Last summer, a volunteer in my organization curated an art show titled “Art against Incarceration.” Special thanks to our friends and supporters who contributed to this show. Enjoy the slide show of some of the art from the show:

I am not going to offer any additional comments on this but I came across a blog post by someone named Liam Denning at the Wall Street Journal today. Denning was discussing the private prison industry and how investors should trade the stocks of these entities (Geo Group and CCA). You can read the full post here.

The most striking parts of the post are quoted below:

By 2020, the U.S. adult population should increase by roughly 22 million, according to the World Bank. At the current incarceration rate, there will be another 160,000 federal and state prisoners by 2020. Say average overcrowding is cut from 109% to 105%—by building more beds—and the private operators win 35% share of all new beds, in line with the average for 2005-09. The result would be 76,000 new private beds across the decade, or a healthy growth rate of 4.5% a year. Privatization of existing public facilities would add to this.

There is a chance America’s appetite for imprisonment weakens, but this would require a major shift in attitudes. More importantly, as long as taxpayers are looking for ways to cut costs while still keeping their neighborhoods safe, the private prison operators should be able to lock in long-term growth.

This is what we are up against…

A few years ago, I was a board member for a local organization that is led by young women who trade sex for money and survival needs. I learned a lot from that experience and I continue to educate myself about the experiences of girls in the sex trade and street economies.

I am moved to write about girls in the sex trade today because I have been following some of the discussion that has been engendered by the publication of Rachel Lloyd’s new book “Girls Like Us” and the subsequent article published by Rinku Sen in Colorlines.

An affiliate of INCITE! Women of Color against Violence has responded to the Colorlines article with a statement written by those most directly impacted by the sex trades. Here is a key excerpt from that statement:

Like Sen, we oppose and resist any and all forms of violence, including but not limited to: coercion, extortion, violence by police and other law enforcement agents, structural economic, gender- and sexuality-based violence, and racial violence against all people, including people in the sex trades. Such violence also includes the denial of affordable housing, health care, and access to living wage employment[emphasis mine]. We also challenge those in both the anti-trafficking and sex workers’ rights movements who claim to speak on our behalf, and those who use our lives and experiences to advance their own agendas without recognizing our leadership.

Here is another important passage from the statement:

We know that each of our experiences of the sex trades are unique, and there are no one-size fits all solutions. We are members of families and communities struggling to survive and make the best possible choices given the options available to us. For many of us, the truth about the sex trade is somewhere between a completely empowered experience of the sex trade, which requires only decriminalization to eliminate harms, and a completely harmful experience of the sex trade which negatively presumes all of us to be victims in need of “rescue.”

I so appreciate the fact that the authors of the statement fully embrace the complexities inherent in the experiences of young people in the sex trades and street economies. I too am very wary of the new push to create more laws governing “trafficking” that have become popular of late. I have been concerned that these laws further criminalize girls in the sex trades rather than doing the opposite as supporters of such efforts often contend. The INCITE! statement brilliantly articulates the pitfalls of such laws.

The girls from the Young Women's Empowerment Project continue to teach me so much about the real life impacts of institutional violence in all of our lives. I am proud to be an ally to these young women. I would like to share a project that YWEP has embarked on over the past few months called the “Bad Encounter Line.” Because they wanted to document specific examples of how girls in the sex trades experience institutional violence, YWEP set up a phone line to collect stories from their peers. YWEP defines a “bad encounter” as a “negative experience with institutions or systems, such as the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), health care, police, hospitals, schools, or any other institution.”

They have since created two zines highlighting some of the stories that they have documented. In their own words, they explain:

“After collecting bad encounters we have decided to put the data we have collected into zine form to give back to youth to keep them informed about avoiding violence or hard experiences.”

Below are a couple of examples of bad encounters from the first edition of the BEL zine:

Shelters: At a shelter on the north side asked for residents to deposit money from their paychecks to save up for future apartments. Later when the residents tried to move and asked for their money back, we found out that the money was never deposited and was being embezzled by the caseworker.

Police: A police officer was going to arrest me in exchange for not being arrested, he asked for oral sex. I did, but after he arrested me anyway for prostitution.

You can download the first edition of the BEL zine here to read more bad encounters that YWEP has documented.

In addition, keep your eyes and ears open this summer for the release of YWEP’s occasional paper that will be published by the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women which I am proud to have co-founded with my friend Melissa Spatz.

I read a powerful, powerful article today; one that should be required reading for all of us who care about prisons and about transformative justice.

Chris Paul is a super-star player on the Charlotte Hornets. I haven’t been a fan of his in particular though I am a longstanding basketball fan. After today, Paul will become my favorite player in the NBA. The article in question is titled the “Lessons of Nathaniel Jones.”

Nathaniel Jones was Chris Paul’s grandfather and by all accounts the two were extraordinarily close.

