Prison System Archives - Tools For Racial Justice

After 78 Days, Michigan Teen Who was Jailed for Failing to Complete Her Homework While on Probation is Released

by Dawn R. Wolfe | August 2020
“Grace,” the 15-year-old Black girl who garnered international attention after she was jailed for failing to complete schoolwork while on probation, has been released after spending 78 days in a facility where at least four staffers have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. Grace, who has been identified only by her middle name because of her status as a minor, was originally incarcerated in May by Oakland County Circuit Judge Mary Ellen Brennan. On Friday, the Michigan Court of Appeals ordered her immediate release pending an appeal of Brennan’s initial ruling. Brennan herself refused a motion to send Grace home on July 20. Criminal justice advocates say they believe the overwhelming attention given to the case—along with pressure brought on by tomorrow’s state primary—played a role in Grace’s release.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [-ing While Black] [Systemic Racism] [Accountability] [Prison System] [Black Lives Matter] [White Supremacy]

Race of Mass Shooters Influences How the Media Cover Their Crimes, New Study Shows

by Laura Frizzell, Sadé L. Lindsay, and Scott Duxbury | July 2018
If a news report mentions a shooter’s tough childhood, chances are he’s white. On Jan. 24, 2014, police found Josh Boren, a 34-year-old man and former police officer, dead in his home next to the bodies of his wife and their three children. The shots were fired execution-style on Boren’s kneeling victims, before he turned the gun on himself. On Aug. 8, 2015, 48-year-old David Ray Conley shot and killed his son, former girlfriend and six other children and adults at his former girlfriend’s home. Like Boren, Conley executed the victims at point-blank range. Both men had histories of domestic violence and criminal behavior. Yet despite the obvious similarities in these two cases and perpetrators, the media, in each case, took a different approach.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Myths] [Individual Change] [History] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [Policing] [Colorblindness] [Prison System] [-ing While Black]

On Black Mama’s Bail Out Day, “Goal is to Free Our People from These Cages” Before Mother’s Day

by Democracy Now! | May2017
On Thursday, racial justice groups began bailing women out of jail as part of a nationwide “Black Mama’s Bail Out Day.” The effort, taking place in nearly 20 cities, raises money to free as many black women from jail as possible in time for a Mother’s Day celebration with their families. Organizers for Black Mama’s Bail Out Day are calling for an end to the cash bail system, which keeps hundreds of thousands of people who have not been convicted of any crime imprisoned in jails every day nationwide while they await trial. For more, we speak with Mary Hooks, co-director of Southerners On New Ground, or SONG, an Atlanta-based regional LGBTQ nonprofit and one of the organizers of Black Mama’s Bail Out Day.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Prison System] [Collective Action]

The Injustice of This Moment Is Not an ‘Aberration’

By Michelle Alexander |January 2020
From mass incarceration to mass deportation, our nation remains in deep denial.
Ten years have passed since my book, “The New Jim Crow,” was published. I wrote it to challenge our nation to reckon with the recurring cycles of racial reform, retrenchment and rebirth of caste-like systems that have defined our racial history since slavery. It has been an astonishing decade. Everything and nothing has changed.…
Contrary to what many people would have us believe, what our nation is experiencing is not an “aberration.” The politics of “Trumpism” and “fake news” are not new; they are as old as the nation itself. The very same playbook has been used over and over in this country by those who seek to preserve racial hierarchy, or to exploit racial resentments and anxieties for political gain, each time with similar results.
… It is tempting to imagine that electing a Democratic president or more Democratic politicians will fix the crises in our justice systems and our democracy. To be clear, removing Trump from office is necessary and urgent; but simply electing more Democrats to office is no guarantee that our nation will break its habit of birthing enormous systems of racial and social control. Indeed, one of the lessons of recent decades is these systems can grow and thrive even when our elected leaders claim to be progressive and espouse the rhetoric of equality, inclusion and civil rights.
TAGS:[Racial Terrorism] [Prison System]

White People, It’s Time To Prioritize Justice Over Civility

by Tauriq Moosa | May 2017
In striving to be ‘civil,’ white moderates provide cover for deadly white supremacy. .. Welcome to our current reality, in which white supremacists are treated like B-grade celebs on a reality TV show.
White supremacists are, after all, routinely landing profiles in leading media sites — because it’s apparently surprising Nazis can brush their hair and tuck in their shirt — and often getting invited onto popular shows, as if their ideas deserve more attention and platforms. …The way things are doesn’t equate to how things should be.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Politics] [White Supremacy] [White Blindness] [White Culture] [Prison System] [White Privilege] [White Fragility/Tears]

Racist Police in Alabama Planted Drugs and Guns on Over 1,000 Innocent Black Men

by A.R. Shaw | December 2015
Black men in Alabama were racially profiled and made criminals by a group of racist police. According to the Henry County Report, the incidents occurred in Dothan, Alabama where at least 12 White police officers involved. The officers were a part of a narcotics team and were supervised by Lt. Steve Parrish, who is now Dothan’s Police Chief, and Andy Hughes, Asst. Director of Homeland Security for Alabama. The officers would target innocent Black men and plant drugs and weapons on them. Black men would be arrested and charged by District Attorney Doug Valeska. Valeska knew that the drugs were being planted and continued to prosecute while protecting the officers. Nearly 1,000 innocent Black men were arrested and falsely prosecuted and many of the Black men who were falsely arrested are still in jail serving time.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [Policing] [History] [Prison System] [Black Lives Matter] [White Privilege]

White People, The Philando Castile Acquittal Should Make You Mad as Hell

by Zenobia Jeffries Warfield | June 2017
It is a fact that Black and Brown people are herded through the prison system at higher rates, are killed by police officers at higher rates, and are not allowed the same privileges in this country as most of you, especially when it comes to receiving justice. That is the reality the country has been built on. People who are not White are treated as less than human because The System was designed by and for White people. So how does a system designed to benefit Whites also export and fail them?
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Prison System] [Police Shootings] [White Blindness]