The AU club Justice Not Jails, organized an event called "Race and Incarceration," on Nov. 12 to discuss how socially progressive, revenue-neutral measures could fail because of the power of the prison industrial complex.
On Nov. 4 Californians defeated Proposition 5, a revenue-neutral measure that according to Ballotpedia.org, an encyclopedia about ballot measures, would have reduced criminal consequences and expanded rehabilitation programs for non-violent drug offenders.
The prison-industrial complex comprises of the prison guard unions, construction companies, surveillance technology companies and others who benefit from the goods produced by prison labor. Companies that have used prison labor to produce goods include Victoria's Secret, Microsoft, Dell, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Boeing, JC Penney and the U.S. military, according to Mother Jones Magazine.
Justice Not Jails brought the story of two young black D.C. men to Butler Boardroom on Nov. 12.
Karen Garrison, mother of twins Lawrence and Lamont Garrison, told her sons' stories at AU in early November. They and 22 other people were implicated when the owner of an auto body shop who had been arrested as a major player in a cocaine and crack conspiracy began implicating people to reduce his sentence. Neither drug users nor dealers, the twins had been accepted by Howard University and were earning excellent grades while working to pay their tuition when they were arrested a month before graduation.
At the time of their arrest, the Garrison's family home was searched, but no narcotics, drug paraphernalia, or any incriminating evidence was found.
Aaron Rubin, a sophomore in the School of International Service, said he was taken aback by the young men's story.
"I was surprised by the conspiracy aspect, taking away someone's life on almost no evidence," he said.
Bianca Jones, Black Student Alliance intercultural liaison and sophomore in the Kogod School of Business said she saw the documentary "Books Not Bars" in her Theories of Democracy class this semester and sought a vehicle for bringing it to more people.
"Books Not Bars" documents the growth of the prison-industrial complex in the U.S. through increasing incarceration of blacks and Hispanics through the eyes of the young people who are working to reverse it.
In the documentary, Justice Policy Institute President Vincent Schiraldi compared the differences of punishments for different races.
"Black youth are 48 times as likely to be incarcerated when arrested for a drug offense, when they've never done time before, than white kids," Schiraldi said.
He said that the public is profoundly misinformed about its young people because of the impression the media puts conveys.
"This is a society that does not like teenagers and likes to keep them at arm's length . then, when you add that 'coloredness' to it - the Latino, the saggy pants, or however you view whatever it is - that plays into an atmosphere of fear," he said.
Kaleema Annie Sumareh, a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she agrees that the public is misinformed about young people. She said she thinks young people need to challenge the myths of black youth culture.
Justice Not Jails was formed after Ava Page, a junior in CAS, returned from her Prison Justice Alternative Spring Break in San Francisco, where her group visited San Quentin State Prison.
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