Criminal Justice Reform

It is time to start supporting those who are taking us in the direction we want this country to go...  No one deserves long prison sentences that increases recidivism...  Long prison sentences for non-violent offenders who are released with no real marketable skills is even not good enough... America has the money to make reparation to the black community.  Demand that your congressman supports measures like these...

Webb Sets His Sights On Prison Reform

Senator Proposes National Panel

By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 29, 2008; B01

Somewhere along the meandering career path that led James Webb to theU.S. Senate, he found himself in the frigid interior of a Japanese prison.

A journalist at the time, he was working on an article about Ed Arnett, an American who had spent two years in Fuchu Prison for possession of marijuana. In a January 1984 Parade magazine piece, Webb described the harsh conditions imposed on Arnett, who had frostbite and sometimes labored in solitary confinement making paper bags.

"But, surprisingly, Arnett, home in Omaha , Neb. , says he prefers Japan 's legal system to ours," Webb wrote. "Why? 'Because it's fair,' he said."

This spring, Webb (D-Va.) plans to introduce legislation on a long-standing passion of his: reforming the U.S. prison system. Jails teem with young black men who later struggle to rejoin society, he says. Drug addicts and the mentally ill take up cells that would be better used for violent criminals. And politicians have failed to address this costly problem for fear of being labeled "soft on crime."

It is a gamble for Webb, a fiery and cerebral Democrat from a staunchly law-and-order state. Virginia abolished parole in 1995, and it trails only Texas in the number of people it has executed. Moreover, as the country struggles with two wars overseas and an ailing economy, overflowing prisons are the last thing on many lawmakers' minds.

But Webb has never been one to rely on polls or political indicators to guide his way. He seems instead to charge ahead on projects that he has decided are worthy of his time, regardless of how they play -- or even whether they represent the priorities of the state he represents.

State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R-Fairfax), who is running for attorney general, said the initiative sounds "out of line" with the desires of people in Virginia but not necessarily surprising for Webb. The senator, he said, "is more emotion than brain in terms of what leads his agenda."

Some say Webb's go-it-alone approach could come back to haunt him.

"He clearly has limited interest in the political art, you might say, of reelection," said Robert D. Holsworth, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Webb's supporters say his independent streak will be rewarded. They note that his early opposition to the Iraq war helped carry him to victory over incumbent Republican George Allen in 2006. Two years after taking office, they point out, he took the unusual step as a freshman senator of authoring major legislation: a new GI Bill to expand education benefits to veterans of recent wars.

They say there is no better messenger on the unlikely issue of criminal justice reform.

"It's perceived as a great political sin to represent any position besides 'lock 'em up and throw the key away,' " said state Sen. J. Chapman Petersen (D-Fairfax). "With Jim's personality, he's never going to strike somebody as being soft on crime or any other issue. For that reason, he might be better able to lead this cause. He's a pretty tough guy."

Webb is a decorated Marine who served as Navy secretary under PresidentRonald Reagan. He has also been a journalist, a novelist and a Hollywood screenwriter. In an interview last week, he said his experience in the military, a culture that is "disciplined but fair," led to his interest in the prison system.

However, he believes it is his experience as a writer that will allow him to articulate a new approach.

"I enjoy grabbing hold of really complex issues and boiling them down in a way that they can be understood by everyone," he said. "I think you can be a law-and-order leader and still understand that the criminal justice system as we understand it today is broken, unfair, locking up the wrong people in many cases and not locking up the right person in many cases."

In speeches and in a book that devotes a chapter to prison issues, Webb describes a U.S. prison system that is deeply flawed in how it targets, punishes and releases those identified as criminals.

With 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States has imprisoned a higher percentage of its population than any other nation, according to thePew Center on the States and other groups. Although the United States has only 5 percent of the world's population, it has 25 percent of its prison population, Webb says.

A disproportionate number of those who are incarcerated are black, Webb notes. African Americans make up 13 percent of the population, but they comprise more than half of all prison inmates, compared with one-third two decades ago. Today, Webb says, a black man without a high school diploma has a 60 percent chance of going to prison.

Webb aims much of his criticism at enforcement efforts that he says too often target low-level drug offenders and parole violators, rather than those who perpetrate violence, such as gang members. He also blames policies that strip felons of citizenship rights and can hinder their chances of finding a job after release. He says he believes society can be made safer while making the system more humane and cost-effective.

