[blind-democracy] Re: Is the Fight to End Mass Incarceration Wasting Away in Washington?

From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2016 08:53:19 -0400

I think, but am not positive, that Obama can only deal with federal
prisoners. However, what is done federally, can act as an example to the
states.

Miriam

-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2016 11:37 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Is the Fight to End Mass Incarceration
Wasting Away in Washington?

If president Obama were even a tiny bit inclined to do something noble for
his Black and Brown Brothers, he would turn the keys and throw open the
prison doors to thousands of men and women serving hard time for minor
violations, and serve only to serve as cheap slave labor.
It is my understanding that these new Prisons for Profit have contracts with
local governments that hold the government to covering the cost of a certain
number of prison beds, whether full or not.
Thus, local police become pressed to round up enough "criminals" to keep the
numbers up. Not only are the citizen taxpayers getting the shaft, but the
police are being put in a very difficult place. In fact, a very dangerous
place.
But Obama doesn't have the inner conviction to take a stand like that.
He would jeopardize whatever cushy job he's been offered once out of the
presidency.

Carl Jarvis

On 8/9/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org) Home > Is the Fight to
End Mass Incarceration Wasting Away in Washington?
________________________________________
Is the Fight to End Mass Incarceration Wasting Away in Washington?
By James Kilgore [1] / AlterNet [2]
August 8, 2016
Mass incarceration's profile as a national issue appears to be on the

wane.

Throughout 2015, the nation's over-reliance on imprisonment drew a
constant spotlight, producing a plethora of bipartisan policy
proposals and expressions of moral outrage in Beltway circles. In
March last year, Newt Gingrich and Democrat stalwart Van Jones
co-hosted [3] an unprecedented Washington, D.C. conference [4] of
nearly 500 key role players billed as a "Bipartisan Summit on Criminal
Justice Reform." The Koch Brothers Foundation teamed up with George
Soros' Open Society forces to sponsor it. Author and formerly
incarcerated activist Shaka Senghor spoke, as did Georgia's Republican
governor Nathan Deal. At a moment of great congressional discord,
people across the spectrum were finally agreeing on at least one
thing: the U.S. was spending too much money on corrections and locking
up too many people, especially black folks.
Activists added to the hype, pressuring presidential candidates in the
early stages of the campaign. Movement for Black Lives leaders
stressed the issue of mass incarceration in a widely shared
conversation [5] with Hillary Clinton. Black Lives Matter spokespeople
interrupted Bernie Sanders'
speeches on two occasions, leading Sanders to add criminal justice
reform to his talking points and to insert "racial justice" into his
list of priorities. At the Senate level, Republican hopeful Rand Paul
was co-sponsoring sentencing reform legislation [6] with Cory Booker.
To top it off, President Obama visited [7] a federal prison, and then
released some 6,000 people from federal institutions in November. The
Pope added fuel to the reform fire by dropping in [8] on a
Pennsylvania facility.
The condemnation of mass incarceration and a new spirit of offering
people with felony convictions a second chance was flowing from all

quarters.

Yet as the presidential campaign heated up, mass incarceration began
to fade from the scene. The bully in the presidential campaign
playground, Donald Trump, contributed immensely to the change in
climate. Posturing as the "law and order" candidate, Trump has stifled
Republican reform discourse. At the Republican National Convention, he
summed up his overall approach to criminal justice with one militant
declaration [9]: "The crime and violence that today afflicts our
nation will soon-and I mean very soon-come to an end. Beginning on
January 20, 2017, safety will be restored."
With Trump's rise, foot soldiers promising to "make America safe again"
have
come out of the woodwork to replace the bipartisan unity advocates.
Milwaukee county sheriff David Clarke has become a one-man speaker's
bureau for renewed war on the streets. Wearing full dress uniform
regalia, he opened his address to the RNC with a vow [10] to make
something "very
clear": "Blue lives matter in America." Clarke went on to label Black
Lives Matter and Occupy as forces of "social disorder" and "anarchy."
Clarke represents a growing police backlash trumpeting the myth of a
reborn crime wave in the U.S. Both statistics and opinion poll
findings provide at best minimal support for such claims. While
violent crime rates did increase slightly [11] in 2015, they have
steadily declined during Obama's years in office and are at much lower

levels [12] than in the early 1990s.

