By: Sean D. French
It is the right of the people to change laws, statutes, & policies that deliberately or inadvertently constrict ones Right to Equality & Justice. This must also include such laws that affected the livelihood of incarcerated men & women; especially Black and Brown offenders who became victims of the Mass Incarceration scheme of “Reagan era policies”. How this ploy continues to affect the families, communities, and the lives of the ex-offenders after imprisonment.
The restructuring of justice must be RADICAL as opposed to conservative, whose very nature is one step forward and two steps back. If justice is not evolving in every area of society, then it will atrophy…which leads to death!
Black and Brown Americans are currently experiencing this brand of death because the law has not evolved in a way that both protects and embraces Black Americans as equals; and this sentiment rings truer for those currently incarcerated!
There is a season for all things. Each season is a depiction of humanity’s flaws, something to learn & grow from. What we must ask ourselves now is – what do we need to learn from OVER INCARCERATING Americans – especially Black & Brown men and women?
Is it irresponsible or more detrimental to punish offenders in a draconian manner that exacerbates the subjugation, oppression, and economic ostracism of an entire race of people? Or are we finally on the brink of unearthing the pure essence of justice: the kind that points towards healing, equality, and restructuring?
It takes vision to foment a radical change and to let go of “legal”, unjust and in some cases, egregious practices. Truth-in-Sentencing remains intact because Governor Whitmer lacks vision! She is content with protecting and maintaining the status quo; especially as it pertains to prison reform!
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered
– Aristotle –
A lack of vision is how egregious practices continue to be perpetuated. They are driven by men & women who lack the moral fortitude to usher in the type of change that advances & evolves our concepts of how to treat the proletarian. Radical change, is that which gives promise that in its season, the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all shall be treated “justly and fairly,” even those whom are incarcerated.
When a public official such as a Governor, refuses to address the obvious damages & biased practices that have and continue to affect the overall livelihood of both African Americans & prisoners (as it seems they are synonymous) division, becomes the least of its worries. The dismantling of its moral & socioeconomic foundation is what it must prepare for.
Those that refuse to initiate change, to do away with that which has caused more harm than good, must never forget: it was people like this (the status quo) who saw nothing wrong with the destructive Jim Crow laws forced upon African Americans & the damage it caused one generation after the next: how it destroyed the black family unit, how it robbed the people of hope, how it destroyed their communities.
To ignore this truth, does not make it any less true!
The status quo saw nothing wrong with its archaic Jim Crow practices or how it infected and affected the African American race then. The same spirit is alive and well today.
Governor Whitmer & previous governors have found nothing wrong with Truth-in-Sentencing; ignoring the damage that it has caused & the effects that it has had on offenders and their families, especially black families.
Like the Jim Crow era, Governor Whitmer’s position is this, Truth-in-Sentencing is the law and therefore it is just! She believes that by telling herself this, the systemic damages it causes are justifiable and her decision to keep T.I.S. is also justifiable. This same skewed perspective kept the laws of Jim Crow intact – until the Civil Rights movement came along!
Keeping men & women especially those of color, shackled to mandatory long indeterminate sentences is a construct of the “status quo”. Blacks had no part in forging these laws in the State of Michigan because Michigan has never had a Black governor!
CAVEAT: Mandatory Sentencing – is an UNNECESSARY EVIL ILLUSION OF JUSTICE!
Black Lives are a valuable too! Judicial reform and restorative justice can assist in protecting these lives & others, but the Governor is showing us where she stands on the matter by not revoking T.I.S.! Although she may not be as blunt as Marjorie Greene or Donald Trump in what she stands by, her actions or the lack thereof speak just as loud.
We see who you are Governor Whitmer! You have taken no steps towards implementing any “real” change in the MDOC, change that can restore lives, communities, and the men & women extracted from them.
Start practicing truth! Stop selling false hope…politicizing issues that you have no real intention of rectifying. You don’t want change; you wish to safely advance your career!
Truth! You and the Lt. governor alluded to the fact that you would reform and relieve the prison system of its ridiculous budget & T.I.S. instead, you rejected the bill that had bipartisan support to remove mandatory sentencing; a law that has played a very large role in permanently dismantling black & brown families. A law that has ignored the fact that by the time these offenders are released, they have no family to return to!
Their children will have been raised without a father, daughters now with children of their own, as a result of teen pregnancies; which leads to their own children being raised without fathers, because those young men are trapped in the same perpetual cycle that their own fathers became victims of!
When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.-
From the coauthor of “Rehabilitation in Prison”
Restorative Justice Activist & Humanitarian
Sean D. French: #317662