AMC 2012
Hi ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to start by giving thanks to Between the Bars and the other grassroots organizations that are finally talking about the mass incarceration of people of color. My name is Marcel Ware I'm 36 years old and an African American male currently serving time in Wisconsin, one of the main states that incarcerate Black and Latino men at an alarming rate. As we address these issues we must be truthful about race here in America, and go at this methodically about all the issues leading up to mass incarceration of people of color, and the caste system that has been passed down from generation to generation.
First I would like to explain the different cast systems that has plagued the African American community. The first caste system was surrounding slavery we all known about the civil war, in Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation which never gave us freedom (can be debate). The civil war destroyed the Southerner way of life because it was depended upon the labor of the slaves, so once the war ended the blacks started to leave the south but most stayed behind to try in make a life for themselves.
For the small time they were free there were things put in place like the constitutional amendments guaranteeing "equal protection of the law", and the right to vote but never enforce. This would lead to a caste system as well with black people living in very poor condition once again not giving the basic right to vote in live in peace, don't forget we were forced to come here we didn't come by choice. The next caste system was the Jim Crow the southerner tried very hard to sustain their way of life on the backs of people of color, I will not go into a big dialogue about the Jim Crow because we all know what happen. For the purpose of this conversation I will like to add a few more things concerning this issue. Blacks did for a brief time have their spot in the sun. They held the most spots in office back then, that was the most African American in politics, ever in the history of African Americans.
The white southerner started a major campaign to take back the south hence the rise of the K.K.K., and the caste system that's maintained today. Since the south lost the civil war they had to put in place a caste system that to the north looked legit so they pass laws like vagrancy, mischief, insulting gestures that were towards blacks. They made these acts criminal, so that the people who committed these minor acts were fined and made to work their fines off, making the highest prison population of color men and women at that time. Now you have to remember these laws were passed for a reason to undermined the federal mandates that were put in place, some of the people who were part of these hurtful acts were sentenced to jail time once the north caught wind of what was going on in the south.
As the pressure from the K.K.K. started being felt in the north, politicians started caving in to the pressure so there were unspoken laws passed around the United States, even though blacks - were being incarcerated and belittled it wasn't doing what they thought it would do. Then comes J. Edgar Hoover who flooded the ghettos with heroin with the help of different organizations, but what they didn't expect was it ending up in the home of the suburban Anglo-Saxons, then the problem ward out of control. I know some of you maybe listening to this speech doubting the information that I'm passing along, see it's been known in the African American community what's been going on for a long time just no one speaks about this situation.
This is out of Michelle Alexander book quotes the C.I.A. also admitted that in the midst of the war on drugs it blocked law enforcement efforts to investigate illegal drug networks that were helping to fund its covert war in Nicaragua.
These drugs found their way into the Black communities addicting our mothers and fathers with no one addressing the overall addiction, leaving the early 10970s and late 1970s with an infestation of the black community. I come from such an infestation I started with an two parent home my stepfather had a good job at Commonwealth Edison my mother was a stay-at-home mom, until they were introduced to cocaine and heroin. The drugs hit my family like an atom bomb we went from the middle class family to living with people it destroyed us, but they're both in recovery for 10 to 20 years and I love them both.
When Reagan declared war on drugs, drugs wasn't even the main thing that Americans were worried about, but the Reagan administration went on a massive campaign in the media showing gang members being arrested. Black people murdered in the street. The media is a powerful tool when used good or bad, that wasn't the only thing Reagan talked about, the infamous picture of the black woman as a warefare queen didn't make matters any better. Let me say this before I Go nay further when Reagan went down south in made the speech on how he was going to make things like they use to be what was he speaking about? Well I will be the first to say it was aracial overtone, listen to the politicians today when they speak of putting things back like Reagan had them, what are they putting back? Newt Genrench the whole time he ran in the Republican primary he always said Reagan is his favorite president, and what was the killer is when he said instead of letting them kids grow up with role models as pimps and drug dealers let's make them work, again who is them? The media use it for about two or three days then nothing else was ever said about the issue again. The reason I'm all over the place is that I'm trying to get you to see if we don't talk about race first how can we have an honest conversation about the mass incarceration of people of color. After the Reagan administration came Bush. Sr. which he kept basically the same tactics as Reagan, then we come to Bill Clinton black folks swear he was the closest to a black president we'd ever have. Unbeknownst to the black folks Clinton made life for blacks hell. He passed a $30 billion dollar crime bill in August 1994 also he authorized more than $16 billion for state prison grants and expansion of state and local police forces. Congress revised the program that provides federal aid to law enforcement and called it the Edward Byrne memorial state and local law enforcement assistance program. Clinton also endorsed the federal three strikes and you're out law, and he enforced the one strike and you're out law that if you had a felony on your record you couldn't apply for public housing. And if you were on housing and you had a felony you were automatically took off the public housing program. Under President Clinton was the largest increase in federal and state prison inmates of any president in American history! You can disagree to disagree the reason Clinton was successful with the budget and reaching over to work with Republicans because he used the same Reagan agenda but amped up by 100 times more. Of course you all know this already plus let's not forget the responsibility and work opportunity-reconciliation act where you had to work to get warefare.
