Prison

Natalie Holbrook

Natalie Holbrook directs AFSC's Criminal Justice Program in Michigan.

[Author Natalie Holbrook directs AFSC’s Criminal Justice Program in Michigan. Peter Martel is an AFSC Program Associate.]

Jasmine with reporter

Image Available on Flickr

Believing All is Possible (BAPS) participant Jasmine shows a photo of her father to a reporter inside the West Virginia Capitol Building in Charleston, WV.

Photo: Beth Spence

“I want to share with you a little bit about my life because I hope that maybe if I speak up, people who make the decisions that affect so many people’s lives will listen.”

ACE Students at ACLU Dinner

Top Row: Kareem, Khalil, Adrian, Elijah, Storm

Bottom Row: Lida, Rickey

As the West Virginia Economic Justice Project addresses prison overcrowding on a policy level, the Appalachian Center for Equality Youth Leadership Program explores the racial and economic injustices of the prison industrial complex and the impact this has on their lives.

Dropping the Flag photo

Image Available on Flickr

AFSC program participants during a lesson at the Eddie Conway Freedom School.

Photo: Bryan Vana

Wahid was a participant in AFSC’s Friend of a Friend at the Maryland Correctional Institution – Jessup. While in the conflict resolution mentoring program, he shared his story with author and Friend of a Friend mentor Craig Muhammad.

The following story is taken from the chapter, “Dropping the Flag,” in the soon-to-be published book, From Jericho to Jerusalem: Organizing Street Organizations. It is one of several “testimonies” from young men who are former members of gangs, or what many refer to as street organizations.

Putting prison overcrowding in perspective:

According to the Bureau for Justice Statistics, the number of adult federal and state prison inmates increased from 139 per 100,000 residents in 1980 to 502 per 100,000 in 2009 — an increase of 261 percent. Over two million Americans are now incarcerated in prisons or jails and the total number of Americans under some form of penal supervision (including jail, prison, parole and probation) is over 7.2 million.