On MLK Day: How a Racist Criminal Justice System Rolled Back...

[Brewman_Jax]

On MLK Day: How a Racist Criminal Justice System Rolled Back the Gains of the Civil Rights Era

http://www.alternet.org/story/153782/on_...ights_era/

From the article:

Quote:On this eve of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, we host a wide-ranging discussion with TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson and author Michelle Alexander about the mass incarceration of African Americans that has rolled back many achievements of the civil rights movement. Today there are more African Americans under correctional control, whether in prison or jail, on probation or on parole, than there were enslaved in 1850. And more African-American men are disenfranchised now because of felon disenfranchisement laws than in 1870. Alexander, whose book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" is newly released in paperback, argues that "[n]othing less than a major social movement has any hope of ending mass incarceration in America or inspiring a recommitment to [Martin Luther] King's dream... My view is that this has got to be a human rights movement. It’s got to be a movement for education, not incarceration; for jobs, not jails; a movement that acknowledges the basic humanity and dignity of all people, no matter who you are or what you have done."

...

The interview with Amy Goodman, Michelle Alexander, Randall Robinson, and Juan Gonzalez follows. Unfortunately, this isn't late-breaking news. The prison-industrial complex and its predecessor, the chain gang, have been using the justice and prison system to reinforce the racial caste system and second class citizenship status to the former slaves and their descendants since the formal end of slavery and the economic system built on that horrible and disgraceful practice. From the change in laws to specifically oppress and harass black people to the use of police for social enforcement, these are but a few examples.

[Brainwreck]

I have written so many letters on this subject this past year I could paper one wall in my living room with copies. The prison system is one of the biggest industries in the south and it's moving north under the guise of privatization. It is the new slavery and the shame of this country. Thank you for posting that info, Brewman_jax.

[pappy]

(01-17-2012 02:10 AM)Brainwreck Wrote:  I have written so many letters on this subject this past year I could paper one wall in my living room with copies. The prison system is one of the biggest industries in the south and it's moving north under the guise of privatization. It is the new slavery and the shame of this country. Thank you for posting that info, Brewman_jax.

It arrives here in Ohio a long time ago.