That point of view has gained steam with members of both parties. Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) recently proposed earlier release for some prisoners convicted of nonviolent crimes as a cost-cutting measure.

But the movement is alarming to drug enforcement advocates. Tom Riley, spokesman for the Office of National Drug Policy Initiatives, said it has become an "urban myth" that the nation imprisons vast numbers of low-level drug offenders.

People are often surprised to learn that less than one-half of 1 percent of all inmates are in for marijuana possession, he said. And those offenders were caught holding, on average, 100 pounds.

"That's a pretty different picture than I think most people have," Riley said. "It's true, we have way too many people in prison. But it's not because the laws are unjust, but because there are too many people who are causing havoc and misery in the community."

J. Scott Leake, a GOP strategist in Virginia , said there is a reason Virginians enjoy low crime rates. "[It's] because of the policies we've already put in place," he said. "If Senator Webb were to try to roll some of that back, I think he would have a fight on his hands."

Webb isn't known to shy from a fight. He said this spring that he'll introduce legislation that creates a national panel to recommend ways to overhaul the criminal justice system.

In his article about the Japanese prisons, Webb described inmates living in unheated cells and being prohibited from possessing writing materials. Arnett's head was shaved every two weeks, and he was forbidden to look out the window.

Still, Webb said, the United States could learn from the Japanese system. In his book, "A Time to Fight," he wrote that the Japanese focused less on retribution. Sentences were short, and inmates often left prison with marketable job skills. Ironically, he said, the system was modeled on philosophies pioneered by Americans, who he says have since lost their way on the matter.

Webb believes he can guide the nation back. "Contrary to so much of today's political rhetoric," he wrote, "to do so would be an act not of weakness but of strength."

 

 

Paul Wright, Editor

Prison Legal News

P.O. Box 2420

West Brattleboro, VT 05303

802-257-1342

pwright@prisonlegal news.org

www.prisonlegalnews .org

The Council Meeting

MAKE SURE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE POLLS THEY ARE ANONYMOUS!  AND SUBMIT IDEAS FOR NEW ONES... PARTICIPATE SPRREAD THE WORD... ENJOY

There was a group of 4 of us ready to release our stresses that Friday.  My girls were Y and J.  Carmella put in on it too.  J and I came back from “the Spot” blushing as usual and let me tell you if you don’t come back blushing from the spot you again have missed a treat.  Black men in the traps of Atlanta are so flirtatious and witty if you listen.  Then the harsh reality came that everyone had their something but me!  So the sisters gathered around in a circle in the lawn chairs. We sat with knees touching because we were in a secure place where we shouldn’t be doing this anyway.  We leaned in.

“How the hell yal couldn’t find no weed?”  Carmella asked.  Her questioning was more related to the fact that some people don’t feel comfortable getting high around people who don’t or aren’t getting high too.  Especially when they are smoking crack, they get paranoid.  Also, we were getting high in a place that was highly secured (no not jail, just felt like it) if someone was getting high and others were not there may be a disgruntled snitch… But, before I toss the musings off to that of some addicted noids… We all worked very hard that week.  We were all working hard to make a better life for ourselves and our children.  We had survived many obstacles that week and the council always did something on the weekends whether it was a trip to the mall with all of our children, or a movie and subsequent pig out.  This was the first week we all trusted each other enough to get high.  And the first week we could all see a light at the end of the tunnel for our individual and collective situations.  These are all precautions and I wasn’t offended.  So as my curiosity was piqued and the minutes flew by remember we were on a time limit, I said, “Let me try the powder.”

“Let you try the powder?”  “I’m not having no parts of nobody trying cocaine for the first time” Carmella exclaimed.   There seems to be some honor in the drug culture.  Many people will party with you after you try it but NOBODY wants to be a part of someone’s first time.  Carmella was a tall light brown skinned woman. She had sandy brown hair that was too short to pull into a bun.  Her hair needed to be curled.  Regardless of the condition of her hair, you could tell that she was the kind of woman that men liked she had a firm body.  But, you could also tell that she had been living rough as of late.  She was in desperate need of a manicure actually, a fill in for the fake nails she wore.  We all wore them at the time.  Not really smart enough to realize that the nails were simply a conspicuous purchase.  Fake nails were something to say that we had what we really don’t.  To be perfectly honest the manicure would be best for hands that toil so much for so many, because you get a nice massage.  Alas Carmella had lived and was currently living a hard life.  Not because of drugs but because of not having enough money to live and get high.  Black women are the lowest paid workers in the United States.  Everyone makes more money than us.  Black women take care or more people than anyone else.  Sometimes a sista needs a break. The last man Carmella was with had jumped on her and she left the hotel they were staying in.     I could tell by the scowl on her face that my voluntary statement was not going to be so popular.

