'Solve juvenile injustice crisis with jobs and schools,
not jails'
By Workers World
New York
bureau
A major report entitled "And Justice for Some" was
released at the end
of April. Commissioned by the U.S. Justice Department, it
studies the
situation of youths caught up in the criminal justice
system. WW interviewed Monica Moorehead, coordinator of the
May 7 Day for Mumia and Workers World Party's candidate for
president, about the report.
Workers World: What does
the report show?
Monica Moorehead: It confirms what Black and Latino
communities in the United States have known for many
years--that the most extreme forms of racism permeate the
police, the courts and the prisons, especially in cases where
youths of color are involved.
For example, the report found that Black youths with clean
records are nine times more likely to be jailed for a violent
crime than white youths facing similar charges. In cases
involving violent acts, white youths are jailed for 193 days
on average, African Americans for 254 days, and Latinos for
305 days.
When drugs are involved, Black youths are 48 times more
likely to be sentenced to juvenile prison than whites!
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. African
Americans, Latinos and other people of color make up a
disproportionate number of the 2 million people in U.S.
prisons and the 3,600 on death row.
WW: Why are Black and Latin youths being singled
out
for repression?
MM: Wall Street is making billions of dollars in
profits from the expansion of the prison-industrial complex.
The so-called corrections industry is now one of the largest
in the United States.
Keeping the working class divided by scapegoating youths
of color to justify more prisons and stiffer sentences is
good business for them.
This is a crisis of capitalism. And it's an emergency
situation for the oppressed communities.
It's a crisis for the labor movement as well. At this
rate, the next generation of workers will be in prisons, not
in unions.
Prison labor in the U.S. is essentially slave labor.
Prisoners are paid pennies for their work, if anything. In
the South it's not uncommon to see chain gangs of all Black
prisoners working in the fields under the eyes of armed,
white overseers.
The prison-industrial complex is, as Mumia so well
described it, "New-age slavery."
Young people need jobs and schools, not more jails. They
need to remain in their communities, not be sent to far-off
prisons away from family and friends.
WW: What can poor and
working-class communities do
to end the crisis?
MM: My running mate, Gloria La Riva, and I are
calling for independent mass meetings to be organized
throughout the country, in every city, neighborhood, school
and work place, to take up this crisis and to find people's
solutions.
As a first step, we are calling for the confiscation of
prison industry profits. That money has been robbed from the
very lives and labor of oppressed people in this country. It
must be used to create decent jobs and better schools for our
young people.
We want to take away Wall Street's blood money. Take the
profits from drug-laundering banks like Chase, BankAmerica
and J.P. Morgan and put the money into on-demand drug
treatment programs, hospitals and community centers.
We also call for community control of the police. This
means giving the community the power to hire, fire and
discipline the cops.
It means the community has the right to say to the
government and police: "You are an occupying force and we
don't want you here. Get out."
Ultimately, we need to remove the racist profiteers from
power by overthrowing the capitalist system. We need to build
a socialist society based on public ownership and
working-class solidarity, where every youth has the
opportunity to reach her or his full potential.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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