Executive Producer Eddie Conway uncovers why more arrests isn’t making communities safer.
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Very good reporting, Eddy. Coming out of a rough patch but I am going to send you some $$ soon. First reform is to get rid of the police departments in America and have community groups form their own services. In Switzerland, I might go days without seeing a police car on the streets. In America I remember that at least one of every ten cars that went by was a police car. If you give a juiced up racist weapons and tell him to find somebody to arrest, he will. The money saved on not having police will be enormous.
You need to organize community gardens, probably with greenhouses. Find someone that knows how to garden and teach everyone that wants to have work. They can get paid in food and use that money locally. You have been living in supermarket wastelands and the American Corporate Food system breeds disease. Having healthy foods will help you a lot.
I just contacted Mariah Parker about my ideas for a community green revolution and hopefully she will respond.
Capitalism, the catalyst to exploitation. Nothing is safe. Any person of color claiming they love the country is suspect. In my eyes these individuals play a part in perpetuating the existence of the beast. And that goes for any white person or whomever else. There’s only 1 right but no excuses to be made. America is a cancer!
More kills can be attributed to the people in 1 square mile of Washington DC then every single murder in every prison on the planet. Our country is ass backwards.
I agree strongly that.
Thank you for putting it out there for us, Eddie. Well done.
Black people start at home.
Money isn't everything .
Start with Love, Respect ,Respect of others and their properties.
This should be taught at Home.
Police your community.
Peace Love and Understanding.
Get out of the Box: If you have to be in a Box : create your own.
We need to get rid of prisons for profit .these corporations want more prisoners. I think they get paid 75k a year for each prisoners
US Prison Industrial Complex is based on the three "R's". Retribution, Retaliation and Revenge. If you are good at all three you get a fourth "R", Re-elected!
Great documentary. 👍👍👏 keep it up the donations will roll in.
Baltimore is #Ferguson
Baltimore stats
Population, 2014 estimate 622,793
White alone, percent, 2013 (a) 31.6%
Black or African American alone, percent, 2014 (a) 63.1%
Quick Business facts
Total number of firms, 2007 42,272
Black-owned firms, percent, 2007 34.6%
Women-owned firms, percent, 2007 37.0%
The Baltimore jail system is one of the oldest and largest pretrial facilities in the country, holding around 4,000 people on any given day.
Ninety-one percent of the people incarcerated are pretrial, meaning they have not been convicted of the current offense,
9 out of 10 people in the jail are African American.
African Americans make up the largest percentage of the people in the jail. Despite making up only 64 percent of Baltimore residents, African Americans comprise 89 percent of the people held in the jail; currently more than 2,900 African American men are incarcerated in the jail.
The Baltimore jail is one of the largest municipal jails in the nation. More than 73,000 people go through the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center every year and over 35,000 people are committed to the Baltimore City Detention Center annually.
At the start of 2010, there were more than 3,600 men, women and children in custody, but the annual average is around 400 people higher, at about 4,000 people per day.
Baltimore is not only the home of one of the 20 largest jails in the country, but it also has the distinction of holding the highest percentage of its population in jail when compared to the other 19 largest jails in the country
And Baltimore continues to incarcerate its residents at alarming rates despite falling crime rates in the city; research does not support the idea that more incarceration equals less crime— it actually is the opposite.
While counties and cities that pay for their own detention facilities have a financial incentive to limit the number of people in their jails, Baltimore City does not, and residents all over the state of Maryland pay for the often overcrowded facility at a cost of around $150 million a year.
Currently, Maryland is in the process of planning for two new facilities at the jail—one for youth ages 14 and older who are being tried as adults, and the other for women—at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $280 million.
Maryland is adding these facilities because there is currently not enough space for the services it wishes to provide and to create better conditions for the women and children who are incarcerated in Baltimore. The current wings and units do not allow for adequate services in the jail for these young people awaiting trial. In addition, deteriorating conditions and a lack of sight and sound separation between youth and adults held in the jail do not comply with federal mandates
The original Baltimore jail was built in the 18th century and replaced by a new facility in 1802. This facility was replaced in 1860 and has been expanded upon ever since.
Today, the Baltimore City Detention Center consists of five buildings and has a capacity of around 4,000 men, women and children. In 1991, Baltimore City faced both a court order to reduce its jail population and a severe budget crisis that led to Governor William Donald Schaefer asking the state of Maryland to step in and take over administration of the Baltimore City Jail, which was renamed the Baltimore City Detention Center.
Arrests
The increase in space that came with the opening of Central Booking also had an impact on policing and arrests, as it created space to hold more people; Central Booking has the capacity to hold around one thousand people, in addition to the 3,000 people in the Detention Center.
With the district lockup system there was a finite amount of space available for police to hold people arrested in their district. When the space was filled, people either had to be released or fewer people needed to be arrested
A few years after the opening of Central Booking, under former Baltimore mayor Martin O’Malley’s “tough on crime” stance, the Baltimore City Police Department made record numbers of arrests, many for minor and sometimes frivolous offenses, like loitering and open container violations.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is still in the middle of a lawsuit surrounding the number of “bad arrests” by law enforcement in the city.
In FY2004, more than 100,000 arrests were processed in Central Booking.
Nearly 22 percent—more than one in five people—arrested were released without charge.
From the America Is #Ferguson Series
Research by Max Parthas. August 2015
New Abolitionists Radio
http://www.blacktalkradionetwork.com
Sources: Available upon request.
There is a special place in Hell for those who profit from the suffering of others.
Stalin's GULAG system of forced labor 1929-1960 extracted 22 roubles a day from each prisoner and had solitary confinement of 20 days as extra punishment. In the US penal system in 2018, private corporations and states like Maryland profit off of prisoners by forcing the taxpayer base to pay for their maintenance… most of them in jail because they are poor and unsophisticated. Solitary confinement for years is torture and it is cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the constitution. Political prisoners are railroaded and framed for felonies they did not commit. What a shithole of a country America has become. Down with the regime in Washington. We need a new republic.
Prison, multi million pound business.
OMG, I had no idea Mr. Conway. Your introduction made me cry. I am so sorry and praise God for the Quakers and their courage. Thank you for your courage and work sir. RESPECT.
Our institution have sold us out to profit. It's not just Black communities it's anyone who is on the poverty line. We are only revenue streams to harvest our hard earned money. It's a form of extortion. More rules to break to separate you from your money and society. Privatization is not the way. Less rules designed to generate revenue downstream are what we need. Motivation is profit not civility.
Very informative, we are in need for a change, our judicial system 👩⚖️ is not working, we need to revamp the entire prison.legal system.
These injustices need to end for ALL people who are ensnared by them. Not just POC, but EVERYONE!
Excellent Broadcast