in the text of my book, I'll say it now: they made me decide to have children of my own. It's a debt I can never repay. (Mark Salzman in a note of thanks at the end of the book, page 330)

The book is composed largely of the essays of the students. If you want to experience the thoughts of children without options who continue to display real soul, read this book.

In reflecting on the book, it occurred to me again that far too often we tend to judge and regard people from a-single-point-in-time perspective.

The fact is these kids grew up with neglect, poverty, abuse and abandonment. Their life stories, their histories ushered them through very bad choices and into juvenile hall. In my case, I grew up with attention, guidance, abundance, love and discipline. My life story, my history has ushered me through mostly good choices (thanks to all the people constantly watching and "getting my back" and sometimes my back end!) and into a satisfying and mostly productive life.
For some reason I know that, at the soul level, my journal or notebook probably reads a lot like the ones they composed.

The life and circumstantial outcomes have been much different. But, one thing is very clear to me: I can't sit in judgment, nor can I claim any credit for my own good fortune. This is a good thing to remember.

Crack vs Coke--Justice Denied; Injustice Codified

As terrible as racism can be when expressed through individuals, we discover the more virulent and deadly variety embedded in public systems.

Consider sentencing policies for the use of crack cocaine versus powdered cocaine.

A year ago the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy published a "white paper" report by Nkechi Taifa that gets at this systemic, racist reality at work in our criminal justice system ("The 'Crack/Powder' Disparity: Can the International Race Convention Provide a Basis for Relief?";May 16, 2006; http://www.acslaw.org/node/2859).

Consider this helpful executive summary of the findings:

The federal criminal penalty structure for the possession and distribution of crack cocaine is one hundred times more severe than the penalty structure relating to powder cocaine. Blacks comprise the vast majority of those convicted of crack cocaine offenses while the majority of those convicted of powder cocaine offenses are white. This disparity has led to inordinately harsh sentences disproportionately meted out to African American defendants that are far more severe than sentences for comparable activity by white defendants.

Indeed, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that revising this one sentencing rule would do more to reduce the sentencing gap between blacks and whites "than any other single policy change," and would "dramatically improve the fairness of the federal sentencing system."

Notwithstanding widespread recognition of the inequity of the current sentencing scheme, courts have found that domestic law affords no remedy. In this white paper, Nkechi Taifa examines that failure of U.S. law to address this disparity and explores ways that principles from the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination could form a basis for relief.

People who continue to argue that racism is no longer a factor in American politics, culture, law or community relations are simply blind to a continuing reality. Systemic racism like that found in our sentencing practices remains unaddressed in our nation. The fact that these findings have been recognized for many years and that no remedial action to establish justice has been taken should be of urgent concern to everyone who desires fairness and justice in our nation.

I witness the devastating impact of this unjust system on a daily basis, as our young men and women are "harvested" from our neighborhoods and sent to prison, rather than to treatment centers. All the while, white offenders, whose drug of choice is the powdered form of the same narcotic, recieve very different treatment under the law based on race and/or economic status, power and privilege.

Isaiah 10:1-4

Nutrition and Behavior

Several years ago, an educator told me that the most efficient and effective way to see standardized test scores go up was to make sure that every child enjoyed a balanced, nutritious breakfast before taking any exam.

I thought of that analysis recently as I read a report on a piece of British research about nutrition and prison behaviors ("Health food is the recipe for peace," by Marco Visscher,ODE, June 2007, page 80).

Oxford senior research scientist, Bernard Gesch conducted research on the effects of good nutrition on social behavioral outcomes.

In a British prison for youth offenders, the researcher divided 231 prisoners, all young men, into two groups. For a year-and-a-half, one group received food supplements that included the suggested daily requirements for vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. The other group received a placebo. No one in the prison knew who was getting which regimen.

The results? Those receiving the more robust and balanced diet committed 26% fewer offences and 37% fewer violent assaults as compared to the group receiving the placebo. The study was designed to control for ethnic or social factors that might have affected the two groups and skewed the study. The obvious factor of influence on the outcome of the research project was dietary.

Researchers couldn't help but ask a big "what if" about everyone in the study regarding their diet and nutrition while growing up. Eating properly seems to have some beneficial, determining influence on behavior.

The study of youth offenders went on to report, regarding children, "There will be increasing evidence that young people are undermined by what they eat. There is not a diet yet that takes behaviour into account. In short: this is a societal time bomb."

"There is an enormous increase in the number of prisoners, not only in Europe but most certainly in the United States. Research suggests that nutrition is a cheap, humane and highly effective way to reduce anti-social behaviour. We need to know more, or the composition of the right nutrients. It could be a recipe for peace."

