Wednesday, November 20, 1996
INSTITUTIONS:
African Americans trapped in system of social inequality
First Prop. 187 and now Prop. 209, what’s next?," is a commonly
asked question among liberals and progressives these days. The
passage of Prop. 209 almost brought me to tears. It seemed as the
world I knew was coming to an end. While affirmative action was and
is still only a token offering, it was and is still the only
tangible recognition this country has ever made for the centuries
of exploitation, terror and inhumane treatment of African people in
America. And in one night, it was gone.
Gone was the only assurance this country gave African people
that a superior intellect would supersede the privilege of white
skin. Gone was the hope that America would represent the most noble
principles of "liberty and justice for all," (we all knew this
dictum was unfulfilled, but hoped that one day it would become a
reality). And finally, gone was the often misquoted and
misrepresented dream of Martin Luther King Jr. who not only wanted
a fulfillment of the promise of America for all of her children,
but also demanded compensatory justice for the children of
Africa.
What held back the tears was my amazement at how our ancestors
endured under the weight of slavery and Jim Crow. Oh, the stress
must have been so great that submission was certainly the easier
course, and without question some chose this way. However, so many
more with divinely-invoked courage, strength, and perseverance
forged a path leading me to where I am today. If they could labor
so valiantly for our freedom under those harsh and overtly
oppressive conditions, so can I. And so can WE!
So, what can we do? Perhaps to answer this question, we need to
look to the election of November 1994. On the very same ballot as
Prop. 187 was Prop. 184, the so-called three strikes law. This
measure, overshadowed by 187, threatened (and fulfilled the pledge)
to incarcerate for 25 years to life anyone with three felony
convictions. With no concern for whether the offenses were
non-violent or otherwise, Prop. 184 has added fuel to the already
back-logged criminal court dockets and over-crowded prisons. Prop.
184 and its copycats around the country are only recent additions
to what is known as the prison-industrial-complex.
The prison-industrial-complex is a joint venture between federal
and state governments on one side and private companies on the
other. Governments contract private companies to provide everything
from construction of new facilities to laundry and concession
services. Outrageously, private companies, like Kentucky-based U.S.
Corrections Corporations and Nashville-based Pricor, are often
awarded contracts to run an entire prison. Can you imagine owning a
prison?! It must be like owning a plantation full of slaves!
Much as the Cold War fed the defense industry (read: the
military-industrial-complex), three strikes laws and the "war on
crime and drugs" feed the prison-industrial-complex. It seems this
boom industry benefits everyone from the Department of Corrections,
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (one of
largest giving Political Action Committees in the state),
construction contractors (like many of the UC Regents) and land use
consultants (like Ward Connerly).
So at what price is the prison-industrial-complex costing
society. Who does it affect? And what can be done?
The Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice (CJCJ) recently
published a report called "From Class Rooms to Cell Blocks: The
Effects of Prison Building on Higher Education and African American
Enrollment" with startling findings. It concludes that the
accelerated growth of the prison industry has come at the expense
of higher education. Corrections has increasingly devoured larger
portions of the state budget over the past 12 years, forcing
legislators to make dramatic cuts in education spending. It notes
that from "1984 to 1994, California constructed 19 prisons and only
one state university. During those 10 years, the Department of
Corrections added 25,864 employees while there was a work force
reduction in higher education of 8,082 employees." Twelve years
ago, education spending was two-and-a-half times that of
correction, today they are dead even (with the latter likely to
increase).
One of the CJCJ’s most provocative points is that "African
Americans are imprisoned eight times as frequently as whites," and
"four times as many African-American men are in prison in
California (41,344) as are enrolled in undergraduate and graduate
public higher education (10,474)." Seven times as many
African-American men are expected to be in prison than are enrolled
in UCs and CSUs by the year 2001. Damn, if this ain’t affirmative
action, I don’t know what is!
