general’s office reported that black drivers in Missouri were 85 percent more
likely than whites to be stopped by police—a 10 percent increase over 2017.
Also in 2018, two professors at Harvard Law School found by examining the
sentencing practices of 1,400 federal trial judges over more than 15 years that
judges appointed by Republican presidents gave longer sentences to black
defendants. The study also showed that white men were more likely to get
their sentences reduced under the judge’s discretion than black men and that
white men got larger reductions than the ones black men got.
We need to confront the realities of the prison-industrial complex. America
has the largest prison population, per capita, in the world. Money is made off
prisoners’ backs. Prisoners are forced to shop in prison stores. They (or their
families) are forced to pay astronomical fees
to outside companies to make
phone calls, and in some cases, forced to visit through video services, which
also cost the prisoner money. In some prisons, inmates are forced to work
full-time making products for multinational corporations for almost no pay.
The legal definition of “slavery” is “the state of one person being forced to
work under the control of another.” The U.S. prisons are contracted by a
range of government entities and private corporations to make their products.
In most prisons, wages are well below poverty level. In some states prisoners
aren’t paid. These working prisoners aren’t
allowed to get benefits, they
aren’t allowed to form unions, they aren’t allowed to negotiate the terms of
their work conditions. It’s legal slavery to exploit prisoners in this way.
Under the 13th Amendment prisoners are slaves of the state and are treated as
such.
Private prisons—prisons run by corporations in order to make a profit, are
dangerous. When the goal of a prison is to make a profit,
human beings
suffer. Corners are cut; rules are devised to keep people in prison longer;
there is no incentive to rehabilitate prisoners. A 2016 Justice Department
report issued by the Obama administration found that there is more violence
at privately run prisons and less medical care than at government-run
facilities. In 2016 President Obama directed the Justice Department to reduce
the use of private prisons.
The following year, under President Donald
Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded Obama’s order within three
weeks of being sworn in. The private prison industry is booming.
If there is something you can do, even one thing, to ensure humanity exists
behind bars, do it. If you don’t
know where to start, follow Solitary Watch
and Prison Legal News on social media to find out what’s going on. There
are organizations that are trying to change prisons as we know them, such as
Critical Resistance and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. As human
beings, we need to insist on the humane treatment of prisoners and the
rehabilitation and education of prisoners. Prisoners who are mentally ill need
treatment, not paralyzing drugs and 23 hours a day in a cell. Prisoners who
are uneducated need education. The RAND Corporation has published study
after study showing that educating prisoners
who lack basic academic and
vocational skills reduces future criminal behavior. RAND research has shown
that every dollar invested in correctional education creates a return of four to
five dollars in the reduction of future criminal justice costs. Don’t turn away
from what happens in American prisons.
On October 3, 2016, I was invited to speak at the Southern University Law
Center. Afterward I was approached by the Honorable Judge James Brady.
I’d never met him before. He graciously introduced me to his wife. I was so
humbled that he took time out of his day to be there. I thanked him for saving
my life. “Judge Brady, I’m honored to shake your hand,” I told him. “I want
to thank you for the integrity you showed during my case and with the rulings
you made.” He said, “Well, you had the law on your side, and I was just
doing my duty as a judge, following the law.”
Just over a year later, on
December 9, 2017, Judge Brady died after a brief illness. “He believed in
justice for all,” his obituary read, “regardless of wealth, power or position. He
believed that whether prince or pauper, in his court you were equal in the
eyes of the law. He was, as friends and family called him, ‘Atticus Finch in
the flesh.’”
If there’s a moral to my story it’s that salvation comes with the will to be
a better human being. I have been asked many times what I would change
about my life. My answer is always the same: “Not one thing.” All I went
through made me the man I am today.
I had to be a better person, a wiser
person, a more disciplined person to survive. I paid a heavy price. Herman
and King did too. In his autobiography,
From the Bottom of the Heap
, King
wrote, “My soul still cries from all that I witnessed and endured. It mourns
continuously.” The agony and pain from all we saw and experienced will
never leave us, it will always be part of us.
To those of you who are just entering
the world of social struggle,
welcome. To those of you who have spent years struggling for human rights
and social justice: Don’t give up. Look at me and see how the strength and
determination of the human spirit defy all evil. For 44 years I defied the state
of Louisiana and the Department of Corrections. Their main objective was to
break my spirit. They did not break me. I have witnessed the horrors of man’s
cruelty to man. I did not lose my humanity. I bear the scars of beatings,
loneliness, isolation, and persecution. I am also marked by every kindness.
