Taking it to the streets!

On the evening of Thursday, October 5, 2006  I represented Young Clergy for Social Change at a prison reform protest rally down on Madison Street in Baltimore.  The rally was organized by the Baltimore branches of the American Friends Service Committee and Critical Resistance to address the issues of policing, parole, illegal arrests, the death penalty, and youth. 

We wanted to pressure political candidates to state their positions on prison reform and hear what they were going to do to address the following unjust realities of the prison industrial complex and policing in Baltimore City.  We’ve given them two weeks to address meet with us and address our concerns.  (Go to my FLICKR page to see the rest of the pics)

 Consider the following facts:

• African Americans make up 26% of Maryland’s overall population yet are 78% of the state’s prison population.
• The majority of the state’s prisoners come from Baltimore City, and Prince George’s county. Yet many of the state’s facilities are concentrated in rural areas far from the city.
• Every month in Baltimore City 1800 people are arrested, fined, imprisoned yet never charged.  Can you imagine what it’s like trying to explain an illegal arrest during a job interview? 
• Half the young men in Baltimore are under some form of criminal justice “control”; 9 out of 10 youth in the city who are charged as adults are African American.

Silence in the face of such injustice is impossible for all people of conscience who are sincerely concerned about how our society treats certain segments of our community.  For more information about what you can do to help contact Dominique Robinson at the American Friends Service Committee: drobinson[at]afsc.org or (410) 323-7200 ext. 22. 

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