The War and the Influence of the Military- and Prison-Industrial Complex
Why does the so-called "greatest country in the world" also have the largest number of people incarcerated--more than 2 million (or approximately 700 per 100,000) followed by China at 1.5 million and Russia at 860,000? What does it say about us that so many of our children are caught in the "school-to-prison pipeline" and that too often, youth are made to feel that the military or prison are their only choices? In this workshop, we will discuss and seek solutions for why people of color and those in the lower socioeconomic and educational strata are over-represented among prison populations and what the public as observer and victim miss in their understanding of this prison-industrial system. We will also ask the question, what does our prison system have to do with the "war on terror?"
Facilitator: Kenneth P. Freeman: Former Internal Affairs Senior Investigator for the NJ Department of Corrections, author of the whistleblower memoir, Rose Tainted Justice: Privileges, Power and Internal Affairs.
Panelists:
Jean Ross, Chair of People's Organization for Progress's Prison Committee.
Dr. James C. McIntosh: Psychiatrist, Co-Chair of CEMOTAP (Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People), and author of The Unauthorized Psychoanalysis of Giuliani, State Rape, and Prosecutorial Misconduct.
Prof. Byron E. Price, of Newark Rutgers University campus, Dept. of Public Administration. Author of Merchandizing Prisoners: Who Really Pays for Prison Privatization. His latest journalistic article is "The Impact of Privatization on Human Resources."
Dhoruba Bin Wahad: Former Black Panther and political prisoner.
Monica Moorehead, coordinator of Millions for Mumia, an anti-death
penalty project of the International Action Center. As a presidential
candidate on the Workers World Party ticket, she was arrested along with
hundreds more in Washington, DC in April 2000 during a protest against
the prison-industrial complex as part of the annual anti-IMF/World Bank
demonstrations.
Study: Prison Population on the Rise