Can Incarceration be Deemed a Crisis Now that the Shoe is on … Both Feet?

By Zerline Hughes

The Washington Post last week published a submission by a Stanford University professor. The headline: “There’s been a big decline in the black incarceration rate, and almost nobody’s paying attention.”

A friend sent the article my way and I was immediately upset. Sure, you see the words decline, incarceration, and Black, and you think, “great news.” But the way it was presented, I’m thinking “loaded news.”

Right there in the headline it says “nobody’s paying attention.” Hmmm … well, let’s just starting off there. I guess I’m busy too keeping my son, 13, from being one of those 1 in 3 Black men that will touch the criminal justice system to notice that there was a decline in Black incarceration. That’s fair, right?

But then, when I continued to read and saw “African Americans are benefiting from the national de-incarceration trend,” I scoffed. But maybe it’s only the semantics. African Americans are not “benefiting” from anything when it comes to our criminal justice system.

The meat of the article is that it seems White women are serving time at increasing rates, and White men are not far behind. I wonder if that means there will FINALLY be an all out crisis or state of emergency declared on mass incarceration. You know, the way it should have been four decades ago when Black men began filling up our prisons at an increasingly higher rate than Whites. To be exact, Pew Research quoting BJS stats reported that there was a more than 230 percent increase in Black men serving time while there was a 158 increase for White men between 1960 and 2000.

Further, the article blames the increase in Whites going to prison on their deteriorating health and well-being of is also refreshing — and another slick play on semantics. Read it:

“More generally, multiple indicators of health and well-being have shown evidence of deterioration in white Americans over the past 15 years, including rising rates of suicide, drug overdose, poor mental health and inability to work.”

I recall hearing Black incarceration was due to animalistic, brute and inhumane tendencies, in addition to words being used like poverty-stricken, “poor”and uneducated. Our narratives, word choice, and priorities need major adjusting. Here’s another example from the New York Times.

Alas, if this means someone with rank will finally look at ending mass incarceration and fixing our broken justice system, I’ll take it. Maybe now, in addition to discussing re-entry during events like Washington Post Live’s trending discussion that I attended last week, we’ll talk about NO entry, as one of the panelists put it.

Involved Parents + Involved Kids = Evolved Youth

By Zerline Hughes

Today was one of those days that I really made that effort to ensure that these two touch the prison system in no way, shape, or form.

No, I didn’t lecture them – well, maybe a bit. I seem to always give them some sort of lecture or lesson during the commute back and forth to school bus stops and such. But that’s not it. And no, I didn’t take them to a juvenile detention center or local jail for a scared straight program with incarcerated people yelling in their faces. Studies from orgs like Psych Central show these types of programs don’t work anyway, and states are starting to phase them out (see Juvenile Justice Information Exchange).

My daughter’s proud day-at-work-with-mom selfie!

What I did do was take my daughter to work. What I did was volunteer at my son’s school and attended a school event that he prepared for and participated in.

I’m positive things like this, in addition to enriching at-risk programs, peer mediation trainings and registering youth in Big Brother/Big Sister programs, too, are successful deterrents for at-risk behaviors. In fact, according Michigan Department of Education research, when parents are involved with their youths education, students have:

• higher grades
• higher graduation rates
• better self-esteem
• lower rates of suspension
• decreased use of drugs and alcohol
• fewer instances of violent behavior

For my daughter, spending time at Morgan State University, where I am a new adjunct professor teaching public relations writing, has got to be part of one’s arsenal in motivating our young people to strive for something better. She was so excited; she got dressed last night in her ‘career outfit’ and slept in her clothes so she’d be ready to start the day. She packed her own lunch. And she even agreed to let me joke with my students and tell them that she was a new enrollee and child prodigy. She saw her mother at work in front of a college classroom. She sat in the same row as college sophomores and juniors. Though she kept quiet and seemed unphased, she watched every interaction and fully experienced each of those 50 minutes (even while playing games on the multimedia lab computers).

For my son, who attends an independent school, I have to be a real advocate. I need to make sure his teachers and faculty see me and know that I care – about him and the school. (Actually, the same goes for the girl and her public school as well, so I’ve got double duty – per usual). As a result, I was there today, as promised, to work with the librarian on some electronic archive logging. Though my son was in classes, I told him I’d be there volunteering, and my daughter was there right at my side (she was off today for Veteran’s Day).

