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Let me explain our opposition to the use of "felon" language in six parts
1. People are more than their worst moments, and when you make someone who committed a felony into a felon... it is dehumanizing and suggests that we are FOREVER second-class citizens.
WATCH: “Was the civil war fought over slavery?”
REP. MIKE SPARKS: “I haven’t really studied it- we all need to study our history 🤔- there’s different context.”
He spoke FOR KEEPING THE KKK GRAND WIZARD BUST today.
@Brandon4Tenn
(a black man) is running against him in SMYRNA.
Thread:
I am not sure who needs to hear this....but economic expectations for people coming back from incarceration are INSANE
1. When I got out, I had $10,000 in court costs, fines & fees, charges per day from when I was in jail awaiting transfer to prison etc.
@The_Acumen
That isn't how the Presidency works, to do those things, he has to get a majority of people in a divided Congress to sign-on...Executive Orders are not durable and can only deal with the implementation of things that were previously enabled through legislation
This is my friend Val
Val served 44 years in a Michigan prison, he is also a Vietnam Veteran, yesterday he voted for the first time in 45 years
I hope this picture brings you as much joy as it brings me
@Taniel
Texas prisons - highest suicide rates ever
South Carolina prisons - highest suicide and death rates ever
North Carolina prisons - people dying
Alabama - Exposed by the DOJ for incredible horrors
Are we ready to have a real discussion about prisons yet?
"...police union officials have been predicting a crime wave as cities reduce low-level arrests and release inmates to slow COVID-19. But, in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco, recent data show big drops in crime week over week"
?
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This is so shameful
Pete Martel came back from incarceration after a long time in prison (a decade spent in solitary confinement) and earned a law degree at Wayne State University...he has been a model citizen since his return...he has worked tirelessly to help people
I have no words for how much I LOATHE the New York Post
You could not pay me enough money to work for people so shamelessly unethical
@DyjuanTatro
did his time, turned his whole life around, and inspired people all over the country...they should be ashamed of themselves
Congrats to my friend
@AliceMarieFree
for making both the State of the Union and the Superbowl starting mere months after coming home form prison
Huge statement to see your story on the biggest stage in American television....much love Miss Alice
“We are working...for prison reform, sentencing reform, & fair treatment of people coming home from prison...When you have prominent people like Kim helping voiceless people behind bars...that’s incredibly powerful.”
@VanJones68
#FirstStepAct
@cut_50
The war on drugs is a war on people....it is almost never enforced against actual "kingpins" but it is enforced every day against poor people struggling with addiction
8. Making people radically financially insecure during reentry is probably the dumbest possible thing anyone could imagine....It is galactically stupid....it is a recipe for recidivism and disaster
WE HAVE TO STOP SETTING PEOPLE UP FOR FAILURE
@JohnW41755147
Please read the books - there are many - about Robert Moses and why he designed them that way....then come back and ask questions...the most famous was by Caro (about as respected as an author can be)....stop just thinking common sense overcomes history...thanks in advance
"Contrary to a popular myth, only 7% of incarcerated people are held in privately-run facilities – but virtually all incarcerated people generate profit for private companies by paying for phone calls, medical care or other necessities."
EXACTLY!
Someone just wrote a response to one of my tweets about COVID conditions in prisons...they said:
"Maybe they shouldn't have gone to prison"
The sheer lack of empathy it takes to be so glib in response to people getting infected en masse and many dying is just astounding
Prison doesn't solve crime
Prison doesn't heal trauma
Prison doesn't solve addiction
Prison doesn't solve mental health problems
We invest BILLIONS in a failed prison system then are SHOCKED whenever anyone has the guts to highlight and detail the failures
People
Sentence 👏lengths👏are👏entirely👏made👏up
There was no research that suggested them, no study tailored them for maximum effect, and we 100% know they don't enhance public safety (even accounting for incapacitation prison - on balance - reduces public safety)
The prosecutor that never loses, only in the movies?
That is almost every prosecutor
96% of cases never go to trial and the Prosecutors Office win over 90% of cases that do go to trial
They control the charges, the investigation, the police, and judges defer to them
Whenever I eat a basic salad, believe it or not, it gives me pause and I am thankful
Why? For the three years I was in prison, we did not get fresh vegetables and I never saw a tomato
I am very thankful for the little things in ways I never was before
@TimRobbins1
Also, and importantly, Corey Comperatore died in the attack…these conspiracy theories are inappropriate and disrespectful to the grieving family
Not 'felons'
Not 'inmates'
Not 'convicts'
Not 'offenders'
PEOPLE
Our convictions are part of our lives, and we are accountable, but they are never the whole story
@Annie_Wu_22
I still feel like this whole thing is ridiculous, it is not fair to either of the athletes, they should just have gone along with the "share the Bronze" plan
@mcuban
Also, one of the most successful restaurants in Ann Arbor Michigan is built around providing a living wage, health insurance, and other benefits...they get better every year...