The man everybody called “PaPa Chili” was the first black man to open a service station in North Carolina and both Chris and his brother worked at it. PaPa Chili was known to let people run tabs when times got tough. Plenty of times, he’d hand people money out of the cash register to get by. Paul called him “my best friend.”

This man who Paul obviously adored was murdered by a group of teenagers in 2002:

On the moonless night of Nov. 15, 2002, five young boys ran across a park, jumped a 61-year-old man, bound his wrists, duct-taped his mouth, and beat him with pipes until his heart stopped.

All for his wallet.

The article describes that youth who killed Mr. Jones as follows:

None of the five boys were particularly hardened criminals. Only Cauthen had been previously arrested — twice for running away and once for stealing his mom’s car. They decided they wanted to rob somebody. Around the corner, in his white van, came that somebody — Jones. He’d closed the filling station and was now getting grocery bags out of his van. “Let’s go get him,” one of them said. They sprinted across Belview Park and jumped him.

Using tape they’d bought that day at a drugstore, they bound his head, neck and hands and began a “relentless, remorseless, conscienceless” attack, according to the judge who sentenced them. Jones died in his carport.

One can only imagine the grief that Paul must have experienced when he heard the news of his cherished grandfather’s death. In fact, the article suggests that Paul held his grandfather’s obituary in his hand during the national anthem for every one of his college games. The writer of the article describes the grief that Paul felt as “bottomless.”

Now, Chris Paul has this to say about what he would like to see happen to the young men who killed his grandfather:

“These guys were 14 and 15 years old [at the time], with a lot of life ahead of them. I wish I could talk to them and tell them, ‘I forgive you. Honestly.’ I hate to know that they’re going to be in jail for such a long time. I hate it.”

He wants the young men who killed his grandfather to be freed:

“Even though I miss my granddad,” Paul told me, “I understand that he’s not coming back. At the time, it made me feel good when I heard they went away for life. But now that I’m older, when I think of all the things I’ve seen in my life? No, I don’t want it. I don’t want it.”

I offer no commentary on this. Paul’s words deserve to stand for themselves.

I am very involved in advocating for an automatic juvenile expungement bill here in Illinois. For those who are interested learning more about HB2841, you can visit the UN-marked Campaign blog.

I wanted to share a terrific short youth-created film that underscores the value and importance of clearing juvenile criminal records. It is impactful and powerful because the young people speak for themselves about this issue. This film was created in 2007 but is still as timely as ever. We will be creating a curriculum for youth and adults in our state to learn more about this issue and we look forward to making use of this film in that curriculum. Special thanks to the Community TV Network and Michael Chandler in particular for making this film readily available for all of our use. Take 10 minutes to watch this excellent film.

In the past couple of years, the idea that prison costs are unsustainable has gained purchase among policymakers. This has led to more of a willingness to discuss closing some prisons and that can only be a good thing.

Tim Gruber - Served Out: Aging and Dying Behind Bars

I read a recent article in the Financial Times about the aging prison population in the U.S. I have written about this issue in the past. The FT article features the story of an 87 year old prisoner named Melville Atkinson who had already been incarcerated for 20 years. The article suggests that the number of elderly prisoners is poised to increase significantly:

The total number of elderly inmates is predicted to increase between four and seven times in the next 20 years, the fastest growing prisoner age group. Some academics estimate that one-third of the entire US prison population, which currently houses 1.6m people, will be more than 55 years old by 2030.

“It is the grey tsunami and it’s coming for us,” says Keith Davis, the warden at Deerfield.

This is stunning and very, very expensive. Elderly prisoners “like Mr Atkinson require specialist diets, medication and round-the-clock nursing – at an average cost of $70,000 a year, three times that of regular inmates, according to the Pew Center on the States, a think tank. Some cost as much as $1m a year.” I believe that it is a form of cruel and unusual punishment to keep 87 year olds locked behind bars no matter the crime. This should change. If we are not going to immediately abolish prisons, then we should push for age limits for imprisonment at the very least.

A related article points to a county in Pennsylvania that is trying to address its prisoner health care costs by instituting a co-payment requirement for doctor visits:

Fayette’s inmates are required to pay $10 to see a doctor. Inmates who want a second opinion pay a $20 co-pay. There is a $5 fee for prescription medications.

Brownfield said the fees are assessed on inmates with the means to pay. Care is provided at no charge to indigent inmates.

“We definitely see the number reducing of people asking to see a nurse or doctor,” Warden Brian Miller said. “If you have a headache and you want to talk to the nurse to get a Motrin, do you want to spend $5 for a couple of Motrin?”

It’s cheaper for inmates to get the pills at the commissary, Miller said.

“It comes down to a budgetary issue,” Miller said. “Every year, the inmate incarceration numbers are increasing, so anything you can do to recover some costs, we’re going to attempt to do.”

