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My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
- Hosea 4:6 | |
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Greetings!
Our featured article entitled "More black people jailed in England and Wales proportionally than in US" reads much like the story featured in the Afro entitled "Baltimore Agrees to Pay for 'Illegal Arrests'. The Guardian Newspaper reports "that black people were subjected to what the report describes as an "excess" of 145,000 stop and searches in 2008." When Maryland's Governor, Martin O'Malley, was mayor of Baltimore, there were nearly 750,000 "illegal" arrests!
There seems to be an international policy of criminalizing African ancestral people. How did black men and crime become synonymous? How did a group of people who participated in the rape, castration, crucifixion, lynching, buying and selling, breeding and enslavement of African people convince the world that black men are more dangerous than white men? How do we allow a group of people who continue to wage imperialistic wars and spread weapons of mass murder around the globe off the hook and sit by as they criminalize our boys, men and increasingly our women?
Black People, What Ya'll Goin' Do?
In love & service,
Jamye Wooten
Kinetics
info@kineticnet.org |
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Gov. O'Malley's Youth Jail: "Black People, What Ya'll Goin' Do?"
Watch Video |
Improper school-based arrests and referrals to law enforcement have a devastating impact on children. Studies show that being arrested has detrimental psychological effects on the child; nearly doubles the odds of dropping out of school, and, if coupled with a court appearance, nearly quadruples the odds of dropout; lowers standardized test scores; reduces future employment prospects; and increases the likelihood of future interaction with the criminal justice system.-POLICING IN SCHOOLS:
DEVELOPING A GOVERNANCE DOCUMENT FOR SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS IN K-12 SCHOOLS | |
State Comptroller Peter Franchot on O'Malley's Youth Jail: "I'll follow the Governor's lead"
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| The number of children arrested or referred to court for school discipline has grown in recent years. In South Carolina, the single most common offense resulting in a juvenile court referral during the 2007-08 year was "Disturbing Schools." - POLICING IN SCHOOLS: DEVELOPING A GOVERNANCE DOCUMENT FOR SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS IN K-12 SCHOOLS | |
Councilwoman Rikki Spector on O'Malley's $104 Million Dollar Youth Jail: "It's Terrible!"
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Turnout reached record high two years ago, but might dip in governor's race By Julie Bykowicz, The Baltimore Sun11:08 p.m. EDT, October 5, 2010  He is airing campaign advertisements on minority-owned radio stations. He has enlisted the support of leaders in the African-American strongholds of Baltimore and Prince George's County. He will host a visit by President Barack Obama at historically black Bowie State University on Thursday.Less than a month before Election Day, Gov. Martin O'Malley is stepping up his courtship of the state's African-American community - a constituency with which the Democrat has had a complicated relationship, but which could decide the outcome of his race against Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.A pair of recent polls, including one released Tuesday, show O'Malley beginning to break away in what had been a neck-and-neck race with Ehrlich. But the incumbent remains concerned about voter turnout, especially after unexpectedly low participation last month in the Democratic primaries in Baltimore and Prince George's. Read More
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Racial Disparities Remain High in Juvenile Arrests
Drop In Overall Arrests Shows More Direct Approach Needed
Advocates for Children & Youth
Executive Summary
African-American youth in Maryland continue to be arrested at a much higher rate than White youth, according to new data obtained and analyzed by Advocates for Children and Youth. This disparity persists despite an overall drop in youth arrests. To reduce disproportionate arrests of minority youth, state and local agencies, particularly schools and school law enforcement and resource officers, must employ proven strategies that more specifically target the problem.
Read Report
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Data Makes Case to Scrap New Juvenile Jail
July 26, 2010 | by Diana Morris and Tom Wilcox
The following originally appeared in the Maryland Daily Record.
Maryland governor Martin O'Malley is known for his attention to data-driven policy and his focus on good government. As longtime partners in his work in juvenile justice, we know the governor will carefully consider the data that led to the decision to build a new jail for youth charged as adults in Baltimore.
And we believe the data lead to one conclusion: The proposed jail should be scrapped.
Conceived at a time when the number of juvenile defendants was rising and state coffers were full, the $104-million jail now makes little sense from a financial, legal, or policy perspective. State legislators and the criminal courts can do much to address the issue without building an expensive new jail. Read More
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Maryland Correctional Enterprises
According to Maryland Correctional Enterprises, the prison industry arm of the Maryland Division of Correction, "In fiscal year 2010, Maryland Correctional Enterprises had unaudited revenues of $50.4 million ...MCE is currently ranked among the top 10 prison industry programs in the United States; ranking 8th in regards to total revenues generated and 6th in the number of inmates employed."
