On Monday, March 1st, the director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs and other high-ranking federal officials visited Oakland to tour some of the city’s federal stimulus projects. Ella Baker Center’s Jakada Imani, Executive Director, and Ian Kim, Campaign Director of our Green Collar Jobs Campaign were two of the community leaders invited to speak and meet with the governmental guests. Other participants in the day included representatives from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, Representative Barbara Lee, and Mayor Ron Dellums. Oakland and Philadelphia were the only two cities chosen by the White House for these summits. Jakada Imani reflected, “Elected officials and influential policymakers converged in Oakland because this city is an inspiring model for what is possible when people work together and create solutions.”

Jakada Imani addresses the summit at Oakland City Hall

The summit began with a press conference and an overview presentation regarding Oakland’s efforts on the stimulus program featuring Ella Baker Center’s Jakada Imani. Next, the group toured Oakland — on one of AC Transit’s hydrogen-fuel-cell buses — to see sites supported by stimulus dollars. One of the model programs toured was the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, which was designed by the Ella Baker Center and the Oakland Apollo Alliance as a job-training and employment pipeline to provide “green pathways out of poverty” for low-income adults. Following the bus tour, the group reconvened for a Procurement Summit where representatives from public agencies and the MBDA encouraged minority businesses to participate in stimulus funded projects.

“National solutions almost always start with local innovation. We are seeing that happen with the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, a model now being replicated throughout the country with strong federal support,” said Ian Kim. “President Obama has appointed some great people to lead the Housing and Urban Development department. It was heartening to have them visit Oakland. We are all fortunate to have had a chance to exchange ideas and think about solutions together.”

Read more about this exciting event in the Oakland Tribune

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights is proud to announce that Joyce Cook, one of our Books Not Bars Campaign’s Family Organizers, has been named one of KQED’s Women’s History Month Local Heroes

Joyce started at Ella Baker Center as a member of our Families for Books Not Bars Network, tirelessly working to engage parents of incarcerated family members in our statewide campaign to reform the California Youth Authority. Herself having been raised in some of the Bay Area’s most violent neighborhoods, Joyce realized that the youth had to see something different in the community they were growing up in and immediately worked with families in the Richmond to take part in their children’s lives. She has testified in Sacramento to transform the juvenile justice system and conducts outreach at youth prisons around California to connect with and support family members of incarcerated youth. Outside of her work with the Ella Baker Center, Joyce is a poet and a single parent, and who is guided in her work by the principle that many of our children are merely “Lost souls with stories to be told.” Congratulations Joyce! She will be recognized on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 for KQED’s Women’s History Month celebration and Local Hero awards ceremony. Stay tuned for more details.

Click here for more information about KQED Women’s History Month Local Heroes

We, at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, congratulate our founder Van Jones for winning a 2010 NAACP Image Award. This award honors Van’s innovative work in social justice and equality and comes on the heels of the news that Van will be joining the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, as well as the faculty at Princeton University.

(Transcript of Van Jones’s speech accepting 2010 NAACP President’s Award at the Image Awards)

VAN JONES: First of all giving honor to God and also to my mother Loretta Jean Kirkendall Jones–let me get it right. Get that right, straight! I want to thank my beautiful wife and our two boys Matai and Cabral. I want to thank the staff and supporters of Green for All, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Color of Change, incredible freedom fighting organizations. I also want to give a shout out and a salute to President Barack Obama. President Barack Obama who is a world class leader, a man who volunteered to be the captain of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg, and we’re still floating, and we’re still floating. Let’s stay with this president!

And I also want to thank the NAACP for encouraging me to continue in my quest. It took a lot of courage for Ben Jealous to nominate me for this award and to give to me this award. I appreciate that courage, and I appreciate the courage of the NAACP.

I have had 1,000 defeats in this past year, but I had one victory, and it’s the most important victory to me: I don’t hate anybody. I’m not mad at anybody, and I still believe in the politics of hope. I still believe! You can’t take that from me. You can’t take it from me.

And I know one thing, we have people in every community in America right now watching this program who don’t have jobs, who are suffering, who are afraid, living in economic uncertainty, and I know there’s a future out there for them where they get a chance to make the products of tomorrow. If we want the jobs of tomorrow, we have to make the products of tomorrow. There’s somebody right now who’s in Detroit, and they know how to make cars. They’re a skilled machinist, but they’re idle. Let them make the wind turbines and the smart batteries and the solar panels to repower this country. Let them work! Give them hope! Give them the opportunity!

There’s somebody right now who’s living in Appalachia, who’s living in rural America, who’s afraid she’s going to lose her land because she doesn’t have enough sources of income. Let her put those wind turbines up. Let her grow an energy crop. Give her the opportunity to hold on to her land and be a part of this energy revolution. Let’s get everybody involved in repowering America in a clean way.

