Modern Day Torture Chambers

Even though I have been visiting prisons in Cook County, throughout the State of Illinois, and even Oxford Federal Prison in Wisconsin, for many years, the revelation of excessively poor treatment coming out of Menard Prison was shocking.

The preliminary report from Alan Mills, the Legal Director of The Law Center, is an indictment on our very humanity. Our government would close down a puppy breeder for less negligent behavior. Our prison officials, and elected representatives by extension, are so callous, cruel and indifferent to incarcerated citizens, leaving them to be subject to disease and suffering that is totally unnecessary. When these men return to their community, what will be left of their humanity!

Please check out this article by clicking here.

As your anger rises, as your empathy kicks in, consider joining with your Prison Ministry or The Next Movement committee (of the Prison Ministry) to fight for justice, for humane treatment of prisoners, for an end to America's love affair with incarceration.

Daryle Brown

Free Entrepreneurship Program Exclusively for Ex-Offenders

Sent to us by friend of the cause, Prof. Randolph Stone:

Free Entrepreneurship Program Exclusively for Ex-Offenders Starts June 9, 2014 Greetings!  Greetings from the IL-SBDC/Duman Entrepreneurship Center at JVS Chicago. We are pleased to announce that the Basic Entrepreneurship Support and Training Program (B.E.S.T.) is accepting participants for its first session of 2014. B.E.S.T. is a six week course of entrepreneurial training exclusively for ex-offenders. The next session will start on June 9th, 2014. In 2013, sixty seven (67) ex-offenders completed the B.E.S.T. Program achieving nine new business starts or expansions and 14 new jobs were created. In addition, five of these businesses were funded through our B.E.S.T. micro-loan program, which is earmarked exclusively for ex-offenders. We are looking to create many new success stories for 2014. We are reaching out to all of our partners to assist us in identifying qualified individuals who would benefit from this program. Thank you for your continuing support of this program. The Duman Entrepreneurship Center Team

We need 30 Ex-Offenders looking to start or expand a small business and to become one of our many success stories. There have been many successful business start-ups and expansions since the inception of the program. Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to: Plan for the start-up or expansion of a successful small business Create and write a successful business plan Design an industry specific marketing plan Address financial planning and credit issues Understand business structure and risk management Examine options for funding a small business Apply for funding through the B.E.S.T. Loan Program  Microloans are Available! Eligible program participants can receive microloans up to $5,000 to start or expand their business. May be the last opportunity to participate in this program for 2014. Classes fill fast!    Important Information and Registration Registration and Additional Information All classes will be held at: JVS Chicago 216 W. Jackson, 2nd Floor Chicago, IL 60606    To register, and for more information, contact: JVS Chicago Duman Microenterprise Center info@JVSChicago.org 855-INFO-JVS (855-463-6587)       Register Today Space is Limited!    City of Chicago Residency Required This program is funded by the City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services

From the Inside: Chris' Story

Previously we  we introduced Andre "Dre" Patterson, a resident in Stateville Correctional Center, and a volunteer writer for The Next Movement's blog. His first series of articles will be focusing on various crossroads . . . intersection points where a better decision could have led to an entirely different future. This is the third installment . . .

Chris' Story

The middle-class suburb of Mundelein (where the employment rate is high, and violent crimes were minimal to non-existent) has a greasy underbelly.  This mostly White and Hispanic town is home to an affluent drug culture.  The notorious Mexican Mafia has a strong hold on the cocaine trade, and kids can get ahold of any drug on the spectrum; from prescription pills to acid.  With such easy access, you can become an addict, a dealer, or both early on--the user and the used.

This was the breeding ground for Chris; a lanky, pale-skinned, anti-social kid, with natural leadership skills.  He stayed in a one story, five-bedroom house with his mother, younger sister and older brother, who was in and out of jail.  His brother was deeply entrenched in Mundelein’s drug scene, a user and one of the used.  This is where Chris took his example from; with a father in Tennessee, and mother that worked days and went to school at night, he was left to figure things out on his own. 

He was also left to deal with the memory of something horrible he had done when he was ten.  “It jarred me awake every morning, like the annoying beep of an alarm clock.  The same nightmare from something that I did when I was too young to know better.  At least that’s what family told me.  But I had a different narrative of the events.  What I did, chased my conscience, so I chased it away with vodka and cocaine.” 