I just want to throw this in, I love President Obama but once he got in office he kept his word even though there was warnings about the Byrne grant program he gave them $2 billion in new Byrne funding and $600 million to increase state and local law enforcement across the country. Tell me if the only black president doesn't stand up for us then who will? And they wonder why the youth are desensitized and the killing of black on black men is at a record high, the three things they know they have coming is 1. Not leaving the hood 2. Prison 3. Death, and that's sad but so true. Before I get off track let me backtrack, now this Byrne grant affects the black and Latino community at an alarming rate and hence started another caste system. First you have to understand that the money the federal government gives the local law enforcement agency is with a catch 22, you have to have a certain percentage of drug arrest to apply for the Byrne grant, so it's an incentive for law enforcement to round as many people as they can, plus they give them military equipment to use when they go on raids. That's like I own this company that makes screwdrivers I tell my workers that they make $8.25 an hour plus rate meaning after they make 10,000 screwdrivers anything after that I pay you by the bundle. They will work harder to make that extra money, that's no different than law enforcement, all blacks know to be careful on Tuesday and Thursday because that vice day, you go outside at your own risk because the police will snatch you up and put dope on you even if you didn't have anything on you.
I feel like we're fighting a losing battle, on one hand the black democrats be the main ones talking about there going to be tough on crime I guess they feel like in order to get elected they have to say they're going to be tuff on crime, that's what's killing the black community we need to start holding them accountable for their actions. If I get out of prison and I don't have my family then I'm out of luck because I can't get public housing or warefare. I can't go to college because I have a drug offense, I'm 36 years old I never voted in my life but I pay taxes they'll take my money, and it's not promise that I'll get a job. I know that I'm not going to starve or live on the streets then they wonder why there's a high rate of recidivism in the black and Latino community.
The truth has always been right in front of us, now the truth has become their adversary and our advocate so we must continue to fight the righteous fight. We'll brandish truth like a sword and triumph as our banner, they may have won the "battle" but we'll win the "war". The prison system has and still remains to be a metaphorical place of transformation, as you already know the black and Latino community is in a crisis and the systematic slaughter of our children is at an epic proportion. This generation is descendants of us "The Seed of the father" there's a biblical principle that has practical implications. Whatsoever a man sowth, that shall he also read. A seed produces after its own kind, that's the natural occurrence of things. If we sow violence; we shall reap violence, if we sow hate, we shall reap discord. Yet if we neglect parenting our children we are inadvertently, setting them up to fail, its our sole responsibility to stop this repetitive destructive cycle and the mass incarceration of people of color. There has been and still remains to be a mass generation of young men that's entering these institutions at an alarming rate, I've seen the subtle transition of prison population. They're younger and unfortunate the offspring of negligent parents, failed systems, impoverished communities and many things that lead people to places such as this prison.
I would like to close this essay by saying most often we have to go through something to understand its meaning, I don't think I would have developed into the person I am today. If I wouldn't have gone through what I'm going through now; "Gold is refined by fire" This experience has both tried and challenged me in every essence of my being I've been forced, even compelled to reevaluate who I am as a person. I must confess self analyzation and evaluation can only be achieved with absolute humility and honesty in who we are or allege to believe in who people say we are.
For years I lived a lie and thought I was something I wasn't and because of this belief I lived a sociopathic, suicidal lifestyle, we all lived that way (my friends). What else explains the devalue and depreciation for human life, if we disregarded our own life. Instead of locking us up give us help with drugs and alcohol because it murders the soul and desensitizes the conscience, of course, I didn't realize this until I embarked on my quest I discovered I was in prison way before I made it to prison, what a disturbing reality. That premonition paralyzed my soul and haunted my mind until I was willing to accept the truth that the depravity of my mind made me capable of doing anything. I believe that's not who I've always been but was conformed into. The street demoralizes a person, making us more cynical and susceptible to victimizing people, who would want to think of themselves in such a way. We all have potential and undiscovered talents to be anything in life, unfortunately, we waste them and end up in places like this prison.