The women leaned back in their chairs almost simultaneously.  They looked like my mother looked when she found out I was pregnant at 15.  I remember thinking, “I am a 31 yo grown ass woman, who the fuck do they think they are deciding what Imma do with me?”  I liken the meeting to a city council meeting where Y was the Mayor and the rest of us were legislators politicking to solve the issues at hand.  You see this circle had met together to soothe each other in times of despair.  To provide funding when someone had to get somewhere i.e. let ya girl borrow the bus pass.  “Do you have some change so I can get to the food stamp office?”  Now for those of you who frown or look down on the petty toiling of poor people just watch yourself.  It only takes one phone call, one more stock market plunge or one car accident to put you in the same position.  Not to mention a slap or kick or a punch from the man you thought loved you so.  Or perhaps you get tired of being a bitch AGAIN, or the excuse for why he can’t see his kids, why his family won’t talk to him ect. Ect. 

I exclaimed once again…  “Yal I wanna play too!”  This time Y leaned in with her wisdom and her advice.  “As with anything it’s all mind over matter.  You have to be stronger than the weed you smoke or anything else you do.  Hell you have to be stronger than a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies.”  Carmella said, “This girl has 3 kids I’m not going to be a part of this.”  I said, “I will be alright I’ve made it thus far.”  J was reluctant however; we had become fast friends just as much as she was concerned she wanted to share the past time that we dubbed as “partying”.  She chimed in “I aint gonna let nothing happen to Tosha.”  Carmella mumbled something probably to the extent that J was not taking care of herself so well.  The thing is because I lived a sheltered life growing up I could only spot seriously maladapted persons at 31.  At 39 I can see a whole lot more clearly.  But, J never let anything happen to me for the past 8 years that I’ve known her.  She took care of me better than many saved sanctified holy ghost filled folks I know.  (I’ve know many growing up in church)  Even when we argue.  She will forever be my sister from another mother!

As if on cue Carmella leaned up… “I need a can; anybody got a empty soda can.”  She and Y went to another part of the Courtyard and handled their business. I saw men selling people crack but, I’d never seen anyone actually hit it.  I didn’t that day either.  Crack users seem to be a little more private with their crack smoking.  They don’t like to expose their “ticks” to people who don’t smoke crack.  All of them seem to have a tick immediately following the hit.  I thought what the hell does she need a can for?   I remember in the movie, New Jack City Pookie had a pipe a little glass one.  I remember all the people I saw on TV shows had a pipe.  However, we were in a controlled environment where a pipe would not be welcomed… So a can must suffice I suppose.  I learned that many things can be considered and used as drug paraphernalia.  A pen top.  The removable part of a bic pen that sticks out to hook it to your pocket works best and is very discreet.  I learned from corporate white guys later that coke mixed with vodka in an Afrin bottle is how they do it.

Y and Carmella went to their task.  Whether or not I could try the powder had been left unanswered.  I was told all kinds of things about drugs growing up.  In fact, my heart was already racing before the first hit. “What if I did turn into a mad raving fiend and ended up living on the streets and eating out of garbage cans as a result of one snort of cocaine.”  What if I did end up living a lifestyle that landed me in the depths of hell when I close my eyes for the last time?  These are things to consider. At the same time I was curious,” what is this thing that people will seemingly do anything to get?”  Just that facet of the whole thing alone was almost a deal breaker.   J showed me how to take the pen top and stick it in the bag and toot it up my nose.  It was very cute compared to the whole can pipe action the other two had going.  I also learned that powder is more socially acceptable than crack.  My hands were kinda nervous and J said u gonna spill it everywhere.  I said, “Just sniff it up?”  She nodded rather excitedly… You have to remember this is my friend for real and she was sharing in her mind.  Sniff Sniff.  Whoa…

It felt like the earth stood still and was moving fast at the same damn time.  It felt like train horns were going off and a sudden rush like win you win at something. It must have registered on my face.  J said, “You gotta go shit now.”  I was still kinda dazed.  Yes I do.  I turned and snatched open the door that we were required to put a code in to open.  The alarms sounded like a fire station.  J motioned for me to just go.  She covered for me and said that I was about to throw up and forgot to put in the code.  When I returned eyes glazed and confused she told me smoke a cigarette now.  I pulled a long drag off the cigarette.  The cocaine numbs the throat and a cigarette feels so damn good, like right after sex.  I gave her a sheepish grin when we got to the bottom of the $20 and said, “Let’s get some more…” Her first response was, ”Ok let’s go… “ She looked a little worried.  I reassured her… I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.  And she trusted me.  

