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VOLUME 88 - NUMBER 35
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2009
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30
The Cost of Incarceration
"The Cos! of Incarceration"
is an eight-part occasional series
written hy Patrice Gaines, former
Washington Post reporter: author
unci co-founcler of The Brown An
gel Center, a program in Charlotte.
N.C. that helps formerly incarcer
ated women become fnancially in
dependent. Gaines received a 2009
Soros Justice S ledia Fellowship
from the Open Society Institute to
research and write articles on the
impact of mass incarceration on
the Black community. The National
Newspaper Publishers .Association
News Service has agreed to make
this exclusive series available to
its membership of more than 200
black-owned newspapers.
PARTI
By Patrice Gaines
NNPA Contributing Writer
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - In
communities around the countr>.
Black people are missing. Neigh
borhoods languish. Dreams deferred
rot in distant warehouses we call
prisons. The similarities between
the correctional s>stem and slav
er)' are eerie: Families ripped apart.
Traditions lost or never made. The
shipment of flesh, the pipeline that
nearly guarantees black children go
from the cradle to the prison: the in
sane profits made b\ wareliousing
human beings: the burden borne
forever by those labeled as "con
victs."
Today, a brutal recession which
dictates the need to cut budgets and
proof that mass incarceration does
not reduce crime is changing con
versations in legislative halls around
the countr). Some politicians, who
in the past have onl> paid attention
to fearful constituents who want
to make sure people who commit
crimes are locked up. are beginning
to consider alternatives to impris
onment. Meanwhile prison reform
advocates are wonderiniz if a Black
president and a Black attorney gen
eral means a quicker end to the
disparity in incarceration between
Blacks and whites.
Prison "was never a tool to
fight crime. It is an instrument to
manage deprived and dishonored
populations, which is quite a dif
ferent task." says Loic Wacquant. a
renowned ethnographer and social
theorist who teaches at the Univer
sity of California at Berkeley. Still,
speaking by email. Wacquant warns
that the journey between slavery
and mass incarceration must in
clude two other 'peculiar' institu
tions created to define and confine
Blacks: 'Jim Crow and the urban
ghetto.' Now. he-says, "in the post-
Civil Rights era. the penal system
has gradually been recast to mean
Black - and increasingly. Latino."
"The explosive prison growth
of the past 30 years didn't happen
by accident, and it wasn't driven
primarily by crime rates or broad
social and economic forces beyond
the reach of state government. -
according to a report by the PEW
Center on the States entitled. "One
in 31: The Long Reach of Ameri
can Corrections". The report states.
"It was the direct result of sentenc
ing, release and other correctional
policies that determine who goes to
prison and how long they sta>'."
Report after report tells exactly
who goes to prison. Consider: "One
in every three Black males bom to
day can expect to go to prison if cur
rent trends continue. More than 60
percent of the people in prison are
now racial and ethnic minorities."
according to The Sentencing Proj
ect. a Washington. D.C.-based re
search and advocacy organization.
''For black males in their twenties,
1 in every 8 is in prison or jail on
any given day."
These trends have been intensi
fied by the disproportionate impact
of the "war on drugs." The Sentenc
ing Project says three-fourths of ail
persons in prison for drug offenses
are people of color.
It may be too early to answer
the question about Obama's admin
istration, though it did announce
in April that it favors reform of a
20-year-old law that mandates a
sentence of at least five years for
possession of 500 grams of powder
cocaine with intent to distribute and
the same penalty for five grams of
crack cocaine.
This summer the House Judicia
ry' Committee passed legislation in
tended to equalize federal sentences
for offenses for crack and powder
cocaine. The Senate is expected to
introduce similar legislation. Driven
b\ the recession, states are reducing
their prison populations.
This month. North Carolina an
nounced it is closing seven small
prisons to save money. In
California, a penal of judges for the
state's Eastern and Northern federal
district courts ordered the state to re
duce its prison population by about
40.000 persons within the next two
years. The ruling was made because
of overcrowding and the failure by
the state to provide adequate medi
cal and mental health care. Sen. Jim
Webb (D-VA). a longtime critic of
the prison system, has introduced a
bill to create a bipartisan commis
sion to review the U.S. prison sys
tem and offer recommendations.
