
One in eight black men are incarcerated, vs. one in eighty white men. Let me repeat that statistic: a black man is ten times more likely to end up in jail than a white man.
On Friday, Nov. 15,, the WI League officially kicked off its 10 year Re-enfranchisement program called “Dinner with a Conviction”. Participants enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by HeartLove Place Culinary Arts program while panelists Attorney James Robinson, Rep Evan Goyke, Project Return’s executive Director Wendel Hruska, ACLU Milwaukee’s executive director Chris Ahmutty and Clean Slate president Shanyiell McCloud gave valuable and much needed information on the effects of having large amounts of people in our community disenfranchised . Khalil Coleman, local community activist and organizer, hosted the event.
We have all seen the end result: vanishing black men from our cities and neighborhoods, and a prison justice system that disproportionately affects our community. If we want to do good by our people, there are few better places to start than by looking at the “inputs” and “outputs” of our prison justice system. Prisons are succeeding in deciding who has power. They are setting the political landscape such that those directly affected by incarceration cannot change the laws that create the unjust situation. How can we work proactively to model good behavior that keeps our communities safe and young men on track, while simultaneously addressing the well-documented discrimination in our legal code that targets our young men for prison?
Join the Wisconsin League’s campaign at youngvoter