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More black people jailed in England and Wales proportionally than in US
New study finds seven times more black people per population are in prison - in the US number is just four times as many
 The report, which aims to set out how to measure "fairness" in Britain, says that ethnic minorities are "substantially over-represented in the custodial system". It suggests many of those jailed have "mental health issues, learning disab ilities, have been in care or experienced abuse". Experts and politicians said over-representation of black men was a result of decades of racial prejudice in the criminal justice system and an overly punitive approach to penal affairs. "People will be and should be shocked by this data," said Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust. "We have a tendency to say we are better than the US, but we have not got prison right." Lyon said that although there had been "numerous efforts to address racism in the prison system ... we have yet to get a better relationship between justice authorities and black communities. Instead we have ended up with mistrust breeding mistrust." Evidence of this damaged relationship can be found in the commission's report. On the streets, black people were subjected to what the report describes as an "excess" of 145,000 stop and searches in 2008. It notes that black people constitute less than 3% of the population, yet made up 15% of people stopped by police.
The commission's first triennial report into the subject, How Fair is Britain, shows that the proportion of people of African-Caribbean and African descent incarcerated here is almost seven times greater to their share of the population. In the United States, the proportion of black prisoners to population is about four times greater.
The proportion of black people in prison in England and Wales is higher than in the United States, a landmark report released today by the Equality and Human Rights Commission reveals.
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Locating the School-to-Prison Pipeline
The "school-to-prison pipeline" refers to the policies and practices that push our nation's schoolchildren, especially our most at-risk children, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. This pipeline reflects the prioritization of incarceration over education. For a growing number of students, the path to incarceration includes the following "stops":
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Mapping and Analyzing The Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track Action Kit
This Action Kit is intended to help mobilized communities (parents, youth, advocates, and educators) understand and begin to address the schoolhouse to jailhouse track so that they may ultimately create caring learning environments that push students toward colleges and careers rather than prison. It includes information on:
- Collecting information and data about school discipline policies and practices;
- Analyzing and organizing the data; and
- Developing messages that resonate with your audience.
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POLICING IN SCHOOLS:
DEVELOPING A GOVERNANCE DOCUMENT
FOR SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS IN K-12 SCHOOLS
AN ACLU WHITE PAPER
BY CATHERINE Y. KIM AND I. INDIA GERONIMO
PUBLISHED AUGUST 2009
INTRODUCTION
K-12 public schools across the country have begun to deploy law enforcement agents on school grounds in growing numbers. Although there are no current national figures for the number of such officers, in 2004, 60 percent of high school teachers reported armed police officers stationed on school grounds,1 and in 2005, almost 70 percent of public school students ages 12 to 18 reported that police officers or security guards patrol their hallways.
Frequently referred to as "School Resource Officers" or SROs, these agents are often sworn police officers employed by the local police department and assigned to patrol public school hallways full-time. In larger jurisdictions such as Los Angeles and Houston, these officers may be employed directly by the school district.
Without addressing the question of whether police officers should be deployed to schools in the first instance, this White Paper posits that if they are deployed, they must be provided with the tools necessary to ensure a safe school environment while respecting the rights of students and the overall school climate.
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About Us
... You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. (Isaiah. 58:12)
Kinetics mission is to develop new ideas that work to strengthen social movements within the African-American community; providing them with the tools and skills to pursue justice and better address the needs of those whom they serve.
Kinetics is a project of Fusion Partnerships, Inc. | |
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Kinetics and our allies will host Youth Justice Sunday, October 31, 2010 on the site of the proposed $100 Million Youth Jail.
If your church or organization would like to endorse Youth Justice Sunday please contact us @ info@kineticnet.org
You can also connect with us on FACEBOOK @ Stop Martin O'Malley's Youth Jail
Call the governor (410)974-3901. Sign the electronic petition . If you would like to volunteer, contact me @ info@kineticnet.org
Please join us for Prayer, Worship and Justice
Youth Justice Sunday Endorsers
Dr. Karen Bethea, Set the Captives Free Outreach Center
Rev. Heber Brown, III, Pleasant Hope Baptist Church
Rev. Kevin Brooks, Gethsemane African Methodist Episcopal
Pastor Ronald Covington, Hope Community Ministries
Rev. Frances Toni Draper, Freedom Temple AME Zion
Rev. Dr. Al Hathaway, Union Baptist Church of Baltimore
S. Maxine Johnson, Redeeming Word Praise & Worship Center Church
Min. LeVar A. Jones, City Youth Leaders Network
Rev. Eric King, New Life UMC in Baltimore
Rev. Lester Agyei McCorn, Pennsylvania A.M.E. Zion
Bishop Douglas Miles, Koinonia Baptist Church in Baltimore
Pastor Kinji Scott, My Father's House of Baltimore City
West Baltimore Clergy United
Algebra Project
Baltimore ANSWER Coalition (Act Now To Stop War And End Racism)
Baltimore Citizens for Positive Change
Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle
Sister to Sister, Inc.
T.R.U.C.E. MOVEMENT
"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."
-Martin Luther King Jr., "Strength to Love" |
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