And for a country that beautiful, that prosperous, that innovative, that united, I am willing to walk through fire and brimstone and fire and brimstone until we get the job done.

The last thing I want to say is this. To my fellow countryman, Mr. Glenn Beck, I see you and I love you, brother. I love you and you cannot do anything about it. I love you and you cannot do anything about it. Let’s be one country! Let’s be one country. Let’s get the job done.

I likely will not win the race, nor will I transform the health of our city or myself over night. But every step counts. Together we will win the race to transform Oakland and inspire the world.

On Wednesday, New York City moved its juvenile justice department under the purview of its child welfare agency. The New York Times reports that the decision is expected to improve the provision of therapeutic services and thus reduce juvenile detention:

“Under the new arrangement, youths who commit crimes but are not considered dangerous will have easier access to an expanding assortment of in-home programs managed by the Administration for Children’s Services, the child welfare agency. This will allow them to stay in their neighborhoods with their families while following a strict set of rules requiring them to stay out of trouble, keep curfews and meet educational goals.”

In California, county probation departments are responsible for youth who get into trouble. The Ella Baker Center’s Books Not Bars campaign advocates for counties to implement arrangements like this one that emphasize community-based treatment over punishment. Read a full account of the decision here.

A recent Sacramento Bee op-ed by Michelle Alexander challenges Governor  Schwarzenegger to treat prison reform not simply as a quick buck for the budget, but rather as a matter of racial justice. She calls on the Governor to address the policies and practices that have led to the disproportionate representation of people of color in the criminal justice system and ensure that dollars generated from prison reform actually reach the communities that have suffered most from mass incarceration. Below we have published a longer version of Alexander’s piece, which mentions the work of the Ella Baker Center in struggling for a justice system that benefits all.

On Wednesday, February 10 at 6pm, Alexander will appear at the Ella Baker Center to discuss these ideas further  and share insights from her new book, The New Jim Crow:  Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The event is co-sponsored by Akonadi Foundation, All of Us or None, and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. Please RSVP to zachary “at” ellabakercenter.org if you would like to attend.

Governor’s plan for prisons ignores racial history
By Michelle Alexander

In a move nearly as audacious as his fleet of Hummers, Schwarzenegger elated many public educators and criminal justice reformers last week by publicly embracing the “books not bars” motto that had become a rallying cry of grassroots organizations, such as the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, for a decade.  He declared that California should no longer spend more money on prisons than education and proposed a state constitutional amendment that would reverse the current spending ratio.  “The priorities have become out of whack over the years,” he said.  “I mean, think about it, 30 years ago, 10 percent of the general fund went to higher education, and 3 percent went to prisons.  Today, almost 11 percent goes to prisons, and only 7.5 percent goes to higher education.”  He then asked incredulously, “What does it say about any state that focuses more on prison uniforms than on caps and gowns?”

Good question, governor.

California has long been a national leader in mass imprisonment — which is really saying something, since our nation leads the world.  No other nation in the world puts so many of its own people in cages.  The U.S. rate of incarceration dwarfs the rates of nearly every developed country, even surpassing those in highly repressive regimes like Russia, China, and Iran.  In Germany, 93 people are in prison for every 100,000 adults and children.  In the United States, the rate is roughly eight times that, or 750 per 100,000.

Until very recently, the governor didn’t seem terribly bothered by the fact that California‘s taxpayers were spending vastly more money on prison guards than school teachers.  He gave lip service to the need to reduce the state’s prison population, but in practice fought tooth-and-nail lawsuits that were designed to achieve that very result.

Last February, a federal court ordered the state to reduce California’s prison population by as many as 55,000 inmates within 3 years to provide a constitutional level of medical care to prisoners and adequate living conditions.  California prisons had been operating at twice their capacity.  Evidence of deplorable living conditions and inadequate medical care led federal judges to conclude that the state’s prison system was killing at least one inmate a month and violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.  Schwarzenegger, however, was unfazed.  The state vowed to appeal those decisions, decrying federal intervention into state affairs, despite the fact it was predicted that the reforms ordered by the court could save the state up to $900 million a year — money that certainly could have been spent on caps and gowns.

So what changed?

Few people seem to believe Schwarzenegger experienced a moral awakening, despite his claims that he was moved by university students protesting drastic budget cuts.  Everyone knows this is about the numbers.  He’s staring down the barrel of a $20 billion deficit, few options, and a bleak legacy.   So what if he’s playing politics and trying to pass it off as a grand gesture?  Shouldn’t we celebrate anyway?

