The human stories behind mass incarceration | Eve Abrams

47,949 views ・ 2018-04-17

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I have never been arrested,
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never spent a night in jail,
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never had a loved one thrown into the back of a squad car
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or behind bars,
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or be at the mercy of a scary, confusing system
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that at best sees them with indifference,
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and at worst as monstrous.
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The United States of America locks up more people than any other nation
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on the planet,
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and Louisiana is our biggest incarcerator.
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Most of you are probably like me --
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lucky.
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The closest we get to crime and punishment is likely what we see on TV.
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While making "Unprisoned,"
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I met a woman who used to be like us --
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Sheila Phipps.
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(Recording) Sheila Phipps: Before my son went to jail,
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I used to see people be on television,
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fighting, saying, "Oh, this person didn't do it and this person is innocent."
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And you know, you snub them or you dismiss them,
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and like, "Yeah, whatever."
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Don't get me wrong,
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there's a lot of people who deserve to be in prison.
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There's a lot of criminals out here.
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But there are a lot of innocent people that's in jail.
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EA: Sheila's son, McKinley, is one of those innocent people.
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He served 17 years of a 30-year sentence on a manslaughter charge.
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He had no previous convictions,
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there was no forensic evidence in the case.
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He was convicted solely on the basis of eyewitness testimony,
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and decades of research have shown
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that eyewitness testimony isn't as reliable
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as we once believed it to be.
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Scientists say that memory isn't precise.
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It's less like playing back a video,
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and more like putting together a puzzle.
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Since 1989, when DNA testing was first used to free innocent people,
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over 70 percent of overturned convictions were based on eyewitness testimony.
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Last year,
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the district attorney whose office prosecuted McKinley's case
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was convicted of unrelated corruption charges.
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When this district attorney of 30 years stepped down,
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the eyewitnesses from McKinley's case came forward
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and said that they had been pressured into testifying by the district attorneys,
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pressure which included the threat of jail time.
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Despite this, McKinley is still in prison.
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(Recording) SP: Before this happened,
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I never would've thought it.
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And well, I guess it's hard for me to imagine
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that these things is going on, you know,
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until this happened to my son.
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It really opened my eyes.
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It really, really opened my eyes.
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I ain't gonna lie to you.
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EA: Estimates of how many innocent people are locked up
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range between one and four percent,
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which maybe doesn't sound like a lot,
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except that it amounts to around 87,000 people:
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mothers, fathers, sons locked up,
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often for decades,
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for crimes they did not commit.
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And that's not even counting the roughly half a million people
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who have been convicted of nothing --
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those presumed innocent,
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but who are too poor to bail out of jail
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and therefore sit behind bars for weeks upon months,
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waiting for their case to come to trial --
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or much more likely,
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waiting to take a plea just to get out.
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All of those people have family on the outside.
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(Recording) Kortney Williams: My brother missed my high school graduation
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because the night before,
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he went to jail.
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My brother missed my birthday dinner
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because that day, actually, he went to jail.
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My brother missed his own birthday dinner
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because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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(Recording) EA: So all these times when he ended up going to jail,
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were charges pressed or did he just get taken to jail?
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KW: The charges would be pressed
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and it would have a bond posted,
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then the charges will get dropped ...
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because there was no evidence.
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EA: I met Kortney Williams when I went to her college classroom
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to talk about "Unprisoned."
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She ended up interviewing her aunt, Troylynn Robertson,
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for an episode.
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(Recording) KW: With everything that you went through
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with your children,
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what is any advice that you would give me
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if I had any kids?
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(Recording) Troylynn Roberston: I would tell you when you have them,
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you know the first thing that will initially come to mind is love
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and protection,
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but I would tell you,
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even much with the protection to raise them
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with knowledge of the judicial system --
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you know, we always tell our kids about the boogeyman,
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the bad people, who to watch out for,
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but we don't teach them how to watch out for the judicial system.
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EA: Because of the way our criminal legal system
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disproportionately targets people of color,
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it's not uncommon for young people like Kortney to know about it.
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When I started going into high schools to talk to students about "Unprisoned,"
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I found that roughly one-third of the young people I spoke with
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had a loved one behind bars.
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(Recording) Girl: The hardest part is like finding out where he's at,
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or like, when his court date is.
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Girl: Yeah, he went to jail on my first birthday.
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Girl: My dad works as a guard.
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He saw my uncle in jail.
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He's in there for life.
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EA: According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation,
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the number of young people with a father incarcerated rose 500 percent
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between 1980 and 2000.
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Over five million of today's children will see a parent incarcerated
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at some point in their childhoods.
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But this number disproportionately affects African American children.
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By the time they reach the age of 14,
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one in four black children will see their dad go off to prison.
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That's compared to a rate of one in 30 for white children.
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One key factor determining the future success of both inmates and their children
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is whether they can maintain ties during the parent's incarceration,
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but prisoners' phone calls home can cost 20 to 30 times more
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than regular phone calls,
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so many families keep in touch through letters.
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(Recording: Letter being unfolded)
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Anissa Christmas: Dear big brother,
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I'm making that big 16 this year, LOL.
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Guess I'm not a baby anymore.
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You still taking me to prom?
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I really miss you.
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You're the only guy that kept it real with me.
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I wish you were here so I can vent to you.
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So much has happened since the last time I seen you.
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(Voice breaking up) I have some good news.