@zingermans
...people will pay a higher price for a quality product with an admirable model
12. I will repeat, when you make people radically insecure...when they have to worry about a roof over their heads, food for their kids, and constant bills, it is NO WONDER people return to activities that are illegal but lucrative....we need to stop being IDIOTS
People....
Making something that is already illegal "SUPER ILLEGAL" doesn't enhance deterrence....but it does give prosecutors the ability to charge more people with longer sentences.
It doesn't help public safety and it will cost you a TON more money as a taxpayer
We talk about violence being bad, but far too many of us ignore the violence that happens in prison and WAY too many celebrate it
You can't be opposed to violence but root for violence when it is against the people you don't like
Militias descend on Michigan's capital building carrying automatic weapons while Siwatu Salama Ra was sentenced for brandishing a handgun on her own property, had to do time, give birth in prison, and plead guilty to remain free?
7. Most people returning from incarceration don't make $20,000 a year....and they often have kids, and a family they have to support....Forcing people to make choices between feeding their families and paying off criminal justice debt is ludicrous
10, If it is in the public interest to incarcerate people, to insist on them wearing monitors, to insist on them having supervision....we have just as much public interest in ENSURING THEY CAN COME HOME AMD REBUILD THEIR LIVES SUCCESSFULLY
9. We always talk about "Public Safety" on the front end...when we pass new "tough on crime" legislation or insist on strict controls on folks
NOTHING about these crazy fines and fees makes anyone safer...it hurts returning citizens, it hurts their kids, it makes us less safe
@emfundertaker
@TJSeraphim
Also many states are working to make it, or have already made it, legal….not surprisingly, there is a GOP think tank pushing it all over the country under the “parental rights” banner
So Jeff Garlin got in enough trouble that he had to leave a long-renewed show and Cheryl Hines is married to the guy manufacturing 80% of the anti-vaxx videos and misinformation
I am seriously going to have to rethink my relationship to Curb
Dear
@washingtonpost
This headline is AWFUL and you should be ashamed of yourself for using it
The Supreme Court dealt a blow to PEOPLE with felony convictions...NOT FELONS
When is the press going to stop reducing people to ONLY their worst moments in bold print
20. Last but not least...
I ask you to think about the time in your own life when you were the most financially insecure, now imagine you were being hounded every day by people asking for money and threatening to incarcerate you if you don't pay
That IS OUR REENTRY MODEL FIN
.
@shaunking
is 100% right
But also troubling, is that "Send her back" is a call for the government - led by 45 - to banish a US Citizen for having the temerity to have different opinions on POLICY than the President.
DISSENT is Democracy
While visiting Angola's prison
@ClintSmithIII
asked how controversial it would be if Germany built a prison on the grounds of a concentration camp and most of the incarcerated folks were Jewish
That is an incredible analogy and very true (Angola was a slave plantation)
Thread:
96% of people in prison and jail are coming back
REDEMPTION matters
Why would ANYONE buy back into a system or society that excludes and shames them, that makes it nearly impossible for them to rent an apartment, get a job, or engage in community?
CITIZENSHIP matters
@AoDespair
They are just being ridiculous all the way around, how in the world does instrumentalizing an elderly professor and his home help the cause of Palestinian rights in Gaza? I get that it got a lot of attention, but how does that attention translate to anything that helps the cause?
The bail reform backlash is SO dishonest
In EVERY "terrifying" example, those same people could have gotten out PRIOR to bail reform if they had 💰💰💰
People are ONLY outraged POOR folks can now get out too, the whole thing is SO gross
Statements like his are why we have things like Qualified Immunity and a system-wide inability to hold bad officers responsible for excesses.
To say Justice Bolden appointed Pete as a "political statement" right after making a blatant political statement is shameful
6. Now look, in a financial sense, I am incredibly lucky...I am single, no kids...after a number of years struggling, I found a good job and can afford to make payments.
I am the exception....probably less than 5% of people returning are in my situation
@jemelehill
ROFLOL, Dan is saying people just want to push their own agendas….given zero trans women are playing in D1…how was asking that question not pushing his “narrative?”
4. After I was released I was forced to pay a portion of my supervision costs....I am still paying the cost of that off...it was over $3,000
So, if you add it all up, we are talking $20,000
Think about that for a few minutes
My favorite quotes from last week:
"Incarceration is the most expensive and least effective tool in any government’s arsenal" -
@craigderoche
“In the same way that the 1994 crime bill incentivized mass incarceration, we can incentivize mass decarceration" -
@AyannaPressley
All US prisons and jails have banned visits
Wouldn't it be AMAZING if the companies or DOC's made it FREE for people in prisons and jails to talk with their families until visits are restored?
