Thoughts on The Central Park Five Documentary

The Central Park Five

Over the years, in all my education and reading there wasn't a single moment that called my attention to the The Central Park Five.  During the Spring semester of 2014, I taught a class that focused on Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.  This included a digital screening of the Scottsboro Nine documentary, An American Tragedy.  During the same semester I also became aware of the Kids for Cash scheme in Pennsylvania and other issues highlighted in our research of the criminal justice system, specifically about juvenile justice.  I mention this because of the historic connection to injustice that we need to understand between The Central Park Five and the Scottsboro Nine.  As Dr. Cornel West would describe... this is Jim Crow, Jr. carrying on the work of Jim Crow, Sr.

My memory doesn't serve me well when I try to remember "when" I first heard about The Central Park Five.  At the time the media ran with the story, I was no more than 9 years old and for years the only thing I can remember about The Central Park Five growing up in the Southwest was that something bad happened in a big park... even when I visited New York in 2008, going past the park conjured up a negative feeling and stigma.  I didn't care to see anything beyond what I saw from the cab window.

Fast forward years later, browsing through Netflix I stumbled across a dark documentary cover with the words "The Central Park Five" in bold gray.  At first glance I didn't notice the details of the city of New York on one of the beams of justice with the caricatures of five central figures on the other. I didn't notice the fine print that this was a Ken Burns documentary.  As a matter of fact I didn't figure out that Ken Burns was involved until the credits at the end.  I'm a big fan of Burns work on Jazz and of course the Jack Johnson story, Unforgivable Blackness.  As I'm learning more about the film, I'm also in awe of the story behind the making of it through Ken's daughter Sarah Burns, who's work as a student brought life to its production.

Over the past couple of years, I've also listened to The Combat Jack Show.  It's a podcast archived on Soundcloud hosted by a former lawyer and Hip Hop Alumni.  On several occasions listening to the podcast I recall Combat and hosts talking about a "classic" interview with one of the members of The Central Park Five.  As Combat's program has a strong focus on the Hip Hop world, that is what triggered me to stop what I was doing and finally watch the documentary when I scrolled passed it on Netflix.  I didn't hear the interview yet but just hearing Combat mention "The Central Park Five" made me tell myself... "man, let me watch this film and see what it's all about already..."

The Central Park Five, like the Scottsboro Nine are stories we need to hold on to and pass on.  This story has everything to do with our responsibilities as students and teachers.  The lessons here go beyond the goal for closure with a relentless adversary like the city of New York.  After watching the film I've explored the net and YouTube for interviews and discussions centered around the film.  Since watching the The Central Park Five documentary I also found The Combat Jack Show with Raymond Santana and listened to it.  I'm grateful to say that this story is no longer a mystery to me.  And as I watched a YouTube video of the group discuss the film at the Harvard Law School a few years ago, I couldn't help but think about Kalief Browder who was still in Rikers at the time of the Harvard screening.

There's a lot to be said, but even more so to look forward to as we work our way through the collateral impact of The Central Park Five.  Especially as a source of inspiration and creativity to how we interact with these issues, how we learn, how we teach, how we share, and how we choose to get involved.

To learn more I highly recommend Twitter for its mobile access... There are several hashtags that will connect you to people's responses and thoughts about the film including the hashtag #TheCentralPark5.  On Twitter you can also link with the filmmakers and members of The Central Park Five, including Raymond Santana and Yusef Abdus Salaam.  

Peace.

#TBW2015cj The Super-Predator Myth Timeline

The Super-Predator Myth Timeline click here

A timeline of student research for The Beat Within, A Compositional History of Incarcerated Writing course.   During the Fall semester of 2015, students read Nell Bernstein's Burning Down the House, The End of Juvenile Prison.  For the discussion of Chapter 5 titled 'The Rise of the Super-Predator And the Decline of the Rehabilitative Ideal' students identified news media/multimedia connected to the Super-Predator Myth.  In the course text, Bernstein states, "...high-profile researchers crossed crime stats with demographic projections to stir up fears of a coming wave of "super-predators" unlike any seen before - "more savage than salvageable," according to Princeton political science professor John Dilulio, who made his name by playing up the (supposedly) coming menace.  On October 9, 1996, a book called Body Count - co-authored by Dilulio, drug czar William J. Bennett, and think-tank director John P. Walters - hit the shelves, and America was formally introduced to our new worst nightmare: our children." (p. 72)

This timeline will document any Super-Predator Myth resources we discover off and online including links to news, video, audio, etc.  We will maintain updates to the hstry tool on Twitter.com/vbehindw hashtag #TBW2015cj.

