Mass Incarceration and the Cradle to Prison Pipeline

What is it, how we got there, and what do we do about it

Mass Incarceration

• Historical Circumstances • Prison Industrial Complex

History

• Civil War• Black Codes• Reconstruction Abandonment• Poverty Codes• Jim Crow• Civil Rights Movement 1955-1970• Black Panthers Crackdown• Repealing Gains in Civil Rights Movement

This is the creation of mass

incarceration

Prison Industrial Complex

• Incarceration rates are predicted off of 3rd or 4th grade reading levels• Prisons are built• Contracts are made to ensure economic

advantage to the state• Prison Industrial Complex providers• Starbucks• Microsoft• And more

• Private Prisons –Post-Industrial Complex

Mass Incarceration Witness

• Our federal prisons are operating at 130% of capacity. 

• The US holds 25% of the world's incarcerated people, we are 4.46% of the world's population

Prison Industrial Complex

• Marriage of prison and industry• Industries created just for prisons• CCA• JPAY

• Prison Labor

Prison Labor Witness

Cradle to Prison Pipeline

Rather than embarking on a path to college and success, from birth children-of-color are funneled down a path toward prison. Institutional racism and poverty conspire to place these youth at disproportionate risk than whites. The entry-points to the cradle-to-prison pipeline are many and every further step into its realm magnifies its impact upon the life of a youth.

Incarceration and Education

Cradle to Prison Pipeline Witness

5 year old arrested for assaulting an officer

6 year old arrested for having a tantrum

5 year old arrested for having a tantrum

5 year old autistic child arrested for having a tantrum

Cradle to Prison Pipeline Witness: WA

• Education Spending Trends

In the 1999-2000 period, Washington ranked 15th among the states in state and local government K-12 education spending per capita. In fiscal year 2010 Washington was ranked 32nd.

Incarceration Spending Trends

"Washington, too, spends an excessive amount of money housing prisoners. The Vera Institute for Justice calculated the taxpayer costs for housing one person in Washington prisons. Their final tally: more than $46,000 a year for one prisoner. Or, to put it differently, the same cost for three undergraduate students to attend the University of Washington...." 1/10/2013

Systemic Oppression

• Macro Level Contributors• Retributive justice policies• Neighborhood policing strategies• Poor education

• Zero tolerance policies• Out of school suspension

• Dismantling welfare without providing alternatives or assessing the impact on underserved communities

Systemic Oppression

• Micro Level Contributors• Poverty • Poor family functioning• Healthcare • Childhood trauma (92% of incarcerated youth have

been traumatized)• Juvenile justice involvement

Systemic Oppression

• Systemic Racism

Juvenile Justice

• Nearly 2 million juvenile justice cases are handled each year• Children of color are overrepresented in the system

overall by a 2:1 ratio—despite comprising only 1/3 of American youth• An African American boy born in 2001 has a one-in-

three chance of being imprisoned in his lifetime; a Latino boy one in six • Youth of color face “cumulative disadvantage” once in

the system:• Black youth are 4 times more likely to be in juvenile detention• 77% of juveniles sent to adult prison are African American

State of Our Youth

49% of incarcerated youth in Washington are youth of color

Washington State

• Persistent Over-representation of youth of color• African American youth are nearly twice as likely as

white youth to be arrested• African American and American Indian / Native

Alaskan youth are more than twice as likely to be referred to court as white youth

• Diversion • With the exception of Asian/Pacific Islanders, youth of

color are less likely to receive a diversion

• Transfers to the Adult System• African American youth make up 31% of the transfers

to adult court while they are only 6% of the juvenile population

Cumulative Effects

• Washington• 81.2% White• 4% African

American• 11.9% Latino

Cumulative Effects

• King County• 70.8%

White• 6.6%

African American• 9.3% Latino

African American42%

Caucasian35%

Asian/Pacific Islander7%

Hispanic11%

Native American3%

Other/Unknown2%

African American Caucasian Asian/Pacific IslanderHispanic Native American Other/Unknown

Solutions

Moving Forward

• Local Solutions• Communal Solutions• State-Wide Solutions• National Solutions

Local Solutions

• Local is you!• Mentoring• Know the issues• Vote with compassion• Delve into complex issues• Undo systemic racism where you can• Learn your own privilege• Volunteer in schools• Donate

Communal Solutions

• Communal is you! Is the church!• Remove the stigma of incarceration• Undergo educational programs

• No New Jim Crow• Witnessing Whiteness

• Go into the detention system and directly serve youth• Become a safe space for those affected by

incarceration• Enact communal restorative justice practices• Enact local policies such as “ban the box”• Reject local policies such as “no smoking in the park”

Values Based Solutions

• Individualization• Humanity• Parsimony• Proportionality• Regularity

Policy Changes: National and State• Repeal three-strike, mandatory minimums, and

similar laws• Those we don’t repeal, should be narrowed

significantly

Policy Changes: National and State• Those that are not repealed or narrowed, should be

amended so that the judge may enact other sentences “in the interest of justice”• Life without parole should be repealed or narrowed• Truth in sentencing should be repealed (sentencing

tends to be towards published max)• Lower maximums especially with regard to non

violent offenses• All states should have a sentencing commission

and should produce sentencing guidelines

Policy Changes: National and State• Every state should have a parole board with

guideline systems• Every state should have a goal of cutting its

incarceration rates in half by 2020• Every state should have automatic early

release review when a sentence served equals five years; unless they are 35 years or older, in which case it would be three years

Resources• http://www.law.seattleu.edu/Documents/korematsu/JuvenileJustice/FINALReportJuvenileJusticePresentation.pdf

• http://www.kingcounty.gov/courts/JuvenileCourt/Reports.aspx

• http://www.aecf.org/resources/youth-incarceration-in-the-united-states/

• http://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/raceinc.html

• http://www.law.washington.edu/About/RaceTaskForce/preliminary_report_race_criminal_justice_030111.pdf

• http://www.xpowerpoint.com/The-Cradle-to-Prison-Pipeline-Powerpoint--PPT.html#

• http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/53/53033.html

• http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/53000.html

• http://usercontent2.hubimg.com/12078248_f520.jpg

• http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Screen-Shot-2015-02-12-at-3.05.01-PM.jpg

• https://defacingcurrency.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/prison_pie_chart.jpg

• http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289

• http://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/education-vs-prison-costs/

• http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/education-vs-incarceration_502918ab0800d.jpg

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__EIZk_JdjQ

• http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html

• https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B02aYxNomoKqWnJLYkZJdHBlb3c/edit