Moreover, Republican law-and-order fervor doesn't reflect popular
sentiments. Recent Gallup polls do show [13] an increasing concern
about crime and violence, but a July 13 survey [14] revealed that only
6 percent of the population identified crime as the most important
problem facing the country today. By comparison, 27 percent named
"economic problems" as the number one priority. Ultimately, the
resurgence of the law and order mantra may be less about about facts
and figures and more about fanning the flames of fear, racism and

xenophobia.

Whatever hope existed for promoting bipartisan unity on criminal
justice at the RNC was in the end derailed by the committee of 112
tasked with finalizing the party platform [15]. The 112 focused on
condemning the Supreme Court for not opening the door to wider
application of the death penalty and accused Attorney General Loretta
Lynch of conducting a "campaign of harassment against police forces
around the country." While supporting some jail diversion programs
like Drug Courts, their top priority for prisons was not closure or
budget cuts, but making sure authorities "regain control of their
correctional institutions, some of which have become ethnic and racial
battlegrounds."
Joining Trump and Clarke in leading the law and order charge was Newt
Gingrich. Getting a whiff of a chance at the vice-presidential slot,
Newt dropped reform talk and devoted his speech at the RNC [16] to
hymns of praise for Trump and condemning "radical Islamic terrorists."
In light of all of this along with "the centrality of Nixonian law and
order" to Trump's electoral vision, emeritus criminology professor
Tony Platt told AlterNet, "it's unclear right now if the campaign for
modest federal reforms will continue."
The Democrats
In contrast to the Republican about-face, the Democratic Convention
opted for toning down their positions. While they brought the mothers
of black people slain by police on stage, the calls in the platform to
end mass incarceration, reform mandatory minimums and close private
prisons (largely a product of the influence of the Bernie Sanders
campaign) gained little air time compared to xenophobic patriotic
appeals. In Clinton's acceptance speech, the need to "reform our
criminal justice system from end to end"
was
a throwaway, buried in a lengthy laundry list of promises on all
issues. At the moment of realpolitik, ending mass incarceration has
perhaps lost any capacity to attract new voters, especially whites who
may be vacillating in their support for Trump.
Changes in Federal Laws
Election related party polarization has likely contributed to the lack
of progress [17] in advancing national legislation and policy change as

well.

The much-publicized Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act [18],
jointly sponsored by a bipartisan cohort led by Republican Chuck
Grassley and Democrat Cory Booker, has failed to make it to the
congressional floor for a vote. The bill remains mired in
disagreements over the depth and nature of acceptable change.
Another high-profile reform, the opening of presidential clemency
petitions, has also made little progress. Obama's decision to open the
door to federal clemency petitions prompted more than 12,000
applications. However, to date only 562 [19] have been granted [20].
The lack of administrative resources to review the often complicated
documents means the bulk of those remaining may be rolled over to the
next presidency. Moreover, Obama rejected the more powerful option of
applying a blanket amnesty to certain categories of convictions like
the notoriously anti-black [21] crack cocaine laws. In the 1970s,
Presidents Ford and Carter applied blanket amnesties to those who
dodged the draft.
A final glitch in the reform process has hit the realm of immigration.
While
the president made major advances with the DACA and DAPA [22] measures
to delay deportations, in 2016 things have taken a serious turn for the

worse.

A June Supreme Court decision [23] virtually overturned DAPA, thus
putting another five million undocumented adults back onto the hit
list for possible deportation.
To make matters worse, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has begun
a new offense of roundups. From across the country, reports [24] have
emerged of ICE agents showing up at unexpected places-courthouses,
probation offices, workplaces-to drag away those without proper
papers. Investigative journalist Brian Dolinar, who covers these
issues in the Midwest, reports to AlterNet that there have been more
than 50 ICE raids alone in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, a liberal
college town of 120,000. He adds that such raids are "taking place all
over the country, not just along the border, but they are happening
under the radar with little or no media coverage."
The Brighter Side
While at the federal level things may have slowed, a few important
changes continue to take place where it really matters: at the state
and local levels. Although the federal policies and debates attract
the most media attention, state prisons and county jails hold nearly
90 percent of those incarcerated. Ultimately, most reforms at the
federal level have little impact on states and counties, save to set an

example of possible changes.