Keywords + Tag = The Beat Within | #TBW2015cj | Burning Down the House | The End of Juvenile Prison | Nell Bernstein | superpredator | super-predator | super predator | predator | rehabilitation | juvenile justice | juvenile injustice | John Dilulio | William J. Benett | John P. Wlaters | Body Count | Ice-T | New Mexico State University | hstry | timeline | youth 

#TBW2014cj | Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote

Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote
by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
The Nation: click here

From the crime bill to welfare reform,
policies Bill Clinton enacted,
and Hillary Clinton supported,
decimated black America.

For students that took part in the The Beat Within 2014 course that focused on The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.  Read February's Nation article by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow click here.

Keywords + Tag = Michelle Alexander | politics | Hillary Clinton | Bill Clinton | juvenile | Black America | Black Lives Matter | mass incarceration | The Beat Within | #TBW2014cj | Jim Crow | The New Jim Crow | Jim Crow, Jr. | democrat | republican | vote | voting | voting bloc | super predator | super predator myth | superpredator | super-predator | voters | campaign | injustice | justice | deception | globalization | deindustrialization | segregation | Ricky Ray Rector | human rights | 1994 crime bill | Aid to Families with Dependent Children | poverty | Bernie Sanders | W.E.B. Du Bois | game over

Dear The Beat Within

A powerful piece posted January 2016 on The Beat Within Facebook page facebook.com/thebeatwithin.  Visit and 'like' the page.  An inspiring message by Ruth to kick off the 20th year of The Beat Within's existence.  Since 1996. 

Dear The Beat Within

Thanks for waking up every Tuesday morning and taking your time to come to Eastlake (Central Juvenile Hall). You give us girls a different task to write about each week, we get to choose between the four topics.

It is actually a good experience for me. Every time I write it helps me let out my feelings or what is on my mind. I know I am not the only girl here to thank you guys for this.

As I see everybody write and everybody going up to read their paper (to the group), it helps me know I am not the only one with a difficult life or problems. I definitely recommend that other youth out there try this because it is not only here in Eastlake.

There are still girls out there who I am pretty sure have not picked up a pencil and wrote it all out on paper. Not just us girls, but guys too.

Once again thanks for everything you guys do. I hope you really take my advice about youth out there, remember they might need you. With much thankfulness...

-Ruth, Los Angeles


thebeatwithin.org

Creative Justice Reading #TBW2016cj

Creative Justice Reading #TBW2016cj

#Reading Hidden Truth

Young Men Navigating Lives In and Out of Juvenile Prison

by Adam D. Reich
University of California Press

#HiddenTREWTH

T.abloid R.ealism E.nlightening W.orldz T.roubled H.umanity

voicesbehindwalls.org/vbwclass

voicesbehindwalls.org/tbw 

Morales v Turman

Morales v Turman

Added to 'Cases' links on the right*
Texas Youth Council for Disobedience

"Morales v. Turman has since been heralded for establishing the first clear standards for the nation's juvenile justice apparatus.  But forty years later, incarcerated youth and their advocates are still fighting not only for an atmosphere that fosters rehabilitation but for one that merely offers some modicum of protection from chronic and vicious abuse."

Excerpt from "The Real Recidivism Problem, One Hundred Years of Reform and Relapse at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys" Chapter 14 of Burning Down the House, The End of Juvenile Prison by Nell Bernstein

Learn more about Morales v. Turman by visiting The University of Texas School of Law Tarlton Law Library Jamail Center for Legal Research click here

Read the letter from Mrs. Ruth Criswell to Judge Justice, September 27, 1973

Keywords + Tag = Texas Youth Council | William Wayne  | juvenile justice | justice papers | delinquency | juvenile incarceration | resource | University of Texas School of Law  | Kids for Cash | Morales v Turman | detention | Alicia Morales | Dr. James Turman | civil action | reform | University of Texas and Southern Methodist University | law | due process | Judge Justice

#CJFinal2015 Creative Justice Final #TBW2015cj

For the Fall semester #TBW2015cj each student has five options for their final project.

