This week I’ve devoted much of my energy to a pretty spirited discussion via Facebook about Governor O’Malley’s plans to build a prison for youth in East Baltimore. The $104 million prison would be dedicated to youth being charged as adults. For many years, I’ve stood in solidarity with many others in publicly denouncing the Power Structure’s proclivity to lock up Baltimore’s youth instead of helping to lift them up.
When I caught wind of the state’s latest plans to build this prison for youth as well as a prison for women in Baltimore City; I rattled off an open letter to Delegate Keith Haynes who sits on the House Appropriations Committee. I couldn’t believe that in the middle of a recession, the state of Maryland found more than $100 million to lock up Black youth in Baltimore. It’s common knowledge in this city and many others that when it comes to prisons – if they build it, they will fill it.
Persons all over Baltimore and Maryland have been pressuring the Governor to reconsider the planned prison. Back in March of this year, the Baltimore Algebra Project led a group of hundreds of their peers and adult allies in a march on “Baby Bookings” – a juvenile detention center near downtown Baltimore.
While the adults that I’ve been debating on Facebook have resigned themselves to the eventuality of this prison being built, the youth of Baltimore have organized themselves and their adult allies and are fighting against this criminal policy.
Today, I received word that the plans for the construction of this prison have been temporarily delayed. Governor Martin O’Malley’s Deputy Chief of Staff sent out this letter saying that they will not move forward on the construction of the prison until they have a chance to complete the population analysis. Construction bids on this facility were slated to be awarded in mid-September. That won’t happen now.
This is a small victory for those working to halt this sinister plan from the state of Maryland. However, I am not ignorant to the political realities that made this possible. Governor Martin O’Malley is currently running for re-election and he needs the Black vote. To begin construction on a prison for Black youth in the final stretch of election season would likely create a dangerous liability to his campaign and he doesn’t want to be challenged on this on the campaign trail. I’m predicting that he’s burying his prison plan for now and will resurrect it after the election or late enough so it won’t make much difference at the voting booth. Burying it will also help provide cover for many of his political lackeys who are also running for re-election.
It’ll be up to those of us working to halt this prison to keep the pressure on, raise awareness in the community, and make it one of the deciding factors for people who are trying to make up their minds about who to vote for. Ideally, we need to get people to a place where we can collectively back Governor Martin O’Malley into a corner and demand that he discard plans for this prison and divert the $104 million to mentoring, education in Baltimore, (maybe the construction of a new school), youth jobs, etc. or else he will not have our vote.
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the world; the continents; peoples of nations, & states living on the earth : the state of Maryland; the city of Baltimore; predominantly peopled by people of color, as is the world at large, need to be uplifted with the truth of education, along with the arts , and ample recreation facilities, coupled with more, and still better institutes for the purpose of educating towards peaceful sustainability for all. NO to prisons, draconian inhuman facilities, to house new age slaves ; to turn already neglected youths into angry, t errified, hopeless prisoners., to in effect , trash our children , rather then tap into the energy every child has for real education . coupled with recreation, daily, and incorperating music, drama, dance, with the visual arts, to rebuild America, with the green energy our children would create, were they given the truth, allowed to learn history, science, in harmony with all the tools necessary ; more, fully funded schools : SCHOOLS, SCHOOLS, SCHOOLS
Amen!
BEAUTIFUL!