#ConnectFamiliesNow
11. In my first year home, I made less than $6,000....I was turned down dozens of times for work....I had to constantly hustle just to EAT
And yet, I was constantly pressured to pay fines & fees (even threatened with having my parole or probation revoked)....sigh
@TheTrentCrimm
Ted returns home to be with his kid....Nate takes over Richmond...Sam and Rebecca head towards parenthood and Roy and Keely live happily ever after
First, Justice Berstein should be ashamed of himself...it was inappropriate for him to speak out against Justice Bolden...and it showed a serious lack of the objectivity required by his job to make this statement.
@KevinMKruse
If that upset you, the laser weapons in space should have upset you more...and that started about 1950
Harry Harrison wrote a whole treatment of why all of it was silly and would never work in space...I mean?
13. I understand people think people should have to pay for their mistakes, TRUST ME,prison is forcing people to pay for their mistakes and it serves NO valid public interest to make people constantly stressed....it forces people to choose between their kids, debt, & crime
3. After I was released, I was forced to wear an electronic monitor for nearly two years....I am still paying the cost of that off...it was over $6,000
To say, "I am all for rehabilitation" except for representation "in the courts"...courts that move tens and hundreds of thousands of people through our systems of incarceration...proves that this system is NOT a system about JUSTICE FOR ALL or a system with ANY perspective
I wish, EVEN FOR ONE DAY, even one national television news channel cared about the unfolding of the crisis in MISSISSIPPI PRISONS as much as they care about Donald J. Trump
@EclecticRadical
@brixwe
If I weren't already convinced that a lot of people are the opposite of smart and at the same time really loud and proud about it all
Does anyone remember Gabbard "eviscerating" Harris on a debate stage? I don't mean did some Gabbard fanboy say that on Twitter but in any sense did that really happen? Or is that something the Trump camp just told the reporters?
2. In addition, when I was incarcerated, the State of Michigan found out I had money in a bank account and took it as part of paying the price of my incarceration (well over $1,000)
When someone comes back from incarceration - against incredible odds - and becomes not only a model citizen but someone who has dedicated his entire life to making a system that he saw up close for DECADES better...and to help people...we should CELEBRATE THAT PERSON
@MollyJongFast
@NikkiHaley
also, you can't switch a border light off and stop fentanyl...most fentanyl comes through PORTS and is brought in to the country by US citizens...also, a lot of the reason we have fentanyl in all our drugs was b/c of crackdowns on other drugs....so, even if you accept the premise
@jemelehill
Also, if your team is turning out millions per game in revenue...why shouldn't you be driving a Bentley or Rolls? If someone invented an app in college and it made a million dollars, they could drive a Bentley or Rolls, no? What is he even talking about (isn't he libertarian?)
Sorry to announce that two more people incarcerated in Michigan prisons have died from COVID. They are the 80th and 81st to perish.
Empathy and love to their family and friends
#LetMIPeopleGo
I find some news organizations (often local) to be really beyond the pale.....one earlier today was saying incarcerated people getting vaccinated was "proving that crime pays"
People in prisons have been dying at a rate 3X that of the general population 1/
5. Remember, none of that covers necessary costs when I was in prison (I tried to live very frugally, but I did have money in my account every month and occasionally had to pay for health care etc.)
Yesterday I mentioned that 47 people had died in Michigan prisons and someone responded, and I am not kidding:
"I would recommend not breaking the law"
People's casual - even flippant - cruelty is astounding
17. I also understand people have the right to think what they think....I am just trying to communicate that what we are doing is INCREDIBLY counterproductive to public safety, destructive to families, and people literally have to walk on water to ever get past it all
So let me try yet another way....
The power you give to police, prosecutors, and prisons today....in order to punish the people you don't like, will be used by police, prosecutors, and prisons to also punish the people you do like later
19. All I am saying is that we need to seriously reconsider this model....We have courts that are assigning fines and fees b/c they literally need the money to stay open....We have county jails doing the same thing....Yes, we all hate taxes, but this model is POISONOUS
16. It is easy to pretend incarceration will never impact you...but for 70 million people in this country...that was not the case
I had never even had more than a traffic ticket when I was arrested....It can happen to you....or to someone you love or care about
18. And remember, not getting past it all usually means RECIDIVIST crimes as people go back to trying to make real money, in order to be financially secure.
Successful reentry is about helping people find a future they can believe in for themselves and their families
Let's keep building
#cjreform
Twitter, if this issue is a passion for you too, tell me why it matters so much to you
I'll start, I am formerly incarcerated, I have seen all the awfulness up close and personal and the folks inside are my brothers and sisters
14. Oh, one thing I left out, I didn't even include restitution (I was not forced to pay restitution)...For some people that adds additional costs.
I do not think my story is unique, and I am not really complaining for myself
@MollyJongFast
They really have a hard time with the whole Constitution thing.....or understanding what "freedom" - in this instance of religion - actually means