Those options include the following:

Juvenile Prison History research project

#juveprisonHistory

Criminal Justice Book It Review

#cjBookit

Community Based Program Presentation

#communityProfiles

Social Media Analysis

#socialmediAnalysis

The Beat Within Publication Presentation

#TBWPublicationPrez

Below are the student selections for the #CJFinal2015:

For more information on the course please email
voicesbehindwalls@gmail.com

Discussing The Prison Public Memory Project #TBW2015cj

Discussing The Prison Public Memory Project #TBW2015cj
prisonpublicmemory.org @PrisonMemory

voicesbehindwalls.org/tbw

This semester students of #TBW2015cj participated in weekly tasks, one of which we refer to as the Social Media Summary (SMS) which focused on student/instructor Twitter activities.  September's assignment required students find and follow the Prison Public Memory Project twitter page.  Students reviewed Prison Public Memory Project website and social media, identified a resource about the project, and shared with other #TBW2015cj students in the online Discussion board.  Below are a few notes from the students:

"What I found out about the Prison Public Memory Project is that they are huge on history. They had this SoundCloud audio on Sylvia Honig, who was a former social worker in the 1960s and the 1970s. Sylvia worked in three New York juvenile prisons. Tony, the one who called all the shots, tells her that she was more of a father figure and how they saw authority in her. Therefore, the 25 girls of the program felt safe with her. It gave me the impression of a very well respected strong woman raised by her strict father. She wasn’t so sensitive as the other house moms when it came to talking about her feelings. Surprisingly, she felt that it was inappropriate to talk about feelings and issues amongst each other. Tony called a meeting talking about a program and how he wanted to leave footprints, which has now made history." #TBW2015cj Student

"What I have learned about the Prison Public Memory Project is that they are trying to use various forms of media, art, and history to honor the memories of many different types of people and communities that were involved in some way with a prison type facility that has been shut down. They believe that the memories that are housed in these facilities deserve to be known, even if they are no longer operating. Each individual that was a part of these facilities have a voice, whether they were staff or someone that was incarcerated. They seem to really want to educate the public on the histories of these facilities. They have started their pilot project in Hudson NY, their website has many interesting photographs that are pieces of art in the way they are displayed. There are also many stories from people interviewed on their site as well." #TBW2015cj Student

"What I found out about the Prison Public Memory Project is that they want to preserve the history of what took place in these prisons that are closing. Their focus is on using particular resources such as media technologies and history to help show people what the role of a prison play in both communities and society. They started in Hudson, New York because of its historic significance and the role that the prison there has played since the 1800s regarding the topics of penal reform, child welfare, juvenile justice, the role of race, gender, income, and immigrant status and how these factors come to play in crime and punishment." #TBW2015cj Student

Improving Responses to Youth Charged with Status Offenses A Training Curriculum

Improving Responses to Youth Charged with Status Offenses
A Training Curriculum

@4juvjustice

Added a new category to our links list to the right of the page called Educator Resources.  First resource added is the latest training curriculum from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, (SOS) Safety, Opportunity & Success Project: Standards of Care for Non-Delinquent Youth. For students, educators, justice workers, and other community members that aren't aware of status offenses and its impact on youth in the juvenile justice system, this is a great resource to review, study, discuss, share, train, reference for research assignments, grants, and/or implement.  To access the training resource please visit the CJJ link: click here.

How is your state or local community responding to status offenses?

Keywords + Tag = status offenses | Coalition for Juvenile Justice  | juvenile justice | safety | delinquency | training | resource | Robert Schwartz | non-delinquent youth | truancy | detention | curriculum | advocacy | community | intervention | runaway | instructor's guide | technical assistance | Lisa Pilnik | Juvenile Law Center

The Story of Alonzo Thomas @FrontLinePBS

When a 16 Year Old is Locked Up in a Supermax Prison

The Story of Alonzo Thomas

@FrontlinePBS: click here

#TBW2015cj Students Discussing The Beat Within Documentary 1998

Highlighting a response from Christina Hernandez for 08.31's discussion responding to The Beat With Documentary featured below.  Students researched and shared Beat Within sources with classmates.  Christina linked "My Guilt, My Mom" by Wester posted on July 30th, 2015 from The Beat Within website.  Below is Christina's comment about the poem and discussion about juvenile prison families.  You can read the piece by Wester by clicking here.

"This particular entry really spoke to me being a mother myself. Some people assume every child that has been incarcerated have no parent involvement in their lives. I always read in posts concerning juveniles that get in trouble, Where are the parents? Why aren’t the parents putting a stop to this behavior? But sometimes despite your best efforts as a parent, your child can still stray from the right path. Not only is the child stigmatized but the parents are as well. No matter how much support and love you show your child, you’ll always be looked at as the parent that let their kid end up in jail."