But are African people really deserving to be incarcerated at
such alarming rates? The answer is emphatically NO! The
unemployment rate for African people is more than twice that of
whites. One out of five African men ages 20-24 are "officially
unemployed" as are one out of three ages 16-19, according to a
study conducted by the National Commission of Employment Policy. In
order to be counted as "officially unemployed" you must be actively
seeking a job and not finding one.
Employment isn’t the only area of racial disparity. The
Washington D.C.-based Sentencing Project reports major
inconsistencies in arrest, prosecution, convictions and sentencing
along racial lines. Three out of four drug users are white, but
African people are arrested more and receive longer sentences. The
report finds that African people (13 percent of the U.S.
population), "constitute 13 percent of drug users, 35 percent of
arrest for drug possession, 55 percent of convictions, and 74
percent of prison sentences." The underemployment of African people
and the racist targeting of us by the criminal justice system,
directly contributes to our gross over-representation in prisons.
Damn, if that ain’t affirmative action, I don’t know what is!
Holly Sklar, author of "Chaos or Community? Seeking Solutions,
Not Scapegoats for Bad Economics," concludes this disparity "is a
modern equivalent of the Black Codes which reinforced post-Slavery
discrimination." She writes: "From the end of the Civil War in 1865
to 1890, blacks were 95 percent of inmate populations in most
southern state penal systems, and black convicts were leased out to
work in plantations, mines, factories, and railroads." Chain gangs
are back in Arizona and Alabama. Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas)
advocates using prison labor to pay half the cost of federal prison
spending!!! President Clinton talks about building a bridge to the
21st century, but on whose back is it being built, and are we
really moving forward?
Why do we continue to spend more on new prison construction and
"crime fighting" when the FBI and state law enforcement agencies
report significant decreases in crime? This simply doesn’t make
sense. But if crime is going down why are the prison populations
increasing. The answer is clear  mandatory sentencing. A
whopping 75 percent of three strikes cases have been for
non-violent offenses. A major portion of the inmate explosion has
come from drug possession convictions. Between 1970 and 1993 the
percentage of drug offenders in federal prisons grew from 16 to 61
percent. For state prisons it grew from 9 to 23 percent during the
same period. Studies indicate that close to half of these drug
possession charges are related to addictions rather than intent to
sell. Can you imagine, people are being locked away for the rest of
their life, because they are addicted to crack? What is to be said
of a society that creates more opportunity to go to prison than to
college for a sizable segment of its population?
In the wake of Propositions 184, 187 and 209, there is no time
to sit on our butts, waiting to react to the next wedge issue of
America’s right-wing conservatives. The evidence is staring us in
the face. I remember that when I was in high school, one in every
four young African men were under some form of criminal justice
control; today, the number is one in every three. What’s next? One
out of every two?! Three out of every four?! At what point will it
end? Here are three easy things that must be done:
* Amend Prop. 184, making it applicable only to violent
felonies
(repealing it would be ideal)
* Equality in arrest, prosecutions, and sentencing (I can wish,
can’t I?)
* An immediate moratorium on the construction of new
prisons.
Just think of all the money from halting new prison
construction. We could spend all of that money on drug
rehabilitation, for the average drug user who is "white, male, a
high school graduate, and employed full time," to quote former Drug
Czar William Bennett. Or, we could spend it on child care centers
for those children whose parents are forced to join the work force
under the new welfare reform guidelines. How about homeless
shelters and food pantries for those who won’t find jobs and are
thrown to the wolves without a safety net? Better yet, we can build
new UCs and CSUs for all of those over-qualified white men denied
admission because of affirmative action. Just look at all of the
clever things we can come up with if we just put our mind to
it.
Comedian Chris Rock put it best when he said,"The reason jails
are so crowded is because life is so fucked up." Things will remain
that way until we do some thing about it.
… three strikes laws … feed the prison-industrial- complex.
Employment isn’t the only area of racial disparity.