I will always remember opening that door without putting in the code.  Many doors opened and closed very fast through that time.  I can mark this time with the alarms that sounded when I took my first toot of cocaine.  Some of them were good and some were bad.  But they were wide open from that day forward.  I never looked at life from my closed little perspective again.  For me that was good, sitting in the seat of judgment is a horrible way to live and see the world.  Knowing only good and bad and looking at others actions as right or wrong with no frame of reference for black and white or gray is very dangerous.  I’m glad to see the world differently.   It also marked the beginning of a roller coaster ride whose scene changed every FRIDAY!

 

Support FEDCURE!!!

I have spent 39 Christmases free... And with my family.... Let's take a second to pause and think of our friends and family locked up... If you are black more than likely you know someone who falls in this category. 1 in 9 black men are more likely to have this Christmas rather than the one we are enjoying...

If you have spent a Christmas locked up... Stop trying to gloss over it... Support a group that is trying to do something about the horrible conditions... Support a group that's promoting reinstatement of Federal Parole. Support a group that has worked to get the Second Chance Act passed...


25 December 2008

Merry*Christmas

This year FedCURE reprints FedCURE's Executive Director's Christmas letter of 2005. http://www.fedcure. org/information/ christmas. shtml

Christmas in the federal prison system: Christmas is indeed an important part of prison life.

By: Mark A. Varca, J.D., CIO, www.FedCURE. org

The distinction between a federal prison camp--like Alderson where Martha Stewart is housed--and a United States Penitentiary is like night and day. As is the case behind the fences in the Federal Correctional Institutions (FCI's).

As many of you may know, my father (Pop) and I were incarcerated together for fifteen years. We were cell mates. Even though we were first time non-violent offenders we were classified as high and medium security, in-custody, federal inmates (see bios). No low or a camp institution for us. However, in every institution we were housed, the Christmas/New Year Holidays were an important part of prison life and were indeed celebrated, as was Ramadan, Hanukah, and American Indian holidays.

The Christmas/New Year holiday season is recognized and celebrated throughout the Bureau of Prisons in over one hundred institutions of various custody levels. The gaiety of which, however, depends on the warden at each institution and the inmates wiliness to celebrate the spirit of Christmas. Generally, the warden appoints a Christmas/New Year Committee from the institution' s administrative staff. This Committee is responsible for developing, establishing, planning and administering the Christmas/New Year Holiday Program. This program can vary dramatically from institution to institution, ranging any where from that as has been described at Martha Stewarts' place of confinement- -FPC Alderson (Camp Cup Cake)--to a few decorations, or a Christmas Day and News Years Day dinner. If the institution is on lock down for the holidays there may very well be nothing. Inmates in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) or the hole, have it the worst.

Depending on the cooperation of the staff and the budget, the inmates are the ones that set the holiday mood and whether or not the holiday festivities are joyful. It is noted, however, that budget cuts have taken a toll on these holiday activities over the past several years.

Institution and Unit activities.

Generally, behind the fence, Christmas goes like this: Each institution distributes packs of holiday greeting cards, donated by Hallmark Cards, to the inmate population. The warden authorizes special commissary items to be sold; and an increase of Inmate Telephone System minutes and visiting privileges. The visiting rooms are decorated and gifts are provided for visiting children--sometimes by an inmate dressed as Santa Claus. A Christmas package consisting of various commissary items and sundries--valued at several dollars--is distributed to each inmate the day before Christmas or on Christmas day. Generally, the warden, his staff and the unit team participate in this distribution. Each housing unit is allowed fifty to a hundred dollars to purchase decorations, usually from the local K-Mart store: A Christmas tree, ornaments, lights, decorations, etc. What's not damaged after the holidays is sometimes stored away by one or two caring inmates and staff so that these decorations can be used again the following year. Generally there is a best decorated unit contest. The prize varies, but commonly a pop corn machine is brought into the unit from the recreation department for a evening, perhaps with a movie and or maybe soda.