In Depth Interview w/ Nell Bernstein | Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

In Depth Interview w/ Nell Bernstein

by the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

by Gary Gately

Interview: click here

For #TBW2015cj's discussion "09.08 - Introducing Nell Bernstein #TBWMixtape2015 #listening to Will Roy & Tupac (20 Years Later) + Research & Writing Approach" students discussed the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange interview detailing Nell Bernstein's  justice journey and the writing/research of this semesters course text Burning Down the House, The End of Juvenile Prison.  The interview informs students of the author's background in community based work and its link to the Criminal Justice field.  One of the goals of The Beat Within course is to broaden the undergraduate perspective of the kind of career paths that exist in Criminal Justice when it comes to addressing the needs of youth populations and their family.

Keywords + Tag = Nell Bernstein  | juvenile justice | Juvenile Justice Information Exchange | Burning Down the House, The End of Juvenile Prison | JJIE | incarceration | juvenile justice | Gary Gately | career | undergradate | The Beat Within | San Francisco | #TBW2015cj | Will Roy | research | writing | journalism | creative justice | prison family

#TBW2015cj Students Discussing Richard Ross, Syllabi, & Juvenile In Justice

Highlighting a post from #TBW2015cj student Jessica Schmitt of 08.24's discussion about this Fall's syllabi and Richard Ross' conversation about Juvenile In Justice televised on Penn State's WPSU. To view the Richard Ross conversation on YouTube click here.

"Richard Ross' interview was incredible. The relationship between the video and the syllabi are both hoping to give people a different perspective to juvenile justice. Richard Ross has always worked in areas where few get to see, starting in the area of architecture then moving on to the juvenile justice arena. Through his photography and interviews he has been able to change his own perspective of incarcerated youth and is sharing that with the world. Through his photography and interviews he has given a face to an epidemic that is clearly out of control. Society has a difficult time believing in the inequality and injustice that have been inflicted on these kids. They are proof that circumstances somehow define us in the eyes of society without the idea that circumstances can be changed. Both the interview and the syllabi show that everyone has a voice and when given the ability to write, a bond is created, hope becomes available changing ones perception and perspective. Both this course and Ross's programs have evolved into social awareness making a movement towards change in society's viewpoint on juvenile incarceration." -Jessica #TBW2015cj

Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE)

Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE)

Information is power.  If you want to know more about juvenile justice in the United States visit jjie.org and follow @JJIEnews on twitter/com/JJIEnews and facebook.com/jjiega.  They are also on LinkedIn.

Here are a few notes from their webpage:

"Doing what is best for children means staying well informed on governmental policies and legislation, court rulings, educational trends, treatment, research, prevention programs and other factors that impact the quality of service delivered to the kids that need them most."

"Those that care about children, education, family and the law comes to the JJIE because mainstream media no longer covers these issues with enough insight to do these serious topics moral justice. Crippled by budget constraints, mainstream media rarely examines beyond the surface except when horrific incidents occur. This approach can result in bad public policy and regressive legislation. We, as a society, owe it to our nation’s youth to do better."

"The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange takes a four-pronged approach:

1)   Great, in-depth reporting by professional journalists edited by the experienced John Fleming, Leslie Lapides and Rachel Wallack.

2)   Commentary from experts, academic researchers, practitioners and dedicated members of the public in our ‘Ideas and Opinions’ section.

3)   Interactive engagement with our audience through traditional, social and emerging medias and technologies.

4)   Editorial, action-oriented positions by publisher Leonard Witt."

Juvenile-in-Justice

Juvenile-In-Justice

One of our first tasks for the Fall semester of 2015 is to learn more about photographer, Richard Ross.  The photograph featured on the cover of Nell Bernstein's Burning Down the House, The End of Juvenile Prison text was taken by Richard Ross.   You can learn more about Ross and the Juvenile-In-Justice project documenting the incarceration of children in the United States at juvenile-in-justice.com

At the website you can also purchase the text and learn about other books as well.  This week we watched the program Conversations from Penn State, hosted by Patty Satalia interviewing Ross about the Juvenile-In-Justice project.  Click here to check it out.

In thinking about the work of other social justice photographers such Joseph Rodriguez, it has me thinking about a course that studies juvenile justice through the lens.  There are several other photographers who've captured the justice system through photo.  I'd call the class something like Photo Justice...

Keywords + Tag = Richard Ross | Nell Bernstein | Juvenile-In-Justice | Burning Down the House, The End of Juvenile Prison | photography | incarceration | juvenile justice | photo justice | Joseph Rodriguez | lens | Patty Satalia | Conversations from Penn State | #TBW2015cj

Day 1 August 19, 2015 @nmsu #TBWSyllabi2015

Day 1 August 19, 2015 @nmsu

#TBWSyllabi2015

Attorney General Remarks Convening on School Discipline

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch Delivers Remarks 

at White House Convening on School Discipline

"As you know, today, far too many young people – disproportionately children of color and children with disabilities – are suspended, expelled or even arrested as a result of unnecessarily harsh school discipline policies and practices that essentially criminalize minor infractions.  Far too many young people spend precious time during their formative years excluded from social interactions, denied learning opportunities and deprived of the kind of encouragement and understanding that they need to progress and improve.  And far too often, zero-tolerance school discipline policies serve as a tripwire that sends young people stumbling into a vicious cycle of criminality and incarceration."