In ever)' area of the countiy peo
ple are waiting and working for the
change they hope will come. Others
- those who have been in prison and
those who have loved tliem - are
living with the byproducts of incar
ceration. putting their lives back
together, tiying to forgive and heal.
"After an exlraordinaiy quailer-
centuiy expansion of American
prisons, one unmistakable policy
truth has emerged: We can't build
our way to public safety." Adam
Gelb director of the Pew Center
on the Slates' Public Safety Perfor
mance Project said in the "One in
31" report.
John Cooksey, co-owner of C
& M Diner, a threadbare soul food
cafe, has w atched h is block of Mack
Avenue on Detroit's East Side gasp
for breath because of crime and be
cause of over incarceration of its
residents.
"I know people who come in
here and say. 'I've been away for a
while." Well. 1 already know: I've
(Continued On Pasge 2)
Jail incarceration rates by race and ethnicity,
1990-2008
Number of jail inmates per 100,000 U.S, residents
1,000
Black
I I I I I I I I I I I I p I I I I
1994 1998 2002 2006 2008
Blacks are three times more likely than Hispanics and five times more likely than
Whites to be in jail. - Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice
Ted Kennedy: Family senator, patriarch, dead at 77
By David Espo
WASHINGTON (AP) - In the quiet of a Capitol elevator, one of Edward M. Kennedy 's fellow lawmakers
asked whether he had plans for a family Thanksgiving away from the nation's capital. No. the Massachusetts
senator said with a shake of his head, and mentioned something about visiting his brothers' gravesites at Arlington
National Cemetery'.
In his half-centuiy in the public glare. Kennedy was. above all. heir to. a legacy - as well as a hero to liberals,
a foil to conservatives, a legislator with few peers.
Alone of the Kennedy men of his generation, he lived to comb gray hair, as the Irish poet had it. It was a bless
ing and a curse, as he surely knew, and assured that his defeats and human foibles as well as many triumphs played
out in public at greater length than his brothers ever experienced.
He was the only Kennedy brother to run for the White House and lose. His brother John was president when
he was assassinated in 1963 a few days before Thanksgiving: Robert fell to a gunman in mid-campaign five years
later. An older brother, Joseph Jr., was killed piloting a plane in World War II.
Runner-up in a two-man race for the Democratic nomination in 1980. this Kennedy closed out his failed can
didacy w ith a speech that brought tears to the eyes of many in a packed Madison Square Garden.
"For me. a few hours ago. this campaign came to an end." he said. "For all those whose cares have been our
concern, the work goes on. the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die."
He was 48. older than any of his brothers at the time of their deaths. He lived nearly three more decades, before
succumbing to a brain tumor late Tuesday at age 77.
That convention speech was a political summons, for sure. But to what?
Kennedy made plans to run for president again in 1984 before deciding against it. By 1988. his moment had
passed and he knew it.
He turned his public energies toward his congressional career, now judged one of the most accomplished in
the history of the Senate.
"I'm a Senate man and a leader of the institution," he said more than a year ago in an Associated Press inter
view. He left his imprint on every major piece of social legislation to pass Congress over a span of decades. Health
care, immigration, civil rights, education and more. Republicans and Democrats alike lamented his absence as
they struggled inconclusively in recent months with President Barack Obama's health care legislation.
He was in the front ranks of Democrats in 1987 who toipedoed one of President Ronald Reagan's Supreme
Court nominees. "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions,
blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids,
children could not be taught about evolution." he said at the time.
It was a single sentence that catalogued many of the issues he - and Democrats - devoted their careers to over
the second half of the 20th century.
A postscript: More than a decade later. President Clinton nominated a former Kennedy aide. Stephen Breyer.
to the high court. He was confirmed easily.
There were humiliations along the way, drinking and womanizing, coupled with the triumphs that the Kennedy
image-makers were always polishing. After the 1980 presidential campaign. Camelot took another hit when he
divorced. He later remarried, happily.
In later years came grumbling from fellow Democrats that his political touch had failed him, and that he was
too eager to strike a deal with President George W. Bush on education and Medicare.
"I believe a president can make a difference." he said over and over in that campaign of 1980, at a time the
country was suffering from crushing combination of high interest rates, inflation and unemployment.
But it wasn't necessary to be a president to make a difference, or to try.
