Dear Prisoner Justice
Network, I have been in prison for 27 years. My last parole hearing lasted four
minutes.
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Dear
New York State
Prisoner Justice: We, New York’s
incarcerated prisoners have gone 70 years without a pay wage increase. Our pay
is about $4 a week…
Dear Brothers and
Sisters, My reason for writing this letter is what the black and latino
prisoners are going through, which is a series of staff assaults, sexual
harassment and racialism. It would be appreciated if this is published. Maybe
someone would do something to help us.
Dear Prisoner Justice,
I was convicted for a burglary. No weapon was involved, nobody was home, and
nobody was hurt. I was sentenced to 12 years to life.
Dear Friend: Injustice
can make a person insane, when a person feels that nobody is listening to them and
they have no court for the redress of their grievance.
These are a tiny sampling of the dozens of letters
received by the New York State Prisoner Justice Network. Who are these
incarcerated women and men, why are they in prison, what happens to them while
they are there, and what happens when (and if) they get out?
New York’s 56,000 prisoners:
75% are people of color; 96% are male; the great majority have never had a
trial (they were convicted on plea bargains); around 2/3 are poor; about half
are from New York City. Some are innocent, some have committed
serious crimes, and many are somewhere in between. Very few have done anything
as terrible as what is being done to them in the name of justice.
Mass incarceration clearly does not do what its backers say
it does—it does not keep our communities safe. It does not protect our kids
from gun violence or police abuse. It does not protect women from sexual
assault. It does not heal mental illness, nor does it create paths to dignity
and economic sustenance. It does not interrupt violence—it feeds the cycle of
violence. Mass incarceration is a false solution that gets in the way of real
solutions.
Instead, the real agenda behind mass incarceration is
repression, racism, power, and greed. The prison boom of the 1970s and 80s
followed the mass social justice movements boom of the 60s and 70s.
Naomi is a member of the New York State
Prisoner Justice Network.