Perhaps not.  Caution is in order — not because of what Schwarzenegger said, but rather what he didn’t say.  For example, he didn’t say that prison sentences should be drastically reduced or that three strikes laws imposing life imprisonment on people who are convicted of stealing videotapes should be erased from the books.  In fact, he said close to nothing about how spending on prisons would be funneled to schools, except to suggest that the prison system could be operated more cheaply if it were privatized.

That announcement most certainly cheered the Correctional Corporation of America — the nation’s largest private prison company — which is deeply interested in increasing the supply of prisoners who can be held captive for a profit.  Wall Street investors would be the primary beneficiaries of any large-scale privatization effort, and there is good reason to believe that problems plaguing California’s prisons will get much worse, not better, if private companies slash the amount of money spent on health care, shelter, and food, without policy changes dramatically reducing the number of people behind prison walls.

But even if prison privatization were not an issue, a much deeper moral problem remains.  When announcing his belated revelation that schools are worth more to society than jails, he failed to acknowledge — must less apologize for — the devastation caused to communities of color by the policies of mass incarceration.

The skyrocketing incarceration rates of the past three decades have not affected all segments of California’s population equally.  In the early 1980s, whites were the majority of the prison population; today, the overwhelming majority of California prisoners are African American and Latino.  Demographic changes explain only a small portion of the shift.  Gross racial disparities can be found throughout the criminal justice system, from stops and searches, through plea bargaining and sentencing.  In California (and nationwide), the explosion of the prison population and the striking shift in the racial composition of those who can be found behind bars has been driven largely by the War on Drugs — a war that has targeted African Americans and Latinos for drug crimes that are largely ignored when committed by whites.  Studies have repeatedly shown that people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, yet they are targeted, arrested, and prosecuted at grossly disproportionate rates.

Several days ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit acknowledged the rampant racial bias in the criminal justice system, particularly in the prosecution of the drug war.  It struck down Washington state’s law prohibiting felons from voting as violative of the Voting Rights Act, on the grounds that uncontroverted evidence exists that racial bias permeates the criminal justice system.

Those who imagine that the bias documented in Washington does not exist in California should recall the wave of racial profiling studies that were conducted several years ago documenting biased stop and search practices in dozens of police departments, including the California Highway Patrol.

The uncomfortable reality we must face is that California, like the nation as a whole, has treated generations of African Americans and Latinos as largely disposable.  They have been rounded up by the thousands, locked in cages, and upon release ushered into a parallel social universe in which they can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits — reminiscent of an era we supposedly left behind.  Most of the people labeled felons and ushered behind bars today are not murderers or dangerous criminals.  They are black and brown, very poor, and paying the price of a get-tough movement driven not by crime rates, but by politics — a politics that has scapegoated the most vulnerable as a means of scoring political points.

Some might argue that the racial history doesn’t matter now, so long as the tide has begun to turn.  The problem, though, is that if we fail to reckon with our history, we will be doomed to repeat it.  If and when the economy improves, we’ll be able to afford once again to round up people of color en masse for imprisonment and social ex-communication.

The subtext of Schwarzenegger’s speech was that we need not worry about who’s in prison or why, so long as it doesn’t cost too much or interfere with the ability of middle-class university kids to get a good education.  But private prisons that warehouse impoverished black and brown folks, while the relatively privileged trot off to college, is not a step in the right direction.  What we need now is not a grand speech, but a day of reckoning.

Have you heard the term “Cap and Trade,” but not been quite sure what it means?

Or maybe you know what it is, but can’t make heads or tails of all the double-talk in Congress and the mainstream media?

Good news: there’s a helpful and fun new video called “The Story of Cap & Trade” and it’s just for YOU. This charming-yet-hard-hitting video explains what Congress is doing — and NOT doing — when it comes to tackling global warming.

Best of all, this whole project is led and narrated by Annie Leonard, an amazing activist with a talent for entertaining straight talk aimed at empowering people and repairing our fragile ecosystems. Annie Leonard was the driving force behind the now-famous “The Story of Stuff” video.

The Story of Cap & Trade comes in the nick of time! This month, as you may know, a major international climate summit is happening in Copenhagen, Denmark. The United States’ role in these talks is critical, and we need real solutions, not giveaways to big polluters.

Here’s a preview of the full 9 minute video. Watch the full length version on the Story of Stuff website.

About the video:
The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the “devils in the details” in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about Cap & Trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.

In a surprise to no one, federal judges blasted California officials for the state’s half-hearted plan to relieve prison overcrowding. California’s prisons are so bloated that prisoners are dying from medical neglect.