Question
What are the most pressing issues that the network should focus on (example; high cost of phone access, mental health, employment, voting rights) the solution to the phone problem is very simple fix its a company called "Correctional Billing" For me to call from Wisconsin to Chicago on the old phone system would cost me $2000 dollars for a 15 minute call. Now that the prison uses correctional billing it's 12 cents a minute for all local calls and 18 cents a minute for long distance anywhere in the USA.
The mental health issue is a serious problem in these prisons because a lot of these younger guys come through these doors with serious issues and then repeatedly go back and forth to the hole then the prison puts them on administration confinement (A/C) to keep them locked-up 24 hours a day that's not addressing the issue. We need to set a volunteer mental health program in each state or non-profit that they take turns visiting the prison and give the in house doctor their finding and every 6 months they all get together in their states with a member from congress or senate and address the overall issue at hand plus it saves the state money!
Employment? Most states have programs for the inmates, like they give company tax breaks in things like that but he inmates are not told of these programs like bonding programs and when the money is not used in a certain time limit they use that money for other things that may have nothing to do with ex-cons. We need to stand on these programs that's getting federal funding for ex-con and make them use the money for what it's for, the ex-cons!
Voting rights? We need to lobby the congress heavy about this issue 1 million black men and women are on probation or parole in the United States including the prison population it maybe more. We need to make the case that our founding fathers that were kicked out of England for murder, rape and everything else, they even then had a say in what would become America. I feel that they know the balance of power would shift strongly in the black and Latino community, what we can argue is that it violates our constitutional right by us paying taxes, not only that, another argument is voting suppression on the fact that they sentence black and Latino men to outrageous sentence that never will be completed and we show them facts because it's true, just look these things up by states.

How can organizations working to end mass incarceration do better? Simply by communicating with each other by the different states, I mean if something working in your state e-mail another organization and let them know your breakthrough in the end we're fighting for the same thing!

What support do you need that you are not getting? These prisons are so far from our homes that's a lot of inmates lose contact with their family, and family is very important and better education for AS colleges, Wisconsin is getting rid of a lot of educational programs not letting the inmates grow mentally!

Are there any changes to laws that we should advocate for? Yes! The sentence structure we're doing more time than the federal inmates the feds pass a crack law that reduces the sentence of someone who sold crack why haven't these states adopt this law, in Wisconsin for a sale of one bag of crack you're doing anywhere from 3-6 years and you're doing either the 3 years or the 6 years whichever you get straight, so if I get I have to do 6 years with 8 years paper that's crazy, when the feds catch you with 2 and half ounce you get buyers you only do 4 years. This is the issue that needs to be addressed nationwide.

How can we use media to advance these causes? We need to use the internet and organize meetings together and talk about all the issues at hand, and have people like Michelle Alexander speak who know about these problems and like I said before communicate with each other.