Justice News and Updates 5.16.22
On the Buffalo tragedy: this commentary by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is one of the best I’ve seen. See also Sherrilyn Ifill’s thread, noting that white supremacy is an existential threat to our democracy. Mainstream cable news is making the problem much worse: Tucker Carlson has regularly espoused ‘replacement theory’ (see this NYTimes exposé), cited by the Buffalo shooter (and the El Paso shooter, and the Christchurch shooter) as the driving reason for their actions. For more context, see this New Yorker interview with Kathleen Belew, an expert in white supremacist violence. Meanwhile, liberal institutions continue to perpetuate subtler versions of the same myths. See this sobering thread by journalism professor Dr. Steven Thrasher, noting how the Associated Press characterized the Buffalo shooter as a youthful “teenager,” contrasting with their description of 18-year-old Mike Brown, murdered by a police officer in Ferguson in 2014, as a “man.” We all have urgent work to do, and there are many ways to enter the problem, including work to end mass incarceration.
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Top pick: If you read one general article on prison work this week, let it be this illuminating piece on Susanville, where the prison is slated for closure but the community is fighting that decision on economic necessity. The author spoke with many people in the town and recounts the history as well as the alternative options.
Media
Here is Ruth Wilson Gilmore, one of the intellectual giants of this field, in discussion with Kelly Hayes about abolition and the climate crisis. Her new book is Essays Towards Liberation.
Children of incarcerated parents are one of the most important potential constituencies in this work, but organizing is in its early stages. One key building block is storytelling. To that end, check out the We Got Us Now podcast, where you can hear these young people speak out.
Derecka Purnell was on the PEN America podcast to talk about her book, Becoming Abolitionists.
Laura Bennett and other experts spoke with WNYC studios in a series about how to spot pro-police bias in reporting. This show is watched closely by journalists.
Check out this interactive map with slides for a walking tour of slavery history in NYC.
Investigating corrupt systems
Propublica published a brilliant in-depth series on Illinois schools, which are prohibited from fining students for misbehavior, working with police to get around the law. State officials immediately responded to urge schools not to do this. A fantastic journalistic win!
High stakes investment drama: Bianca Tylek of Worth Rises is dogging efforts by Platinum Equity (which owns Securus, a predatory prison company) to win investment from NYC. Fascinating behind-the-scenes read.
Nika Soon-Shiong landed several clean punches on the Sheriff’s dept in this piece for Knock LA, where she detailed extravagant overcharging and under delivery of services to L.A. cities, and in this piece also for Knock, where she investigated rampant overcharging for commissary items, with no discernible benefit to people held in jail (contrary to state law).
Read this riveting investigation by Reuters on police trainers, independent consultants hired by police and sheriff departments around the country. Reuters uncovered disturbing posts advocating the violent overthrow of the government and other extreme right-wing views.
The watchdog for the Rikers jail complex, fired under Mayor Adams, speaks out about immense corruption on Rikers, which is creating deadly conditions.
The cycle of policing, prosecution and courts summed up: “Brookside [Alabama]x’s part-time municipal judge and prosecutor saw their pay from the tiny town surge in recent years as its police department swelled, and the town turned to fines and forfeitures – criminalizing residents and passersby – to bring in half its revenue.”
Reason magazine reports that a Texas prosecutor moonlighted as a judicial clerk on his own cases for 20 years, making rulings in his own favor, and got paid handsomely for it.
Commentary and research
This report by the Frameworks Institute on how to frame the work of international peacebuilding has a lot to teach us domestically, for example in how to talk about violence interruption work.
The L.A. Times published a Mother’s Day oped urging us to stop separating mothers and their children with unjust bail policies. The article features the work of Essie Justice Group.
LA District Attorney George Gascón and Prosecutor Alliance ED Cristine DeBerry published a lengthy oped on the need to provide more meaningful support to crime survivors. See also this report from the Prosecutor Alliance of CA on which services for crime survivors actually work.
Professor Gavin Wright argues in a new paper that, contrary to much discourse, slavery did not drive the economic growth of America in the 19th century, but in fact held the country back.
Hugh Ryan, author of the new book The Women’s House of Detention, wrote an eye-opening article stating that 40% of people in women’s prisons identify as queer. He traces the historical roots of targeting queer people with criminalization and punishment.
I just came across the Center for evaluation, which has some interesting papers on how to better evaluate grantmaking in light of racial justice commitments.
Paul and Mark Engler have two recent articles on co-governance that are well worth reading and studying if you’re interested in movement strategy: one focused on the MST (which focuses more on taking over existing bureaucracies, such as schools), and one domestic (which focuses on electing movement-candidates to office to implement new policies).
A recent article in SSIR argues that funding protest movements can be a higher-return investment for philanthropic funders than even the best charities. See also Ayni’s report.
Politics and elections
Bolts reported that 18% of the French prison population voted in the most recent elections, after recent changes were implemented to make the process much simpler to access. If people incarcerated in the U.S. voted at the same rate as in France, that would be ~320,000 voters.
I hear from Florida contacts that former Orlando DA Aramis Ayala, a strong leader in justice reform, has a real shot at winning the Attorney General race. If she gets it, she will have substantial power over what Governor DeSantis can do.
Steve Mulroy won the Memphis DA primary and will advance to the August general election against Amy Weirich, who is notoriously vicious. An 8-year term is at stake.
The L.A. Times endorsed organizer and advocate Eunisses Hernandez for city council. She founded La Defensa and was a key architect of L.A.’s alternatives to incarceration working group, in partnership with the county board of supervisors. She seems to have a shot to win!
I recently learned that the biggest donor to the Chesa Boudin recall campaign (at $600k) also has given millions of dollars to Mitch McConnell. Meanwhile, the nurses (and many others) have urged voters to say no to the recall. The battle lines here are starkly drawn. More information:
Chesa Boudin’s team put together a site with a list of his achievements
A local public defender did a helpful analysis of SF crime stats.
Austin voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that prevents the city's police officers from enforcing laws against possessing small amounts of marijuana and from entering properties unannounced using no-knock warrants.
Bolts did an excellent state-by-state roundup on state supreme court races.
You may think of New York state as a liberal place, but the Court of Appeals has a conservative majority that has consistently ruled against vulnerable people and recently threw out the state’s congressional maps, which may flip control of the House in 2022. One of the newest judges, Madeline Singas, was notorious for her brutal practices as an elected prosecutor in Nassau.