When he was eleven, Chris started down a dark road that he mistook for an escape route, when he began smoking marijuana.  At thirteen, he added alcohol to an everyday weed habit.  He began a rapid plunge to the bottom when at fourteen, he was introduced to cocaine.  This would be the ultimate escape from his conscience that he was looking for.

At fifteen, Chris checked into a thirty-day rehab to avoid jail time for a series of under-age drinking and possession arrests.  While in the facility, he had a brief moment of clarity and attempted to get clean.  But the moment passed when he couldn’t envision the future sober.  Chris continued to get high in rehab.

Throughout all of this, Chris tried to stay in school, while residing in his chemically altered universe.  But, in his fourth year of high school, totally disengaged with education, he dropped out.  Around this time, Chris and some friends started burglarizing known drug houses. 

Usually, nobody was home.  But one day, someone surprised Chris and his crew and things got out of hand.  Chris was only eighteen when he came to jail charged with a home invasion & murder.

SB 1342 - A Small Victory . . . But the Fight Must Continue

Family,

Thanks to the hard work of many organizations and individuals we have won a small victory, as SB1342 will not be introduced during the winter veto session. The political forces behind this inhumane legislation have retreated back into their smoke filled rooms to negotiate with, pressure and cajole our legislators into some future form of a bill next year.

Our job is to continue to reach out to our state representatives and senators and urge them to

vote against whatever future form SB 1342 takes.

Until every human (that means you) is mistake-proof, mandatory minimum sentencing makes no sense.

Consider this: In a roomful of teen-aged boys, who may or may not have been listening, he carried himself with such dignity and self-control that he seemed like a king. Since I don’t remember his name, let’s just call him King.

He’d come to share his experience in hopes that they would learn from it. In his sixty years he’d had many experiences. He was a Vietnam veteran who served his country and returned home to diligently work and provide for his family until his recent retirement. And now he was a convicted felon, serving eighteen months in prison.

His crime? While driving his car, King made a left hand turn without signaling. After being stopped by the police, he agreed to let them search his car. Why not? He’d never broken the law and wasn’t breaking one now. Why not cooperate with their request? He had nothing to hide. Unless you count that unregistered gun his brother had left in the car without King’s knowledge.

In Illinois an unregistered gun in a car owned and driven by King was considered HIS gun. The prosecutor decided to pursue the case. In the U.S. criminal justice system, the prosecuting attorney has the power to choose which cases to pursue - almost absolute power. The only thing that comes close to offsetting that power is the discretion left to judges in the sentences they give.

King received eighteen months in prison for his “crime.” He could have received more. He possibly could have received less. Personally, I don’t think he should have gone to prison at all. But still, the judge made the choice to give less time than what he could have received. The judge made the choice. Let me repeat, the JUDGE made the choice.

In the legislation proposed by SB 1342, judges will have absolutely no choice in the sentences given for illegal gun possession. First-time offenders would receive a mandatory three-year sentence, regardless of the circumstances. Judges would have no choice.

Mandatory sentencing has been shown to be ineffective in deterring crime. It has been proven to result in a disproportionate number of people of color being incarcerated. You may believe the hype that mandatory sentencing is necessary to stop gun violence. You may choose to support the next version of SB 1342, or to fail to voice your opinion at all.

Just remember your choice the next time you forget to use your turn signal.

To continue the fight against mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes:

• Please keep calling, emailing, writing to your elected officials and get others to do the same. Find out how by clicking here. 
• Grow your personal knowledge of the issue using the resources below:
• See to outstanding articles at http://thecommongood.org/blogs/detail/1295 and http://www.thecommongood.org/blogs/detail/1297 for 
• The bill's sponsor, Rep. Mike Zalewski’s, editorial about SB 1342 has had highlights included (click on them to see the comments) to show some of the key areas of disagreement. Click here to view and of course, feel free to share with others. 
• Lastly, this click here for an excellent brief from the Shriver Center on the effectiveness of mandatory minimums. 

The fight is not yet won. We must remain diligent. Thank you all for your help in defeating this bad legislation thus far, and keep up the good work!

Michelle Day, Esq.