Food Services provides baked goods and hot chocolate--sometime s eggnog, on Christmas Eve. And special dinners for Christmas and New Years day.

Religious Services arranges for outside quests speakers and or choirs to come into the institution. Inmates are invited to the institution' s chapel area to attend these functions. The chapel is decorated with one or more trees. Christian services and Catholic Mass are offered. All inmates are invited. A Chaplin visits the inmates in the SHU.

The Education and Recreation departments also sponsor various holiday activities ranging from Christmas parties, sports and games with some prizes (candy, soda, etc.) and perhaps a in-house movie or two.

As I said, the joy of these holidays depends on the authority of the warden, the cooperation of the staff and that of the inmates. I've been locked down during these holidays more than once because of some one's stupidly, e.g., drunk, disorderly, fighting, etc. In that case, the whole unit or the entire institution pays the price for a few errants.

I cannot tell you how many times I've had to pull some one off of some one else arguing or fighting over a nasty, disrespecting remark one made to the other about Christmas. Pop headed up the decorating in the units for fourteen years and each year put up a beautiful tree and decorations. Which would have to come down and stored away on January 5th. A few inmates would pitch in. And most appreciated and enjoyed the tree. Once in awhile though some whacko would give Pop a hard time about Christmas; and as he got older we would have to keep a keen eye out on him whenever he'd get in a confrontation with one of the whackos---not that he could not handle himself, but because he was in his late 70's and we did not want him touched, or going to the Special Housing Unit (commonly known as the SHU or the hole) .

Fortunately, all of this is the exception rather then the rule. For the most part, these holidays make the best out of lousy situation--incarcer ation. Some inmates exchange gifts--even though prison rules forbid it--but being separated from family members is by far the toughest aspect of incarceration- -especially during holidays. Pop and I were always grateful, however, that the bureau recognized and celebrated Christmas. Our family and friends joke with us now, because they say: "You guys never missed a year sending out Hallmark greeting cards. Not before you went to prison or during your fifteen year prison stay. How did you do that?" Although we both struggled at times, we seemed to have always found the spirit of Christmas and the joy that it can bring. It is something that is highly contagious and sometimes the most hardened of the hardened are not immune and would get caught with a dose of the joy of Christmas. Christmas is indeed an important part of prison life. And with each year a new would come the energy to fight on--the fight to be free!

The fight goes on and we are all in the struggle together. To all people incarcerated and to their families and friends, we wish you a Merry * Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Best Wishes:

Mark A. Varca, J.D., CIO & Executive Director,
FedCURE
P.O. Box 15667
Plantation, Florida 33318-5667
USA

Web Site: http://www.FedCURE. org
E-mail: FedCURE@FedCURE.org
E-fax: 1.408.549.8935