Read the full remark transcription: click here

Keywords + Tag = Loretta E. Lynch | Attorney General | Department of Justice | DOJ | White House | school discipline | zero tolerance | suspension | disparity | children | criminalization | minor infractions | school suspension | social interaction | youth outreach | juvenile justice | school to prison pipeline | vicious cycle

Kids for Ca$h the Movie

 

Kids for Ca$h

The Movie

In 2013 as I prepared for the following Spring semester 2014, I searched for a text that I thought would compliment our reading of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.  I was looking for something that revolved around juvenile justice when I stumbled upon another New Press title by William Ecenbarger through an email blast about his book Kids for Cash: Two Judges, Thousands of Children, and a $2.6 Million Kickback Scheme.  I felt this text would fit the focus of history we get from Alexander's text connecting mass incarceration to the roots of slavery and the modern day practice of zero tolerance and an American juvenile justice system in Luzerne County Pennsylvania that fed off the vulnerabilities of American children cycling them into an unnecessary costly detention binge. 

Over the course of the semester I had no idea a film would reveal itself based on the Kids for Cash scheme.  I finally got the chance to watch Kids for Cash the movie on Netflix and encourage everyone, especially CJ students, justice professionals, educators, policy people, etc. to watch and continue to pass the word on this film, especially the text.  It's an informative and detailed account not only of the Luzerne County story, but how it reflects a much bigger problem nationwide when it comes to both adult and juvenile incarceration.

This film puts a face to injustice unlike any documentary film I've ever seen.  By the end I wondered who's face sat behind the bench when Kalief Browder was remanded without bail having to endure three years on Riker's Island. 

For more information on the film visit kidsforcashthemovie.com

The film is available as DVD and stream from Netflix.  You can access Netflix through the app and watch on any mobile device.  You can also purchase your own copy through Amazon click here.

Keywords + Tag = Kids for Cash | William Ecenbarger | Robert May | Mark Ciavarella | Michael Conahan | Juvenile Law Center | Kalief Browder | Riker's Island | juvenile justice | The New Press | documentary | prison | incarceration | corruption | Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas | Pennsylvania | VBW classroom | criminal justice

The Half Has Never Been Told Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist

The Half Has Never Been Told

Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

by Edward E. Baptist

I stumbled across the YouTube lecture below I think through a TruthOut.org article and learned about Professor Baptist's book The Half Has Never Been Told, Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism.  The talk was given at Google's Cambridge office and includes a great question and answer which provides more info on Dr. Baptist's work including digital database of runaway slave ads.  You can see the talk and q&a below.

I'm interested in learning whether info from Baptist's text and Alexander's The New Jim Crow inform one or the other around the topic of mass incarceration.

For more information on Dr. Baptist you can visit the following links:

Cornell University Department of History: click here

twitter.com/Ed_Baptist Follow

The Half Has Never Been Told Online at Basic Books: click here

Amazon.com Book Purchase: click here

Keywords + Tag = Edward E. Baptist | slavery | slavery studies | The Half Has Never Been Told | Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism | Google | Cambridge | Cornell | runaway slave | runaway slave ads | industrialization | 19th century | history | Basic Books 

Teacher's Guide for The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Launch of the Teacher's Guide for The New Jim Crow

Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

by Michelle Alexander

In September, I tuned into a webinar by Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.  It featured Michelle Alexander engaged in a Q&A and one of the topics was the upcoming release of the Teacher's Guide for high schools.  You can access the teacher's guide at the link above.  Teaching Tolerance and Michelle Alexander will also discuss the teacher's guide Wednesday, at 5 pm (MT) and you can login in by registering here.

The New Jim Crow Teacher's Guide: click here.

Keywords + Tag = Teaching Tolerance | Michelle Alexander | The New Jim Crow | mass incarceration | Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness | The New Press | Southern Poverty Law Center | Civil Rights Movement | advocacy | prison | incarceration | high school | public school | teach | educate | webinar | training | lesson | supplementary resource | research | youth | teachers | understand | race | racism | slavery | social control | lockdown | power | justice | Criminal Justice | discussion | explore | professional development