I-Scream Against Prison Expansion

by Sam Drew/PNN

The last time I was at cozy Mosswood Park nestled comfortably in the North Oakland flatlands, I watched with awe playground basketball legend Hook Mitchell dunk a basketball over a parked VW beatle- with room to spare. Wandering around the park this peaceful Sunday afternoon in August, I wasn't here to watch basketball, but rather to report and sup-port for POOR Magazine on CURB's (Californians United for a Responsible Budget).

The event- aptly named I scream against prison expansion- was an ice cream social shouting out against the largest prison expansion in history. As usual, I arrived a little early. I quickly walked over to the basketball courts hoping to catch a glimpse of some hoops before listening to the voices that were screaming, "increase the peace and stop the violence." Amazingly, the basketball courts were all empty on this heavenly Sunday afternoon.

So I dejectedly loafed over to the baseball diamond, where a group of young gents were attempting to play softball. I was greeted with a wary hello as the batboy eyed me with concern. Soon a heavy set woman dashed over near me to gather her precious items thinking they would vanish into the Oaktown haze. I noticed then and there that the fear of something of personal value being stolen had become paramount in this community and so many others.

However, a real, much bigger theft- one of the greatest in history- is going on under all of our collective noses- this theft was the one I was here to learn about today. This spring the California State Legislature and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger passed bill AB900 a 7.8 billion dollar program to build 53,000 new prison and jail cells without public input. This massive buildup will be the largest prison building project in history.

California is facing multi-billion dollar budget deficits. The more money we put into our $9.9 billion prison budget the less we have to spend on health care, education, social services and community programs.

Master of Ceremonies Micia Mosely bounced out to greet the crowd, smiling as she got straight to the point of the event saying, "We are here to make sure we shut the prisons down, when prisons expand there are cuts in education, young people need schools to give them alternatives." She then invited everyone to partake in music, spoken word, ice cream and cake too. "This is a celebration and education" she beamed.

Suddenly, a group of performers from COV Records inhabited the stage. COV Records, a part of Art in Action, is a group that shows what positive things youths can do for the community if there're shown love. The artists began to energetically jump around as they rapped, "I'll be damned if I'll lose my life to violence." As they continued to patrol the stage they reminded us that last year alone in Oakland there were148 homicides. “We need to silence the violence,� they yelled.

As the audience basked in the sublime slice of conscious rap, the names of the youthful performers were announced to the crowd, who answered with rounds of appreciative applause. .. “Queen Deelah, The Faculty, Trinidad, Little-O, D-Knock, Lucian and D.J. GeoD.� As the young troupe left the stage, M.C. Mosley said, “We want to educate not incarcerate.�

California houses more inmates than France, Great Britain, Germany and Japan combined The main beneficiaries from the prison industrial complex buildup are those who provide services to the prisons; those who build the prison facilities and supply the prison guards to watch the inmates.

Nat Smith(Critical Resistance) and Serena Huang(CURB) came to the stage to talk about how AB900 effects them personally. Smith somberly stated, “Thinking about my Uncle Kelly, I can’t even remember what he looks like because he’s locked up… I’m thinking about 53,000 more beds. That’s 53,000 more faces people won’t be able to see.�

Huang spoke about what it’s going to take to stop AB900 “They met behind closed doors and decided to build 53,000 beds. We need to mobilize to stop this,� Huang continued, “We need to realize this effects all of us. These beds are being built for us.�

Six out of ten people in prison or jail are African- American or Latino. Out of every five people sent to prison in the United States, one is sentenced in California.

Spoken word artists Biko and Omar Sandoval (Youth Against Youth Incarceration) slung words to expand minds and win hearts. Biko posed the question, “If 66% of students don’t graduate why are we shutting the schools down?� While Sandoval took dead aim at the embedded mainstream media as he spat, “The media is a tool to hypnotize.�

CURB isn’t just about educating and mobilizing the public against AB900, but is also about creating solutions and has produced a position paper to dramatically reduce the prison population, called 50 Ways to Reduce the Number of People in Prison in California The book shares substantive ways to heal our state and return our stolen property .

Ms. Major from TIP(Trans/Gender Variant In Prison Committee) articulated how the prison industrial complex continues to rob us blind, “Transgenders are people who suffer in this system too… On Monday in front of the San Francisco Courthouse we will have a silent protest for a transgender prisoner that was killed in prison.�

MC Eddie Zhenz (Asian Prisoner Support Network) strolled to the microphone and breathed a long sigh of relief as he strongly declared, “I just spent 21 years in prison. We need money for education. Let’s shut this prison industrial complex down.�

The California Youth Authority spends $220,000 per child per year to keep each in incarceration. Over 40% of prisoners are incarcerated for non-violent offenses. 200,000 young people are doing time in adult prisons.

As the ice cream social came to a close MC Mosley reminded everyone to visit the various tables set-up too inform us about what we could do to help shut down AB900.

“Be sure to write State Senator Don Perata and tell someone else what went on here today.. De-colonize your minds,� exclaimed Mosley.

I wandered past the basketball courts again. This time the courts were packed full of agile hoopsters sweating and straining for playground glory. Ensconced on a bench was a greyheaded OG wearing a basketball uniform that hadn’t felt sweat in years. He was screaming advice to any player willing to listen, “Always keep your eye on the ball…Stop all that dribbling and pass the ball to the open man.�

It seemed no one was heeding his sage advice until one baller snapped off a crisp bounce pass that lead directly to an acrobatic lay-up. Just shows you what great things youths can do when they are given good guidance, love and resources.