Black People Are Still Targets For Imprisonment
There have been some recent, positive declines in statistics about mass incarceration, but it’s not all good news. Actually, the way that the system works has just changed. If we’re going to stop Black people from being targeted by the unjust prison system, we have to be aware of this.
Some states are reducing their prison population, but their jail population is going UP. Prisons are where you do long sentences whereas shorter stays happen in jails. Also, while some cities have shown a decrease in incarceration, in places outside of large cities, rates have increased.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display("div-gpt-ad-1512094833018-0"); });
According to the Vera Institute Of Justice, 8 states currently hold more people in jails than prisons. Meanwhile states like Kansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arkansas are imprisoning people at an all-time high! And that’s happening in BOTH prisons and jails for these states.
It would take over a century at the current rates for incarceration to decrease to where it was in the 1970’s. It’s increased 400% since then. And don’t forget, the USA is still the top imprisoning country in the world, with some states exceeding the incarceration rates of whole other COUNTRIES.
Locking people up is not a solution to every problem. IT IS a problem. Until the USA accepts that fact and takes the opportunity to start making a difference, Black communities will be terrorized by mass incarceration. Fighting against it means fighting for our lives!
When Jay-Z participated in a panel with Meek Mill, Patriots owner Bob Kraft, Van Jones, and others, criminal justice was being discussed. Recently, footage resurfaced of him making comments about policing and the connection between violence and single-parent households… but what did he actually say?
Jay asserted that single-parent homes cause feelings of adversity toward authority, which in turn “causes people to lose lives” at the hands of police. Yikes. Though some people may agree with him, police brutality is a systemic issue that is about an anti-Black system - not our households.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display("div-gpt-ad-1512094833018-0"); });
The thinking Jay-Z displayed was infamously written in the 1965 Moynihan Report by then-Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel P Moynihan. It blamed Black America for many of our problems and racistly portrayed Black homes as the site of crisis from where our issues originate.
You can’t blame Black people for systemic oppression. The truth of the matter is, police discriminate against Black people regardless of class, income, location, gender, or age.
This is FACT, not opinion. Black people are more likely to be viewed as guilty and brutalized because of racism, PERIOD.
Anti-Black criminal justice has ALWAYS existed in the USA. Black people can’t take responsibility for racism. And even if we all came from two-parent homes with more income, we’d still be fighting because it’s not just about anything WE’RE doing wrong. It’s about white supremacy!
Donald Trump’s Attorney General, William Barr, is up to no good. He’s worried because progressive district attorneys are being elected around the country. They have the power to change things by using a power they have called “discretion.” That’s what’s worrying Barr.
Discretion means that district attorneys can decide which crimes they want to charge and HOW they want to charge them, if at all. Many progressive district attorneys refuse to harshly charge petty crimes and non-violent offenses, because doing so feeds into mass incarceration.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display("div-gpt-ad-1512094833018-0"); });
Barr called progressive DAs “anti-law enforcement” and said “these cities are headed back to the days of revolving door justice. The results will be predictable. More crime, more victims.” He gave this speech in front of the Fraternal Order of Police, of course. Some DAs had a response.
Dozens of current and former DAs signed a letter in response to Barr’s ridiculous comments saying “we do not view our jobs as waging a ‘war’ against ‘criminal predators.’” Let’s be honest, Barr and any police mad about progressive DAs don’t have our community’s interests in mind.
Black people have been pummeled by mass incarceration, over-sentencing, and “tough on crime” policing for years. Now that some DAs want to STOP acting like people belong in cages, that’s a good thing. We welcome it and frankly we need more DAs like this around the country.