The Next Movement, Project Nehemiah &

Trinity UCC Justice Watch Team

From The Inside: Worm's Story

Last week we introduced Andre "Dre" Patterson, a resident in Stateville Correctional Center, and a volunteer writer for The Next Movement's blog. The first series of articles will be focusing on various crossroads . . . intersection points where a better decision could have led to an entirely different future. Here's . . .

Worm's Story

Nobody told him he wasn’t supposed to. That was the mindset of twelve year old Willie or “Worm”, the first time he got high. Even if someone had told him “just say no,” it probably would have gone over the cornrows on his head atop his four foot tall body. Raised in the land of vacant lots and dope spots, which is the west side of Chicago; Worm’s natural reaction was to do as he saw, not as he was told.


When Worm was eight, his mother and uncles used to throw raucous card parties with all of the neighborhood super-heroes: gangsters and hustlers. They would send little Worm back and forth to the store and have him light their squares (cigarettes) and joints. So, when he was twelve and one of his friends passed him a blunt and told him to light it, Worm did so like he had been there before.

During these same social gatherings, his mom would give him beer and put Worm in a circle of family and friends to sing and dance. Times like these inspired Worm to want to be a rapper and comedian.  He associated the weed and alcohol with fun and celebration. By the time Worm was fifteen, he was smoking and drinking every day.

With a father who lived in the suburbs, who he only saw when he got in trouble, Worm bonded with his step-dad; a small business owner and a well-known drug dealer.  His step-dad gave him a small amount of drugs to sell so Worm could buy clothes and maintain his habits. Having been inducted into street culture by his uncles when he was big enough to sit on a watermelon and break it, this was a natural transition for Worm.

In an attempt to pull her son from the tumultuous waters he had dived into, Worm’s mom sent him away to boot camp, where she hoped he would finish his education and learn discipline. It was just a vacation for Worm. When he completed the program, Worm came back home to the same poverty and hopelessness he had left. The weed he smoked to see the silver lining of the gray cloud over his environment would evolve into something more severe.

One day, a hail of gunfire parted a crowd that Worm was congregated in, causing them to duck in panic, behind parked cars and porch steps. When the shots let up, two of Worm’s closest friends lay on the unforgiving concrete, bleeding to death. That night, an angry and saddened Worm tried a drug that he had been shielded from up to this point. One of his homies, also grieving from the day’s mad drama, lit up a blunt laced with PCP, called shock. “Let me hit that shock,” a dejected Worm demanded. That first hit would consummate a long relationship between Worm and shock, that would only end when he was charged with first-degree murder, five years later.

From The Inside: Introducing Andre "Dre" Patterson

Friends,

As we work to end the epidemic of mass incarceration in America one of our

challenges to to present the human side of this travesty. This can often be seen in the broken families, the struggling children, the collective misery of the communities from which men, women and children are drawn into our criminal (in)justice system.

Of course these are not all angels of misfortune. Of course human choice, personal decisions, often play a major role in determining who will populate the jails and prisons of America. And yes, of course, a stacked deck works to funnel many promising lives into permanent second class citizenship, if they are luck, or if not, a near permanent residence in one of our prisons.

Several months ago, one of our members, Ibi Cole, introduced me to a young man that resides in Stateville, a maximum security prison on the outskirts of Chicagoland. Andre is one of those promising lives that has taken up permanent residence in our prisons. Intelligent, articulate, and a gifted writer, he wanted to know if he could contribute to our fight against mass incarceration . . . even from behind bars.

Our conversations, passed through communications that Ibi facilitated, have resulted in this first series of blogs From the Inside. I've asked Andre to talk with/interview the men he shares Stateville with, focusing particularly on the "forks in the road" that led to their imprisonment. I am prayerful that each story/article will move someone's heart as we recognize our own friends, family and ourselves: But for the grace of God go I . . .

Our goal is to share a new story every other week or so for the next several months, with the first story beginning November 18th. 

Lastly, please take a few moments to provide feedback on the stories. You can comment on the blog itself, or on the various Facebook pages that we will be linking to. That said, let me introduce you to Andre:

A luta continua

Daryle Brown

My name is Andre Patterson, known to loved ones as, simply, “Dre.” I graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1997; I was an average student, with above average potential.  The northern suburbs of Evanston are not the most dangerous or degraded environments to grow up in.  But, viewing the mostly green landscape from the shadows of insecurity, personal pain and alcoholism, it appeared dark and decrepit.