Following my duties, she and I were able to stay for the middle school talent show. Student and teacher dancers, pianists, singers, guitarists and my son, the saxophonist. I know my being there made his nerves that much more frayed, but it’s my hope that my being there also put him at ease and let him know that I am present in his life, I support him, and that I am proud of his extra efforts.

“When parents come to school regularly, it reinforces the view in the child’s mind that school and home are connected and that school is an integral part of the whole family’s life,” Michigan Department of Education found.

In my new skin as a full-time business owner/contractor, I’m excited to be more available to my children. They need me not only to chauffeur them to their varied activities, but they also need to see me at those activities, on campus, interacting with their friends, their teachers and supporters. They need to know that any time of the day or week, I may just end up surprising them in their classroom. They also need to know that they are welcome wherever I am, and can do what I do – or more!

Of course, the obstacle, for so many of us, is simply stated by the Michigan Department of Education: “Teachers often think that low-income parents and single parents will not or cannot spend as much time helping their children at home as do middle- class parents with more education and leisure time.” That’s where the challenge lies. Most of our workplaces and schedules don’t allow for such involvement. Sigh. Not much we can do about that.

What we can do though, is understand that modeling behavior can be the best way to teach and expect good results. And that’s what I’m banking on. No, these kids are not gonna’ be parolees. Not these two. I’m banking on college enrollees – and beyond. But it’s not ultimately up to me. Let’s see what they chose.

Do You Know What Today Is? It’s Our Anniversary!

By Zerline Hughes

Did you know today was the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act? I didn’t know. I’ve somewhat got my thumb on the pulse of media and current events and I didn’t realize this until about 3:45 today. My coworker who shares the same wall with me called my extension (yeah, we’re a bit lazy and choose not to get up to visit one another) to tell me about this monumental day in history and how he, too, didn’t hear much about it.

What does that say about us? About America and how dear we hold true this historic piece of legislation?

A case in point: Politico’s headline (that I had to go searching for late afternoon): Why the Civil Rights Act couldn’t pass today.

Hmph! What it says to me is no wonder our incarceration rates and racial disparity numbers are out the window. No wonder I have so much advocating to do for myself and my children as it relates to equal employment rights and education.

A New York Times  op-ed on the past 50 years reports that:

There are important lessons here for progressives. Today most civil rights advocates focus on racial disparities, comparing the struggles of blacks and Latinos to those of whites without acknowledging that plenty of whites are harmed by the same structural barriers. Many whites shut down in the face of these arguments, rationalizing that minorities themselves are to blame and resenting the fact that their own economic pain is not being acknowledged.

Shut down in deed. We are not to blame for our “economic pain;” we are not to blame for having to settle for a crappy education system due to our zip code. We are not to blame for our Black boys and men going to prison at alarming rates compared to their White counterparts.

Fifty years come and gone. Gone indeed. I believe Politico’s headline … the Civil Rights Act couldn’t pass today. And that’s why I continue to fight, advocate for my children. Their civil rights will not be dismissed or forgotten. No, Not These Two.

A Blog (and Dream) Un-deferred

By Zerline Hughes

So this is the part where I congratulate myself for achieving yet another milestone -and boy, do I need to feel a sense of achievement right about now.

This is blog post no. 1 and I’m excited. I’m also thankful because the spouse suggested I go ahead and, like NIKE says, “Just Do It.”

My work as a Director of Communications for a criminal justice reform organization – and my work as the mother of the Js – my 9 y.o daughter and 11 y.o. son – awakened an urge to blog about our many travails in trying to ensure that my son is NOT one of the three Black men touched by the criminal justice system in his lifetime. And our girls are so often forgotten, with so much attention to our boys (a la President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative), that I want to make sure that I cover all bases while blogging about my efforts to keep them BOTH motivated, positive and out of harm’s way as much as possible.

It’s taking a lot of energy, gas, tears, sanity … and the hardest of them all: patience.

So blogging will have to be my therapy. And maybe yours too. Let’s learn together. Let’s do this because when I see the negative side of what lies ahead, when I read about the statistics no one wants to be a part of, my response is easily: Not These Two!