Interesting and intriguing.

Helping provide nutritious food for children and adults is likely an essential ingredient in any plan to fashion a more workable and productive community. I expect we knew that already, but this study does provide fresh perspective.

A detailed report on the research can be found at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2063117.stm.

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Immigration injustice in real time

My friend Monica is 18-years-old.

She has lived in Dallas with her family since she was 5-years-old.

She is an honor student at a Dallas public high school where she is (was) set to graduate in about two months. She has made plans for college after graduation this spring.

She is a great example of the success and accomplishment of one inner city child who grew up in a very poor, but loving family here in inner city Dallas, Texas.

In so many ways she reminds me of my own daughters.

It is very possible that last Friday Monica's life took a drastic turn in a very different direction, a turn from which she may never recover.

Friday was "Senior Skip Day" at her school. Most of the senior class didn't attend classes.

A friend hosted a party for friends at a ranch in Greenville, Texas.

For some reason, the details are still unclear to me, the Greenville Police Department showed up at the party. Every student present who had valid identification was released and was free to go. Those students who had no identification were taken into custody.

Monica and two friends--one a cousin--were transferred to an immigration center here in Dallas. They were booked into the center too late in the day to allow anyone to make bail. As a result, they had to spend the night there.

Then, for some reason we don't understand, on Saturday morning, immigration officials transferred Monica and her friends to the Rolling Plains Regional Jail in Haskell, Texas just north of Abilene, almost 200 miles away from home. There Monica awaits some sort of hearing, though she does not know when it will be.

Got the picture?

A sweet, smart, naive, model high school student being held in a West Texas jail for being "undocumented." Even though she has been here for over a decade, and even though she, nor any other member of her family, has ever had issues with any authority in Dallas, she is now in jail.

The reason?

Current U. S. immigration policy is being driven by the decisions and the discretion of local municipalities. Federal immigration officials do not sweep public schools to pick up undocumented students. Nor do they insist that public schools deny these students entry. Federal immigration officials leave families alone for the most part, unless they encounter criminal behavior.

Sadly, towns like Farmers Branch and Greenville are taking a different approach. Kids like Monica pay the price.

I spent most of the day on the phone on Saturday trying to reach elected officials who might intervene for her. These efforts will continue. So far, I have been unable to accomplish anything real for her.

So, this morning my young friend finds herself in jail 200 miles from her mother and father and family. She is scared. She is alone. I pray she is not in danger.

Immigration provides lots of issues and material for abstract debate these days.

Monica moves the debate onto completely new ground, don't you think?

She is my friend. Her mom and dad are my friends. What she is going through is wrong. This is much more than a debate.

[A bit of research on the facility where Monica is being held didn't help me. The Rolling Hills Regional Jail is managed by a for-profit company, Emerald Companies of Louisiana. The facility opened in 2002 and has a 48-bed regional jail and a 500-bed "detention" center. The Texas Civil Rights Review reports on a number of incidents involving children and families at the facility. Obviously, immigration officials also contract with facility to take detainees. The company is paid on a per-person basis. To learn more go to: http://www.texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=865.]

Prison

Are you ready for this?

By 2011 the U. S. will have more than 1.7 million men and women in prison.

The cost to taxpayers will be $27.5 billion more than what is currently spent to operate the nation’s prisons.

Unless something changes, by 2011 one out of every 178 U. S. residents will be incarcerated.

Some states anticipate seeing their prison populations grow by 25% to 33%. This growth is due to stricter mandatory minimum sentencing regulations, reductions in parole rates and high recidivism.

Over the next five years, inmates will cost an additional $15 billion. Construction costs will add $12.5 billion.

Many states are questioning whether or not prisons offer the wisest use of limited public funds when they look at return on investment.

Good move, I’d say!

Far too many men and women are sent to prison in the U. S. and in Texas. Many who end up behind bars would make more progress in treatment centers where they could be guided and assisted in overcoming the addictions nesting behind their unlawful behavior.

Poor people go to prison more frequently than those who can afford the best counsel.

There are better ways to deal with the misbehavior of large numbers of people who land in prison every year than the current still popular “lock ‘em up and through away the key” approach.

One consequence (I hope "unintended," but at times I have to wonder) of our current policy is the systematic "harvesting" of male leadership from inner city neighborhoods. The resulting social impact on families and their traditions and expectations is devastating.

We need better results. Our communities deserve better and so do many inmates.

[For more details see “Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America’s Prison Population 2007-2011,” Pew Charitable Trusts]