Lacking the courage and tools to conquer my demons, I made some bad decisions, that lead to a sixty-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections.  My cowardice has broken many lives, some of which I may never be able to piece together again.  But I would like to try… 

I’m going to tell you stories of other men, incarcerated like me, whose demons have manifested through addiction.  Maybe their lives and the lives they’ve affected through their actions could have turned out differently… if these addictions were viewed in a different light.

Dre

Will Cold Facts Warm Hearts? New Reports Should Call Us to Action

Today, The Sentencing Project, an organization dedicated to researching, generating publications, and advocacy, in order to change America's thinking about crime and punishment, released two significant reports. Both are intended as shadow reports to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and were written in advance of its review of U.S. compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) later this month.

The first, Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System, delivers the data to show what most of us already know - that the justice system in America imprisons vast numbers of our citizens, far more than any other country in the world, and that there are incredible racial disparities.

FACTS:

• Black men are 6 times more likely to be incarcerated than white males
• Black men are 2.5 times more likely to be incarcerated than Hispanic males
• If current trends continue, one in every three black American men born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime. ONE IN THREE! This is true for one in six Latino males and only one in seventeen white males.

Their findings lead them to conclude:

By creating and perpetuating policies that allow such racial disparities to exist in its criminal justice system, the United States is in violation of its obligations under Articles 2 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to ensure that all its citizens—regardless of race—are treated equally under the law. 

Essentially, our criminal justice system is deeply flawed and this report is a solid piece that provides evidence of those flaws at every level - from police activity, to trials that have well-equipped and motivated prosecutors against overworked indigent defense counsel, and the failure of our system of "presumed innocence" and ultimately, huge disparities in sentencing, once convicted, including the use of capital punishment.

The second report, Democracy Imprisoned: A Review of the Prevalence and Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States, provides insight into, as Professor Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, explains it, a new caste system that has developed in America - the formerly incarcerated.

FACTS:

• Despite decreases in overall prison populations in the last three years, the number of disenfranchised citizens has continued to grow, with over 5.85 million in 2010 (compared to 1.17 million in 1976).
• 75% of these disenfranchised individuals reside in their communities
• 7.7% of adult African Americans are disenfranchised, more than 40% of whom have completed their sentences

As with the first report, these findings show America to be in violation with the U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, specifically:

“general deprivation of the right to vote for persons who have received a felony conviction, and in particular for those who are no longer deprived of liberty, do not meet the requirements of articles 25 and 26 of the Covenant, nor serves the rehabilitation goals of article 10(3)."

While they detail the grievances associated with voting rights, there are a litany of other handicaps heaped on the formerly incarcerated, including federal housing, student loans, food assistance, and various job licensing restrictions.

Unfortunately, These Facts Are Not New 

All of this has been adequately documented by Professor Alexander among others, and in fact The Next Movement, through various methods, has been working to educate the community and grow awareness.

But where is the community uprising, the indignation, the mass outrage, the ACTION?

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the issues of our time and to let that feeling of hopelessness "move" us to inaction. Fortunately, the evidence of our victory has already been witnessed by how far we have come.  As I was seeking to be accurate with Dr. King's quote on the "arch of the moral universe," I came across what is purported to be the first documented use of this metaphor, from Rev. Theodore Parker, an abolitionist who in an 1857 collection of sermons included this language in his message, Of Justice and the Conscience:

"Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."

Clearly there are incredible injustices at work in the criminal justice system in America. Certainly, as people of conscience and people of faith, we know that something must be done. The Next Movement is one organization that is working to end this era of mass incarceration, and can use all the help, ideas, and energy, we can get. Join us! Email us at  TheNextMovement@trinitychicago.org for more information.

Rev. Courtney Jenkins, in a sermon delivered here at Trinity UCC, taught that (paraphrasing), "Our God wants to show off His power. In our prayers, we need to ask for great things, awesome things, change that can only come about by the intercession of God power." Ending the mass incarceration epidemic in America is worthy of our prayers and will prove to be an incredible example of God's power.

2 Corinthians 9:8-10, NRSV translation, states:

⁸And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.  ⁹As it is written,

“He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

God bless you.

A luta continua

Daryle Brown