FUN FRIDAY

I have always been into a certain level of experimentation. This day was no different. I was in a down and out place… But that is another blog and another time. I was finally FREE and I made these great new girlfriends. We’d become instant friends in this struggle we were in. Three Divas. One smoked weed, that’s me always on the fringes but never plunging in. J was a dancer and I always marveled at how she had no problem in using her body to get what she wanted. I also learned that the main folks complaining about strippers are jealous. Then there was Y who was older than us but none the less a partner in our crime.
This day started out no different, we got up and got our kids washed up and off to school. The day ended no differently. The children returned home we fed them bathed them and sweetly tucked them in. The only difference was the secret is that we engaged in forbidden behavior while they were at school. For some reason none of us had anything in particular to do that Friday. It was a sweltering hot August day. We decided to have some fun. My sister J and I gathered the money to make the run… She became my sister and remains to this day. Well the walk it was only two blocks away. Of course we had to get our hair right, our clothes right because we were going to the spot.
The spot is like the Mecca of the hood. Everyone goes to or knows someone at the spot. All of them silky in varying shades of black to brown to yella. Flashing glistening jeweled, gold and platinum teeth. When you have been smiled at by diamond encrusted gold teeth it is quite an experience. For all you ladies that are too upstanding or self-righteous to engage in such folly I pity you. You have not been charmed until a man with $10k in teeth and $10k in his pocket has his driver take you home in his $40k car… Or better yet to the mall. I like those trips too. I was 31 I had only known good boys. I was separated from my husband and this was the first free summer I ever had. It was the first year all of my children were in school. But, those beautiful sun-kissed brothers have caused me to trail off again.
We were talking about my girls and I and our forbidden taboo. I grew up going to church and all my relatives and their friends found their way in and out of church. So this was a big deal. I didn’t even see marijuana until I was 18. I saw a joint but never the green on stalks… So let’s fast forward to “the spot” Y had acquired her taste for crack 13 years before we met her. She was a devout Muslim and her husband had turned her onto it while she was 8 months pregnant with their 3rd daughter. She was a beautiful black woman who always wore her hair and body covered. She was tall and heavy. Y and her family were from Chicago. She was well educated and working on her masters. She had endless ability to turn situations around. She was an inspirational figure. She taught me that drugs don’t mess people up the lack of money and opportunity mess people up. I’m talking real sometimes we have to learn to think outside the box.
J is one of the most beautiful women I have ever met. Her drug of choice was powdered cocaine. I had only seen it on television and previously vowed not to do it because… don’t you sniff that shit and it goes directly on your brain or something? Not only was she a dancer, and did very well at it, she is extremely intelligent. She sold herself short many times. I don’t know quite where she picked up the habit but she introduced me to the stripper drug culture and I imagine that all of it was intertwined in the entertainment industry. Later as we brought out partying to a perfection we would meet our fellow co -horts at the strip club. They would sit there while the girls made their money to make their purchases for the night. Sometimes we rode from strip club to strip club with our boys gettin’ high, and serving… It is a whole culture so very different from where I came from. It was fascinating.
We went to the spot and they didn’t have no weed. At first I was so out of place at the spot they thought I was the police. They had crack they had powder they had NO WEED. Who the hell can run a successful drug dealing establishment with no weed? We had a strict time limit damnit… We had to do our thang and get back before… well we had several mitigating circumstances and the children were the main one. “No we can’t wait for your homie to get back from the other liquor store, we gotta go.”
So there I was at an impromptu get high day with nothing to get high with. I don’t drink I only smoke weed. This was supposed to be a FUN FRIDAY…

Tis the Season!

I spent much of my teen years thinking about suicide. I don't really recall for what reason each time. I do know that each time it was because I felt that I had come against some peak that I could not overcome. Rather than rallying against it I felt better off dead. It was always because I felt there was something in this world that I deserved that I was being denied. And for all intents and purposes was never going to get. There was either something I fucked up, something someone else fucked up for me and of course it was forever so it seemed… And of course when these obstacles rear their ugly heads it seems that you are alone and lonely.
The very nature of feeling suicidal often leads down another lonely path. The question of mental illness what black person in their right mind would admit to or want to be known as being mentally ill. There are so many perceived character and physical weaknesses that blacks are considered predisposed to why would anyone add mental illness to the mix? More often than not we don’t we suffer silently afraid that we are crazy or soon to be crazy, because it is so taboo in the African American community to admit weakness and defeat we don’t even know various differences in mental health states. Case in point there is a difference in a major depressive episode that could be triggered by a traumatic event rather than a signal of infirmity. Further the perceived infirmity may just be a series of chemical imbalances easily remedied with diet and exercise. Being depressed enough to feel like dying is not the end of the world. Suicide is the final end.

I believe that European belief systems create the atmosphere for suicides. We mistakenly believe that if we don't have what we want it then we are better off dead. Perhaps we cannot easily decipher the difference between what we need and want because of the messages we receive through the media. May be it is just plain peer pressure. Keeping up with the Jones’ is a great stress that even the Jones’ themselves find hard to bear.

We have been taught all of our lives that in order to be successful we have to obtain certain things by certain times to be whole and productive. For example a woman living in the projects is deemed as an under-achiever or a pariah on society because she is absent money or social status. Her home is considered a place to strive to be away from. How many of us strive to achieve beyond all stress so that we can leave the stench and shame of our impoverished neighborhoods behind. Another even deeper question is how many of us get to destination suburbia and never give the sisters and brothers we leave in that cesspool a second thought while giving valuable tax dollars and business to the people who need it the least… But alas that is a different story that moves us away from the point. No one would actually celebrate the fact that she is able to take nothing and turn it into something. Noooo she would be pushed to do more because if she was truly worthy and valuable she would have more... Learning to embrace ourselves in whatever state or status is another key in combating depression and alas suicide.
Recently two famous black men committed suicide that really seemed to have it going on recording executive Shakira Stewart and actor De’Angelo Wilson. Both at what we feel is the pinnacle of success but something was still missing and it was missing enough for them to abandon all rational thinking and perhaps the lack of acceptance of ourselves is at root here as well. When you have everything and yet feel like you don’t have enough to live for, that says a lot in itself. What is fueling that emptiness and what will it take to leave the Europeans to embrace their culture and for us to embrace ours. Hell what does it take for us to even try and find our culture? My teen and early 20's suicidal preoccupation was thwarted by the belief that I would go to hell when I died and therefore be in a place worse than what I was FOREVER! Now at 39 I am in a new place and at a point of self-actualization. A new place of world realization... In part just embracing my black self made a significant change in my life. Not feeling myself or my circumstances are obstacles to overcome makes it easier to release self doubt when I hit a brick wall that I feel insurmountable.

