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Civic Action project: Prison Reform

Toby Bodden

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Election 2020 Presidential Candidates Assessment

Howie Hawkins: Treat Drug abuse as a health problem, not a criminal problem, legalize all hard drugs and sex work. 

Donald trump: Doesn't say much, assuming they want it to stay the same.

Gloria La Riva:  “More than 2.2 million people are behind bars in the largest prison complex in the world. End mass incarceration of oppressed and all working class people. Fully prosecute all acts of police brutality and violence.”

Rocky De La Fuente: Put a stop to police brutality and treat prisoners as people not criminals

Jo Jorgensen: If there wasn't a victim there wasn't a crime, decriminalize all drugs and legalize them, and encourage states to do the same. 

Joe Biden: Bail reform, “no one should be going to jail because they’re addicted, they should be going into rehabilitation”

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Political Party Action

Democrat: “our system has criminalized poverty, overpoliced and underserved Black and Latino communities.” If America is the land of the free then why do we have the highest percent of prisoners compared to any other country. the system needs reform badly, prisoners aren't send away to get better, they're sent away as punishment, because that always works doesn't it?

Republican: Believes that we cannot separate the community from the police, the people who swore to protect them. I disagree, I believe that the Police are one of the main reasons why we have extreme numbers of Black and Hispanic Prisoner’s 

Libertarian: Focused mostly on reforming which offences you can get sent to jail for. but doesn't say anything about prison reform in itself

Green: “Reduce the prison population, invest in rehabilitation, and end the failed war on drugs.“ with less than 5% of the population, the US has over a quarter of all incarcerations. focus mostly on the crime and why it happened and how it can be prevented in the future. 

Peace and Freedom: “Treatment of prisoners as human beings; rehabilitation, not vengeance.” goes honestly a little too far when it comes to political prison reform, says that all political prisoner’s should be released, but these are some of the worst criminals. 

I personally relate most to the Democrat party. I would vote for Joe. 

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Media assessment of issue

perspective:Liberal leaning source: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/urgency-prison-reform-and-what-prosecutors-can-do-about-it/596884/

objective source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-16/why-mass-incarceration-is-looming-as-a-campaign-issue-quicktake

conservative bias source: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-criminal-justice-reform-enforcement

1. 

Subject: Incarcerated people are treated too harshly for their crimes and are always teated as criminals when they should be focusing on how to help these criminals and understand them better.

Author: Lucy Lang, candidate for Manhattans district attorneys office

Context: Lucy was working as an attorney for the mother of a young man who was shot fatally. The day of the trial she called her and asked how she was, she said she slept well for the first time in months but couldn't stop thinking about the mothers of the two boys who killed her son.

Audience: this article was posted to the Atlantic, a slightly liberal leaning source. 

Perspective: meant for liberal leaning people

significance: Incarcerated people get sent to prison's where they were given a seven digit number instead of a name, and were searched inside and out. sound familiar?

2.

subject: Mass incarceration will have an effect on the election

Author: Ryan Williams

Context: The US has the highest amount of people incarcerated in the world, with the highest percent of people per 100 people. 

Audience: Posted to Bloomberg, an objective source.

Perspective: Has argument for both sides, but focuses mostly on the history of why we have such high numbers and how we can change them.

Significance: Black and Hispanic people have the highest rate of incarceration that is mainly due to a corrupt police system 

3.

subject: Bail reform will release 90% of people right after they are arrested. 

Author: Tucker Carson, very conservative

Context: with the new bail reform going into place, criminals will now be let back onto the street to commit even more crimes.

Audience: Fox news, a lot of conservative bias

Perspective: only focuses on the negatives.

Significance: A woman in New York assaulted 3 Orthodox Jewish women, and was released. she assaulted someone else a few days later, and was released. and finally on new years eve she assaulted someone again, this time she was incarcerated.

I Identify most with Lucy Lang, she is very well spoken and made me feel for the criminals which I though I couldn’t do

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CONCEPTUALIZING THE ISSUE AND ASSESSING TYPES OF ACTION

My civic action issue is prisoner rights/reform. If we look at other prision systems across the world, we see that many of these prisions’ purpose is to rehabilitate inmates, not punish them for what they have done in the past. when prisoners are released from prison in america, a lot of the time they go right back to crime. this is the problem with our prison system. in order to reduce crime, you need to show that there are better things than crime. and in prison, there is already a social construct within the walls that only increases the crime rate. I believe that we should really take inspiration from other countries, and not lock people in 6x6 concrete boxes, unless they really deserve it. start more education programs inside prisons so that these criminals may find something that suits them.