The most noteworthy advances have been the slashing prison populations
in key states. New York, New Jersey, California and Rhode Island have
reduced [25] their prison populations by more than 20 percent in the
last seven years. The decarceration formula has varied. New York's
reductions were largely driven by a cutback in drug prosecutions,
while California's decrease came about as a result of a federal court
order. But these states are not alone. In 2014, Mississippi, using a
combination of sentencing and parole reform, reduced its prison population

by 14.5 percent in one year.

Moreover, since 2000, at least 29 states have passed [26] laws to
reduce mandatory minimums. More than 30 such measures have been signed
into law in the past six years. Despite the slow advance of national
legislation, the federal prison population finally began to show a
decline on 2013 after more than 35 years of growth. Obama's November
2015 release contributed to a fall in federal prison populations of
16,000 (about 8 percent) in the last 19 months.
Outside the legislative sphere, national efforts via a number of
non-government initiatives have kept things moving. These have
included longstanding campaigns like Ban the Box [27], initiated
largely by organizations of formerly incarcerated people like All of
Us or None [28] and efforts by the National Juvenile Justice Network
to end juvenile life sentences without parole. New initiatives and
organizations continue to appear with groups like the National Council
for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women [29] focusing on the
much-neglected 700 [30]percent [30] expansion of the population in
women's prisons over the last two and a half decades.
Foundations and professional organizations have stepped in to fund
reform as well. The Annie E. Casey foundation is supporting
alternatives to incarceration [31] for juveniles, and the Pre-Trial
Institute is coordinating efforts to restructure pre-trial regimes,
especially in regard to cash bail. Efforts to restructure local
criminal justice practice aimed at reducing prison and jail
populations have drawn tens of millions in support from the ACLU [32]
and the Macarthur Foundation [33].
Yet while these pockets of change and funding flows hold out promise,
the total decrease [34] in prison population nationally from 2009 to
2014 was only about 52,000-just over 2 percent. Ultimately, to totally
reverse the forces of mass incarceration requires not only legislative
change and finance, but the presence of a coordinated and focused mass
social movement.
The roots of such a movement have appeared over the past two years in
the mobilizations in response police killings of black people.
Elements of the youthful supporters of Bernie Sanders' "political
revolution" also represent such a potential force, though it remains
to be seen what direction they will take post Hillary's nomination.
Some activists argue that these efforts, especially those focused on
police killings, need to broaden their scope to a more systemic
perspective or run the risk of being confined to limited reforms such
as body cams, community review board initiatives, or racial awareness
training. The failure to successfully prosecute Darren Wilson in
Ferguson and the perpetrators in the Freddie Gray case highlights the
obstacles to investing too much faith in existing political processes.
Gus Wood, an Illinois-based activist and PhD candidate, has studied
policing extensively. He told AlterNet that "as we attempt to
transform this current moment to an actual social movement, we must
incorporate a systemic racial class analysis so that we can attack the
various forms of racial oppression, like wage/income disparity,
hypersegregation/apartheid, state-sponsored violence, imperialism, and
mass incarceration. Our resistance must match the complexity of our

oppression."

"A Vision for Black Lives," a set of policy documents [35] released
August
1
by the Movement for Black Lives reflects the kinds of systemic
thinking highlighted by Wood. The expanded directions put forward by the

"Movement"

take protest against police violence well beyond minor tweakings of
police practice and attitudes. Situating police violence in the
context of the historical and global oppression of black people, these
documents call for reparations, international solidarity and economic
justice while remaining true to the prioritization of leadership of queer

and transgender people.