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I won first place in the science fair.
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I'm a geek.
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We're going to regionals, can't you believe it?
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High school is going by super fast.
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In less than two years,
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I hope you'll be able to see me walk across the stage.
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I thought to write to you because I know it's boring in there.
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I want to put a smile on your face.
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Anissa wrote these letters to her brother
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when she was a sophomore in high school.
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She keeps the letters he writes to her tucked into the frame
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of her bedroom mirror,
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and reads them over and over again.
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I'd like to think that there's a good reason
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why Anissa's brother is locked up.
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We all want the wheels of justice to properly turn,
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but we're coming to understand
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that the lofty ideals we learned in school look really different
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in our nation's prisons and jails and courtrooms.
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(Recording) Danny Engelberg: You walk into that courtroom and you're just --
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I've been doing this for a quite a while, and it still catches your breath.
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You're like, "There are so many people of color here,"
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and yet I know that the city is not made up of 90 percent African Americans,
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so why is it that 90 percent of the people who are in orange
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are African American?
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(Recording) EA: Public defender Danny Engelberg isn't the only one noticing
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how many black people are in municipal court --
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or in any court.
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It's hard to miss.
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Who's sitting in court waiting to see the judge?
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What do they look like?
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(Recording) Man: Mostly African-Americans, like me.
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Man: It's mostly, I could say, 85 percent black.
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That's all you see in the orange, in the box back there, who locked up.
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Man: Who's waiting? Mostly black.
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I mean, there was a couple of white people in there.
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Woman: I think it was about 85 percent African-American
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that was sitting there.
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EA: How does a young black person growing up in America today
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come to understand justice?
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Another "Unprisoned" story was about a troupe of dancers
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who choreographed a piece called "Hoods Up,"
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which they performed in front of city council.
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Dawonta White was in the seventh grade for that performance.
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(Recording) Dawonta White: We was wearing black with hoodies because Trayvon Martin,
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when he was wearing his hoodie, he was killed.
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So we looked upon that,
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and we said we're going to wear hoodies like Trayvon Martin.
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(Recording) EA: Who came up with that idea?
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DW: The group. We all agreed on it.
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I was a little nervous, but I had stick through it though,
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but I felt like it was a good thing so they could notice what we do.
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(Recording) EA: Shraivell Brown was another choreographer and dancer
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in "Hoods Up."
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He says the police criticize people who look like him.
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He feels judged based on things other black people may have done.
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How would you want the police to look at you,
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and what would you want them to think?
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SB: That I'm not no threat.
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EA: Why would they think you're threatening?
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What did you say, you're 14?
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SB: Yes, I'm 14, but because he said a lot of black males
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are thugs or gangsters and all that,
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but I don't want them thinking that about me.
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EA: For folks who look like me,
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the easiest and most comfortable thing to do is to not pay attention --
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to assume our criminal legal system is working.
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But if it's not our responsibility to question those assumptions,
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whose responsibility is it?
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There's a synagogue here that's taken on learning about mass incarceration,
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and many congregants have concluded
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that because mass incarceration throws so many lives into chaos,
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it actually creates more crime --
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makes people less safe.
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Congregant Teri Hunter says
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the first step towards action has to be understanding.
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She says it's crucial for all of us to understand our connection to this issue
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even if it's not immediately obvious.
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(Recording) Teri Hunter: It's on our shoulders
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to make sure that we're not just closing that door
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and saying, "Well, it's not us."
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And I think as Jews, you know, we've lived that history:
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"It's not us."
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And so if a society closes their back on one section,
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we've seen what happens.
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And so it is our responsibility as Jews
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and as members of this community
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to educate our community --
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at least our congregation --
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to the extent that we're able.
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EA: I've been using the pronouns "us" and "we"
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because this is our criminal legal system
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and our children.
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We elect the district attorneys,
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the judges and the legislators who operate these systems
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for we the people.
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As a society,
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we are more willing to risk locking up innocent people
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than we are to let guilty people go free.
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We elect politicians who fear being labeled "soft on crime,"
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encouraging them to pass harsh legislation
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and allocate enormous resources toward locking people up.
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When a crime is committed,
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our hunger for swift retribution has fed a police culture
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bent on finding culprits fast,
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often without adequate resources to conduct thorough investigations
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or strict scrutiny of those investigations.
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We don't put checks on prosecutors.
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Across the country, over the last couple of decades,
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as property and violent crimes have both fell,
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the number of prosecutors employed and cases they have filed has risen.
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Prosecutors decide whether or not to take legal action
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against the people police arrest
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and they decide what charges to file,
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directly impacting how much time a defendant potentially faces behind bars.
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One check we do have on prosecutors is defense.
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Imagine Lady Liberty:
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the blindfolded woman holding the scale
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meant to symbolize the balance in our judicial system.
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Unfortunately, that scale is tipped.
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The majority of defendants in our country
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are represented by government-appointed attorneys.
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These public defenders receive around 30 percent less funding
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than district attorneys do,
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and they often have caseloads far outnumbering
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what the American Bar Association recommends.
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As Sheila Phipps said,
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there are people who belong in prison,
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but it's hard to tell the guilty from the innocent
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when everyone's outcomes are so similar.
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We all want justice.
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But with the process weighed so heavily against defendants,
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justice is hard to come by.
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Our criminal legal system operates for we the people.
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If we don't like what's going on,
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it is up to us to change it.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)
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