Americans measure success with stuff and not character. And black Americans in particular have a long history of spending our way to acceptance. It seems no one has arrived unless they have the most stuff. I mean who sends their children to school each morning so that they can grow up and follow their dreams? No! We send our kids to school so they can get good jobs to get away from themselves because we see self at various stages of lack. When we meet obstacles that seem to prevent us from achieving our mission we sometimes go spiraling into the depths of despair. Or heaven forbid when we reach the plateau of the amount of stuff we feel we can get or maintain we feel this is the end. We rob ourselves and those around us of the main ingredient... The human spirit.

FEDERAL PRISON REFORM

It’s time for America to pay attention to the impact its laws are making on its citizens and its wallet. Currently the United States has inadvertently created a new welfare state. Not the usual suspects which include poor women and children clinging to government welfare rosters in lieu of earning an honest wage, but able bodied men and women who perpetrate non-violent crimes. Mandatory minimums and the end of Federal parole have left America with a $40k per person bill and many of these low level offenders will spend decades imprisoned, much longer than sex offenders, or murderers simply because of congressional imposition of mandatory minimums. Americans pay more money housing non-violent criminals than reform in direct conflict with the goals of imprisonment outlined by the U.S. sentencing commission and the eighth amendment.
Currently non-violent drug offenses make up MORE THAN 75% of the total federal prison population. Many of these offenders can be rehabilitated to become productive members of society. Instead they are sentenced to prison terms that simply warehouse and do not reform. They have been sentenced to hefty terms under the guise of public safety however more and more people are trying street drugs at levels that seem to prove that drug dealers are not the problem. In fact many studies prove that drug prevention begins at home. The biggest factor in preventing youth drug abuse is in fact parents. Longer prison sentences increase recidivism, meaning that the longer men and women are incarcerated their chances for breaking the law increases. Shorter prison sentences coupled with a concerted effort to provide inmates with marketable skills actually increases their chances of serving their time and returning to society as productive law abiding members. Not to mention the safety issues created by overcrowded prisons on the correctional staff charged with keeping the public safe. In fact a great alternative to correctional officers would be to change the scope and duties of these officials to provide career counseling. Perhaps providing hope and correction would keep our correctional officers safer.
The staggering dollar amount needed to provide care for the incarcerated is astounding many families only have 40k to provide for an entire family. The average median income for a family of 3 is $49,888. Caring for one prison inmate is roughly 40k. This is the average cost the notwithstanding increasing healthcare needs of an aging prison population has not been completely accounted for. Since the end of federal parole in 1987 these costs are increasing at a staggering rate because men and women are serving prison sentences decades with no parole at 87% with good time figured in. What happens to these people when their families have died off and they begin to further tax an ailing Social Security system that they have not paid into? The racial disproportion aside, minorities make up 50% of the federal prison population and 12-18% of the prison population, warehousing able bodied men and women for life for a few kilos of cocaine does not make sense. We are basically providing lifetime care for people who only possessed on average $ of drugs. A person serving a 60 year sentence for 8 kilos of cocaine which has a street value of $800,000 is given $2.4 million of care, excluding any unforeseen health expenses that the geriatric population incurs. If a person is sentenced to 60 years at age 20 and serves 87% and gets released after retirement they will only have social security to rely on which they have not paid into. The bill will fall onto our children and grandchildren. Moreover, few family members will remain to support this aging prison population and they will be left to rely on government housing to supplement the meager income they draw from social security. Who pays? The public that was deemed safer by their incarceration. Federal prison reform has to make sense and it has to meet the goals of incarceration outlined in part by the U.S. Sentencing Commission as “incorporate the purposes of sentencing (i.e., just punishment, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation); and meet the requirements of the 8th amendment which holds that Americans not be subject to cruel and unusual punishment.