These are the same prisons facing a $1.2 billion cut from an astronomic budget of nearly $10 billion. When federal judges ordered the state to relieve the cruel and unusual prison conditions caused by overcrowding, it seemed a perfect opportunity to whack the notorious “Golden Gulag.” The state, of course, immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. But even the conservative Supremes refused to let California get off without coming up with a plan.

By reducing the prison population by up to 55,000 over two years, per the judges’ order, California could save money, improve prison conditions, and make some long-overdue policy changes to reduce the state’s toxic addiction to prisons. However, Governor Schwarzenegger’s office, along with California prison officials, submitted a plan to do even less than the bare minimum. The state’s plan would cut the population by about 18,000 over two years. The judges? Not having it.

Oddly enough, the Gov. released a bigger plan earlier this year to cut prison spending and trim the population by as much as 37,000. Even the prison chiefs were on board. But they couldn’t get it through a cowardly, fear-mongering Legislature. Now, with a federal lawsuit addressing violations of prisoners’ constitutional rights, and an ongoing fiscal crisis, why are state leaders dragging their feet?

The state has until November 12 to come up with a satisfactory plan. If they fail, the judges will do it themselves. Californians have waited long enough through the legal maneuvering and political posturing. Our exploding, failing prisons need action now.

Last Saturday a young woman lost her ability to trust in her community.  At least 20 of her peers, all young men, watched as she was brutally raped and beat after her high school homecoming dance.  Some present even used their cameras phones to document their savage attempt to steal any semblance of innocence, trust and strength within her.

This attack is an indictment of all of us. I charge us all with our failure to educate and empower the young men in our community to be MEN.  Sexual assault and sexual violence must be addressed in all of our work.

As a community we must stand up for our young people, male and female, and say will not tolerate this type of behavior.  No longer can young men be allowed to standby while a young woman is being raped.

Many say that just shouting out from the rooftops will not make change, but teaching our young people and becoming role models for just behavior is one step in the right direction.

Young men are often the focus of violence prevention efforts, particularly boys of color are targeted as the most at-risk population. This is due to the fact that the majority of victims and those arrested for violent crimes in Oakland and Richmond are young men of color.

Unfortunately almost none of these interventions have any focus on the violence, disrespect and institutional sexism our young women face.  What work are we doing to stop men from harming their sisters, cousins, nieces and mothers?

Yesterday at a violence prevention conference, hosted by the California Wellness Foundation, Too Short (a.k.a. Todd Shaw) spoke on a panel regarding police and community relations. It was impressive to have a celebrity on the panel, especially one from East Oakland, talking about violence prevention and the need for better relations between the community and the cops.  But no one on the panel or in the other three that I attended discussed the violence experienced by young women because of sexism.

It seemed clear that Too Short, who raps about partying and street life, would take some note that young men who listen to his music can and are affected by his lyrics. I’m not going to get into a rap hating game, because that is not what this is. I love rap music, but I also know it’s a form of entertainment and education.

If we can acknowledge that our youth are mis-educated, then we must also step up and try to re-educate them in a way that will change their assumptions that their primary teacher, the media, provides them.

Sadly enough this isn’t only a local tragedy, but a national phenomenon.  We are watching young people rape and kill each other and no one does a thing to stop it.  In Chicago last month, a young man got caught in a gang fight on his way to school. While he was being beat to death in broad daylight, people just watched.  And, again, some even had the callousness to record it on their phones, but not the bravery to stand up and save a life.

Where have we gone wrong?

The Contra Costa Times reported today that the sixth young man was arrested in the attack.  The seventh is still at large. The article lists the names and ages of the men who participated in the attack. All are under 21 and most are juveniles (under 18).

We need violence prevention strategies that provide context to our young people about the sanctity of life. Obviously, in many cases, these lessons are getting through.  Our violence prevention strategies need to be expanded to ensure a culture shift before this next generation becomes adults.

Understandably, change takes time but we can’t wait until the next funding cycle or the next tragedy to re-evaluate how we are working to prevent violence for ALL of our young people; perpetrators, victims and at-risk young people. All are equally important regardless of who gets arrested.

We need to do more to educate young men and women, on how sexual violence and sexual assault harm us all and that in silence none of us is safe.

How can Heal the Streets take ACTION on this?

The fellows were outraged by this story. Only a handful of the fellows actually knew about the tragedy, the others were stunned. Thao Smith, a senior at Mandela High School in Oakland, suggested that young men and women are taught streets smarts. She is doing research on what organizations locally or nationally have programs to offer her peers. Smith said, “I can’t believe something like that would happen. I’m even more shocked that they just watched.”

Through our policy advocacy efforts and political and skills training, the Heal the Streets Fellowship program is offering a space for young people to learn how to prevent situations like this. All young people — not just young men — need to be invested in and protected by our efforts for violence prevention.