Reply To: Session #1: Key Takeaways

[Angelaparks10]

Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie

Honestly there wasn’t anything surprising here. If you’ve been involved at any level of social/criminal justice reform these are some of the things that we fight for as a collective. Mass incarceration is something that is only going to get worse. It’s important that we really understand that everyone involved in a particular case will be charged the exact same charges whether or not they committed the actual crime. That’s why I believe we see more people in county jail fighting cases as the chart shows. We also see that in the prison system and that attributes to the over population. It was really sad to read that critical data is available but not shared with organizations fighting for prison reform. This information is crucial for many people yet it is kept secret. This is one of the things that keeps the Prison Industrial Complex afloat. When the public isn’t aware of the scare tactics used by politicians and law enforcement, they feed into “lock them all up” ideology. When in fact, if they showed the recidivism rates and how much lower they are than what is told they would have a different outlook.

Hope is a Discipline:

I believe the “aha” moment for me in this article was when Mariame stated that you can bring an officer to trial but it does nothing to shift, change, or uproot the systems and structures that are responsible for the killings and harassments. That struck me hard even though I know this happens on a daily basis. She talked about how this whole process can be daunting and how will they actually shift and change these issues. It’s sad to know that the killings will continue in communities with people of color and that it’s ok for that to happen because the state will do nothing to ensure it won’t. Funding these police departments to hire more people and buy more weapons of destruction is not the way. We need that money to go into those very communities that are being affected. I absolutely agree with Mariame when she said, “we need to reduce the contact that cops have with people. That’s the only way to reduce the violence of policing.”