During a Re-Entry Resources and Health Fair on June 15, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove presented Turning Point AOD with $900,000 for housing and all the supportive services necessary to empower formerly incarcerated women.
I got out of prison in 2012 after spending nearly two decades behind bars. I still live in fear of being denied housing because of an old criminal conviction/record.
Mass incarceration has been an issue that has plagued the Black community for decades. LAUSD psychiatric social worker and Dorsey alum Rasheeda Jones created the children’s book “Justice” to help youth cope with having a close loved one in incarceration. While she wrote the book to help youth deal with being impacted by the issue, it also helped her cope.
“When a juror is unable to relate to a person accused of a crime, the defendant is more likely to face stiffer penalties, up to and including life in prison,” said Charlotte, N.C.-based Attorney Darlene Harris, who after trying a recent murder trial, spoke to a White male juror who shared that a lot of the jurors could not understand the African American defendant.
UCLA scholars are launching an initiative to collect, digitize and preserve an archive of data, testimonies, artifacts and police files for the next generation of research on racial and social justice, the university announced today. “Archiving the Age of Mass Incarceration” is being funded in part by a three-year, $3.65 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and it will bring together expertise from the UCLA Institute of American Cultures’ four ethnic studies centers and their established connections to local advocacy groups. “This vital and significant effort will expand our knowledge of mass incarceration, connect the academy and impacted
In Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign, 95 percent of Black male voters and 96 percent of Black women chose him, NBC News reported. Four years later, Black women’s support remained at 96 percent for Obama’s 2012 re-election, while Black men slid to 87 percent. In 2016, when the nominee was Hillary Clinton, Black men dropped further to 82 percent while Black women’s support for Clinton remained high at 94 percent. Biden came close to matching that this year, garnering the support of 91 percent of Black women. But 12 percent of Black men voted for Trump, according to exit polls.
In an attempt to win Black voters that have been elusive for the Republican Party for many cycles, President Donald Trump announced a “Platinum Plan,” of Black Economic Empowerment.
Trump unveiled the plan during an Atlanta rally with less than six weeks left until Election Day on November 3rd. Currently, President Barack Obama’s former Vice President Joe Biden in leading in the polls in many key states in the presidential contest.
Hosted by the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center, a nonprofit founded by a bipartisan group of African American leaders from across the country who advocate for criminal justice reform, the event includes a host of Democratic presidential hopefuls, local officials, and other stakeholders.
Criminal justice reform remains a pressing concern for American citizens regardless of political affiliations. A recent study conducted by Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of Justice Action Network, found that support for reform spans all sides of the political spectrum—with 68 percent of Republicans, 78 percent of Independents and 80 percent of Democrats supporting criminal justice system reform. With an issue so urgent to the nation, 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are being called upon to explain how they will fix the system in which more than 2.3 million people are incarcerated and where African-American citizens are disproportionately and excessively imprisoned and criminalized. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is speaking out with a solution to overhaul the severely flawed institution if she becomes president.
Courtesy The Marshall Project/PBS Although the number of people in prisons and jails in America has slightly declined, numbers released on Thursday, April 25, by the Bureau of Justice Statistics still show that nearly 1.5 million individuals were in prison by the end of 2017. The statistics also note that the U.S. continues to lock up more people than any other nation. And, despite a narrowing disparity between incarcerated black and white women, females have emerged as the new face of mass incarceration. “I don’t think this should be much of a surprise as two of the main for-profit prison
We have millions of workforce energy stored in prisons, jails.
Michelle Alexander’s seminal effort, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” (2010) captured the nation’s attention. Continuing media coverage and public discourse beyond prison walls, particularly in the Black community, attested to the book’s wide appeal and Alexander is hailed, like no other, for illuminating the devastating impact of mass incarceration.
In 2012, a Los Angeles Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence indicated former Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca was negligent and largely insulated by his staff from the problem of excessive use of force against inmates in county jails. Baca resigned in 2014. On May 17, 2017 he was sentenced to three years in federal prison for obstructing an FBI investigation of abuses in county jails.
The California Senate approved SB 620 on a vote of 22-14 to allow a court to use judicial discretion when applying a sentence enhancement for using or discharging a firearm.
“I’m very much aware of the national dialogue on the disparities in the criminal justice system, biases that exist against people of color, particularly African American men,” -DA Jackie Lacey