In Allegheny County, Dixon noted, many of the 2,500 to 2,700 inmates are indigent, with no means to make the payment. He said a previous administration considered the idea but rejected it.

“A past administration thought it would inhibit people from getting care, where if they didn’t have the money, they would have to decide whether to get care, or get something from the commissary,” Dixon said.

I think that the past administration had it right. Most prisoners were poor when they got to prison and certainly do not become rich while serving their time. I know that it costs a lot of money to provide health care for people so the solution should be to dramatically decrease the numbers of prisoners rather than to make prisoners pay for health care. It is worth reading the entire article to better understand the costs associated with providing health care to prisoners (particularly elderly ones). For example:

Fayette County pays Primecare Medical a monthly base fee of $45,413 to provide health care for inmates, according to the controller’s office. The county paid $31,984 monthly in 2005.

Pennsylvania, which houses about 51,200 inmates, spends an average of $4,000 per inmate annually for health care. For the fiscal year 2009-10, the state collected $414,262 in revenues from inmate co-pays.

The U.S. has 2.3 million people incarcerated in its jails and prisons. This population is more than the total number of American military personnel—Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Reserves, and National Guard. Even the army of correctional officers needed to guard 2.3 million prisoners outnumbers the U.S. Marines.

Source: Moskos, 2011

I got some sad and disturbing news a couple of days ago. A colleague of mine was re-arrested for a technical violation of his parole and is currently locked up (without bail). This is a man who spent several years in prison and when he was released he dedicated his life to working on behalf of young men who were just like he was. He rose to some prominence in an organization called “Ceasefire.” Ceasefire is currently getting a lot of national attention for its violence interruption work through a documentary directed by Steve James and produced by Alex Kotlowitz called “The Interrupters.” My colleague was by all measures an example of a former prisoner who had successfully “re-entered” society after a long incarceration.

I don’t think that most Americans are aware of how many people are currently locked up in prisons and jails across America for “technical” parole violations. They number in the tens of thousands. Technical violations mean that a person has broken some condition of their probation or parole. Usually these are transgressions that are not even illegal. Technical violations are a particular problem for youth incarceration. Many young people who receive probation or are on parole are mandated to attend school. If for example, they are found to be truant, they are often re-arrested and sent back to prison or jail.

I was talking to a friend about my colleague this weekend. My friend knows him too and is also a former prisoner. He uttered some jarring words to me when I told him about what had happened to our colleague. “You never truly come home from prison,” he told me. “Part of you never leaves the hole.” It is worth spending some time reflecting on my friend’s words and to think about their implication for our work to dismantle the prison industrial complex.

I have referenced this particular scene featuring a young man named Lil’ Mikey from the documentary “The Interrupters” before. I think that it is relevant to resurrect it again in the context of this post.

What I find important to underscore about this clip is that it provides a window into the life that prisoners sometimes leave behind. It highlights that these are people who often have family members who love them and miss them terribly when they are away. It shows the toll that such an absence takes on families of the incarcerated. Finally, it illustrates that “re-entry” is as much about reconnecting with the outside world emotionally as it is about finding a way to make a living and survive on the outside.

I want to believe that what my friend said isn’t true. I want to believe that “you can come home from prison.” But I fear that my friend may be right and that is why it is imperative that prisons be abolished.

Sometimes I just have to shake my head as I wonder: “what are these folks thinking?” I read an article suggesting that the National Park Service is considering an old jail as a tribute to the legacy of Cesar Chavez.

The old Monterey County Jail — where Cesar Chavez was held at the height of the Salinas Valley’s farm labor unrest in the 1970s — is on a list of sites being considered by the National Park Service for honoring the farm labor leader.

The sites, stretching from California to Arizona, are listed as part of a Park Service study examining the best way to preserve and commemorate Chavez and the history of the farm labor movement.

According to its website, the Park Service “has been directed by Congress to conduct a “special resource study” of sites significant to the life of Cesar E. Chavez and the farm labor movement in the western United States.” The website says Chavez is recognized as the most important Latino leader in the 20th century.

Chavez spent all of two-weeks locked up at the Monterey County jail in December 1970:

During his two-week incarceration in December 1970 for refusing to call off a lettuce boycott against Salinas Valley growers, Chavez was visited by Coretta Scott King, widow of The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; and Ethel Kennedy, widow of slain U.S. senator and 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

This is plain ridiculous to me and I sincerely hope that the National Park Service will find another site to honor the legacy of this most important American leader of labor rights and overall social justice. Chavez’s legacy should not be defined by a short stint in jail (though that should be recounted in any consideration of his overarching life history). I do not say this because I think that there is anything wrong with his having been incarcerated for taking a principled stand. Instead, it is my belief that there are likely many other locations that will focus on his actual positive contributions to the United Farm Workers of America. Let the Park Service consider those as a tribute to Mr. Chavez’s tireless organizing.

One of my favorite quotes attributed to Chavez is as follows:

“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.”