The magnificent chapel of the Riverside Church in Harlem was filled to capacity on September 24, as the audience listened to some of the best minds speak on criminal justice reform. Presented by the Think Outside the Cell Foundation with funding from the Ford Foundation, the national symposium and call to action brought together people from all walks of life and color, united in their effort to change the criminal justice system.
Sheila Rule, a former senior editor at the New York Times, is the co-founder of the Think Outside the Cell Foundation. Along with her husband, Joseph Robinson, whom Rule met while he was in prison, Rule works tirelessly to call attention to the issues that incarcerated men, women and their families face. Perhaps equally important, Rule brings together stellar panels who offer solutions to end the injustice of the criminal justice system.
Glen Martin, a formerly incarcerated person who rose to the position of Vice President of Development and Public Affairs and Director of the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy at the Fortune Society, set the stage as he spoke on the U.S. criminal justice system that he described as “intellectually and morally lacking, and ineffective and unjust.” Looking out into the audience, Martin reflected that the current policy is “shameful” and that if it continues to exist unchanged, each Black man sitting before him in the audience faces a one in three chance of being incarcerate during his lifetime.
Martin wasn’t the only person who had harsh words for America’s criminal justice system. Randall Robinson, author, and professor of Law at Penn State Law School, called the system “ toxic, crude and off-putting,” particularly in the treatment of African-Americans.
Zee Mink-Fuller, a mother with an incarcerated son, commented that each of the 2.2 million Americans behind bars is the son, daughter, mother, father, brother or sister of someone, and that families and communities are destroyed by America’s policy of mass incarceration.
New York Council Member Jumaane Williams suggested that people in the room consider becoming a mentor to someone caught in the criminal justice system or to someone who is dangerously close to becoming another statistic in it. Williams stated that family support is crucial to a successful reentry. The answer, Williams concluded, is not more reentry programs, but more equality in the criminal justice system. Williams indicated that a change in the status quo has to be made, and that resources should be directed toward youth programs, not toward incarceration.
Jason Davis gave a point of view not often heard at criminal justice reform gatherings. A member of the Bloods, Davis, is also the co-founder of TODAY (To Overcome Discrimination Against Youth). While some might find Davis’ membership in a gang, and advocacy to help young people, incongruous, others realize that who can better help young people stay out of gangs than someone who understands exactly why they want to join one? Davis told the audience that by reaching out to a person that is incarcerated through letters, or a visit, those small actions will show a prisoner that he or she “...is a human being, and not just a criminal in a cage.”
New York Times Op-Ed columnist Charles M. Blow expounded on the fact that 2.5 times as much money is spent on people in prison than on people in public schools, a policy he calls ‘budgetary lunacy.”
Following Blow to the podium was Newark Mayor Corey A. Booker, a man whose innovative solutions to decreasing crime in his city have garnered world-wide attention. Booker related how he was stunned to learn that males coming out of prison in his city were those most likely among all citizens to be shot. Deeply disturbed by the high murder rate of young black men in Newark, as well as the soaring incarceration rate of the same, Booker set out to “think outside the cell,” and has created programs that have seen a dramatic decrease in recidivism among participants.
Knowing that those who are released from prison or jail face obstacles to employment, housing, transportation, food and clothing, Booker set up a One Stop Center at Newark City Hall. Here, a reentering citizen can find help in getting the identification documents needed to be enrolled in supportive service programs, as well as obtaining tutoring or mentoring. Tips on resume writing, and job skills are also available to those coming back into the community. One of Booker’s most successful programs reaches young fathers with criminal histories. Previously, Newark had a recidivism rate of 65%. Under Booker’s management that figure has dropped considerably. For those in the city’s fatherhood program, the recidivism rate plummeted to 3%.
Another one of Booker’s efforts is based on a program developed by David Kennedy, Director of the Center of Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Kennedy found that since law enforcement authorities already have an excellent idea of who is committing crimes, it would make sense to approach these individuals and offer them help with finding employment, education and other services that were lacking in their lives, instead of just arresting and incarcerating them. Working closely with the Newark police department, Booker invited gang members to a meeting at city hall. There he told them point-blank – either they get with this program and accept help in turning their lives around, or law enforcement would come down on them, hard. Many accepted the help. Those who didn’t were made an example of, as police swept down arresting the offenders, as well as everyone involved, however marginally, in their criminal enterprises. Soon, others came in to ask for the help offered by the mayor and police department. Gang membership diminished, and crime rates dropped.
The afternoon session brought another panel discussion that included Michelle Alexander, the brilliant author of the critically acclaimed book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. A former director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU, Alexander spoke on the idea that the unjust criminal system must not merely be reformed, but must be ended. Alexander told the audience that the problem of mass incarceration is not just a fiscal problem, but a moral question. She urged symposium participant s to think big, adding that “Tinkering around the edges is not enough.”
Jeremy Travis, the president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, agreeing with Alexander, added that there is a need to reach those who make the policies and budget decisions. Travis advised that America must “think outside the box” in devising different methods in which we respond to crime, and also called for a “global, sustained outrage against mass incarceration.”
The The Think Outside the Cell symposium also included Honorable Scott M. Stringer, Manhattan Borough President; “Chef Jeff” Henderson; CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Byron Pitts; Terrie Williams, youth advocate and author of Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting; Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Tom Burrell, author of Brainwashed; El Diario La Prensa publisher Rossana Rosado; Marc Lamont Hill, Black Enterprise TV; and Alan Rosenthal, Center for Community Alternatives.
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