Dear Sir/Madam.
Regarding prison reform.
There are 24 million people going through US jails, prisons, probation and parole systems in one year. In comparison to only 196,000 prisoners nationwide in 1971 when the alleged war on drugs began.
And although people of color only make up a small percentage of the national population they are overwhelmingly and disproportionately represented as prisoners and defendants in the justice system.
Now I am aware of the two schools of thought which say (wrongly) that a group of people based on skin color alone are prone to criminality by birth and the millions being placed in cages deserve what they got for being who they are, whereas the alternative ideology is that unexpected circumstances have created this disparaging and destructive phenomenon. Circumstances which according to popular opinion can be "reformed" as it is only an error in judgment and mistakes in policy.
Considering the existing exception clause for prison slavery in the US & states constitutions, the history of convict leasing, black codes, chain gangs and Jim crow, noting the advent, rise and phenomenally quick global growth of for profit prison models in a short 45 years and the historical evidence of the so called white master class of America's moral willingness to allow systemic and brutal oppression upon nonwhites as an acceptable social process it is the firm belief of the New Abolitionists that this is much more devious and intentional than unplanned circumstances.
That it is much more purposely perpetuated and systemically supported than mere errors in judgment. Recalling the unabated history of oppression upon nonwhites and the continuous blind eye of the apathetic public as they enjoy the fruits of such suffering it is our fact and statistically based conclusive opinion that A- slavery never ended and is in fact being practiced legally today and B- That it is primarily, as it always has been, being practiced upon a group of American citizens based on race alone. Followed by immigrants, the poor, the homeless and the disabled.
This includes everything from an illegal and unethical cash bail system which leaves many languishing in jails for years for lack of assets to the placing of what may as well be called a bounty on children's heads whereas private juvenile prisons are able to collect as much as $350,000 per child per year of incarceration as in NY State. From the warehousing of immigrants with monthly mandatory quotas in private for profit facilities to the mass roundup of the homeless and mentally ill who are sent to prisons to fill state contracted guarantees of 80-100% prison occupancy.
These are not unique phenomenon but are in fact part of a broader and more pervasive issue. That being the peculiar institution of chattel slavery.
As slavery, human trafficking and hunting people for profit is a crime against humanity, it is also our belief that this system cannot be reformed in any way and therefore must be abolished.
The results of these so called failed policies have been akin to a national genocide as millions of families are torn apart and left unable to fend for themselves in any supportable fashion while their sons, fathers, mothers and daughters are trapped in for profit prisons over debts, drugs and acts of fiscal desperation directly related to created poverty. There are presently 50 million American citizen below the poverty line. It is from this group that the most is taken. Where most of the corruption and exploitation is practiced and where the least compassion or concern is applied.
We ask you to consider these points of note and to reconsider your positions on reform. Your help is needed in ending this system and not in perfecting it to be socially acceptable to any degree.
Thank you for your time.
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