Black/Red View

Oppression in prisons

by Georgiana Williams

I am turning over my column this issue to a longtime Los Angeles area community activist, Georgiana Williams.--John Alan

When I asked the inmates I visit what they wanted me to address, they all said the issue is that African Americans are not getting released from prison.

Another prisoner who spoke with me has been in and out all his life for drugs. He described being handcuffed for 16 hours for something he had nothing to do with, and he wants help to file a lawsuit. Another case is a lawyer who was accused of taking a bribe when he was given money to work in a community and lost his license. He said there are two sets of laws, one for the rich and the other for the poor. He lives in Malibu where if a kid steals a car, they call it a joyride. But if a kid from L.A. steals a car, it's called grand theft auto. If it's powder cocaine, you get a slap on the hand, but if it's "crack" in L.A., you go to jail. I interviewed another brother who is now out who started a group with others called "In and Out."

We live in a grave crisis today. The prison-industrial complex has over two million incarcerated in the U.S. and still we keep building prisons. That won't stop any crime. We need to be building good schools. Prisons are the breeding ground for more crime. You can get more dope in prison than on the street, and the guards are the ones bringing it in. Bush is the real leader. He takes it as a joke and a hoax. There used to be rehabilitation--you could get a trade in prison; you could go to school; your family could visit you. Now there is nothing. The prison concept is an orchestrated design to retain a legal slave system this country was built on. Why is the U.S. the only country that refused to abolish slavery? All across the country our children are dying before they reach the age to vote. They are carjacking, robbing the hamburger stands, dealing with crack in the streets--this is the hand of the oppressor. I don't know any African American who owns a ship or plane to go to Colombia and bring drugs to our streets. I tell the brothers and sisters they can no longer put the rope around your neck and hang you on a tree, so they bring cocaine and tell you how to make rock so you can destroy each other.

This country was founded on cheap slave labor. I told the immigrants that I know what it is to work from sunup to sundown on your knees and get 50 cents. We all know that if you keep people from being able to live with dignity, it will result in crime. Do we want to stigmatize people when they get released from prison? The question is what are we going to do about it? We need to keep our children in school. We need to keep saying it over and over--stop destroying each other.