He once startled a Republican senator's aide, tracking her down by phone in Poland, part of an attempt to
complete a bipartisan compromise.
For years, he left the Capitol once a week to read to a student at a nearby public school as part of a literacy
program.
When a longtime Senate reporter fell terminally ill. Kennedy dispatched one of his watercolors to her room in
a nursing home, nul cheered her with chatty phone calls.
(Continued ()n Ph*..' 2)
HEALTH CARl
George Bridgers was among the many citizens who attended a
Town Hall Meeting at NCCU recently hosted by Rep. David Price. See
photos on page 16. (Photo By Lawson)
DC Vote reaching nationwide
for lobbying help
By Gillian Gaynair
WASHINGTON (AP) - Advocates for a Washington. D.C.. congressio
nal seat are ramping up their lobbying efforts, seeking leverage on mem
bers of Congress by enlisting the help of their constituents far from the
nation's capital.
DC Vote is reaching out to people like 62-year-old Henry Perry' of Ten
nessee.
Not until the advocacy group visited Perry in Mississippi earlier this
month did he learn that District of Columbia residents pay taxes and serve
in the military, but don't have a vote in Congress.
"I think it's really a disgrace that they're denied that right." said Perry,
president of the Teamsters Local Union No. 667 in Memphis, which also
has members in Mississippi. "I was kind of shocked."
DC Vote wants Perry and others like him to persuade their own repre
sentatives to support their cause. The group said its new. in-your-face strat
egy will involve visits with citizens across the countiy and with organiza
tions like the NAACPthai are committed to civil rights and democracy. It
will target congressional districts where there's opposition to voting rights
for D.C., or where it could sway a vote. The group also plans for more
aggressive language in ad campaigns, the first of which is scheduled to
launch next month in Nevada.
"If you come after the District, we're going to come after you." said
llir Zherka. executive director of DC Vote. "We're going to travel to your
stales, travel to your congressional districts and we're going to engage
your constituents and make sure they know ... how' you're spending your
time focusing on D.C. issues and not your own issues."
The new approach has been spurred by efforts to attach to the D.C. vot
ing rights bill an amendment that would change the city's gun laws. DC
Vote's hope is that people who don't live in Washington will put enough
pressure on Congress members to drop the gun measure amendment.
The challenge is to convince people to work in D.C.'s interest, without
any direct reward for them.
"I think there's a certain level of'help us because you have the power,"’
Zherka said, "and because these people care about voting rights and civil
rights issues, they want to do it."
D.C. residents have sought voting rights since 1801. w'hen Congress
took control of the newly created capital. The city has elected a representa.-
tive since the 1970s. but that House delegate can vote only in committees,
not the full House.
Hopes soared in February' when senators easily passed voting rights
legislation, two years after a similar measure died just three votes shy of a
filibuster-proof margin.
The bill would expand the House by two seals, to 437. To offset the
certain Democratic gain from giving D.C. a seat, the bill adds one for Re
publican-leaning Utah, which narrowly missed receiving another seat after
the 2000 census.
The Senate bill w'as amended by Sen. John Ensign. R-Nev., to repeal
the city's tough gun registration requirements and restrictions on semiau
tomatic weapons. Ensign said he proposed the measure because the city
hasn't gone far enough to comply with the Supreme Court, which last year
struck down Washington's 32-year-old ban on handguns and affirmed ho
meowners' rights to keep guns for self-defense.
House Democratic leaders scrapped plans to consider the voting rights
legislation this summer, after acknowledging they were split on the gun
provision and that D.C. leaders were unwilling to compromise. It's unclear
when the bill will be revived.
But DC Vote intends to keep the issue alive and continue pushing for
amendment-free legislation.
Perry is doing his part. too. After meeting with the group earlier this
month, he fired off a letter to Rep. Travis Childers, D-Miss., who has led a
drive to repeal D.C. gun limits. Perry told Childers that D.C. residents have
the right to elect their own officials to act in their interests. He also urged
Childers to pass the voting rights bill without "harmful amendments."
Perry said he plans to let his members know about D.C.'s voting rights
struggle and urge them to send Childers letters, too.
"We count on him for the rights of people," he said, "not to take awa^’
their rights."
On the Web: wwvv.dcvote.org