More than 50 organizations, including Black Lives Matter Network, took
part in formulating the contents.
Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, echoed such sentiments
in responding to the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. In
a recent Facebook posting, she declared: "I no longer believe that we
can 'fix' the police, as though the police are anything other than a
mirror reflecting back to us the true nature of our democracy. We
cannot 'fix' the police without a revolution of values and radical
change to the basic structure of our society. There's an unfinished
revolution waiting to be won."
Ultimately, the momentum for criminal justice reform, let alone the
type transformative change needed to reverse mass incarceration,
remains far from achieving the intensity of the conservative "lock 'em
up and throw away the key" mania that grew the system in the 1980s and
'90s. As we draw nearer to election day, concerns about excessive
imprisonment and bloated corrections budgets are likely to fade
further into the shadows behind political candidates' efforts to
malign their opponents' character and cast themselves as the true
patriots. That unfinished revolution of which Michelle Alexander
speaks still waits to be won.
James Kilgore is an activist, writer and educator based in Urbana, IL.
His most recent book is Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's
Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time [36] (New Press,
2015). He is also the author of three published novels, all of which
he drafted during his six and a half years in prison. He can be found
on Twitter @waazn1 [37].
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Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [38]
        [39]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/fight-end-mass-incarceration-w
asting
-away-washington
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/james-kilgore
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
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n-on-c riminal-justice-reform-with-newt-gingrich-and-van-jones
[4]
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/26/opinions/van-jones-bipartisan-prison-ref
orm/
[5]
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/08/hillary-clinton-black-lives-ma
tter
[6]
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/03/booker_and_paul_re-introd
uce_le
gislation_to_overha.html
[7]
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/president-obamas-historic-prison-
visit-
32503409
[8]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/inside-the-philadelphia
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n-that-will-host-pope-francis-on-sunday/2015/09/26/25024fae-5bca-11e5-
9757-e
49273f05f65_story.html
[9]
http://www.npr.org/2016/07/21/486940891/trump-to-promise-safety-will-b
e-rest
ored-as-he-accepts-gop-nomination
[10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVuIhnyggUg
[11]
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/preliminary-2015-crime-stats-released
[12]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/06/08/theres-no-
eviden ce-of-a-new-nationwide-crime-wave/?tid=a_inl
[13]
http://www.gallup.com/poll/190475/americans-concern-crime-climbs-year-
high.a
spx
[14] http://www.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx
[15] https://www.gop.com/the-2016-republican-party-platform/
[16]
http://www.politico.com/video/2016/07/newt-gingrich-full-speech-at-the
-rnc-0
60021
[17]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/opinion/sunday/holding-sentencing-re
form-h
ostage.html
[18] http://famm.org/sentencing-reform-and-corrections-act-of-2015/
[19]
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/08/03/president-obama-commutes-se
ntence
s-214-additional-people
[20]
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-hasnt-obamas-clemency-init
iative -helped-more-nonviolent-drug-offenders
[21] http://www.drugpolicy.org/race-and-drug-war
[22] https://www.nilc.org/issues/daca/dapa-and-expanded-daca-programs/
[23]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/us/supreme-court-immigration-obama-d
apa.ht
ml?_r=0
[24]
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ew-ice -policy-targets-immigrants-for-minor-offenses
[25]
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source
=web&a
mp;cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiR94iSwJrOAhUHzIMKHRnQCQ
gQFgge
MAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vera.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fres
ources
%2Fdownloads%2Fmandatory-sentences-policy-report-v2b.pdf&usg=AFQjC
NGZsze hvXApJjB0fKs5u8pDkpuasg&sig2=VaB8qz9QLx9-MrgKAzbdTw
[26]
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nd-loc
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[28]
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erly-i
ncarcerated-women/
[30]
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source
=web&a
mp;cd=2&ved=0ahUKEwjqpPW0x5rOAhVn3IMKHbrmCYIQFggkMAE&url=http%
3A%2F%
2Fwww.sentencingproject.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2FIncar
cerate
d-Women-and-Girls.pdf&usg=AFQjCNE9Zh24Gf1MsKVOVKEcNa7EAcB0DA&s
ig2=Px
UnaK667-FeMiAaBobeow&cad=rja
[31] http://www.aecf.org/work/juvenile-justice/
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reduce
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[33]
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rant-i
nitiatives-for-local-prison-reform/
[34] http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5387
[35] https://policy.m4bl.org/platform/ [36] ;
http://thenewpress.com/books/understanding-mass-incarceration
[37] https://twitter.com/waazn1?lang=en
[38] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Is the Fight to ;
End Mass Incarceration Wasting Away in Washington?
[39] http://www.alternet.org/
[40] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org) Home > Is the Fight to
End Mass Incarceration Wasting Away in Washington?

Is the Fight to End Mass Incarceration Wasting Away in Washington?
By James Kilgore [1] / AlterNet [2]
August 8, 2016
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Mass incarceration's profile as a national issue appears to be on the