I 'Had" A Dream . . .

Last night I had a dream that I was engaged in a serious debate about what type of support society should provide to those incarcerated for various crimes. And frankly I was losing badly.

My opponents (now in my awakened state faceless folks of mostly emotion and solid arguements), made a number of rational points, all difficult to refute or deny: "Nobody made them engage in criminal activity", "Others grow up in the same conditions and don't resort to criminal behavior", "Our resources should be used to support the law abiding . . . why should their health care be any better than ours?", and so on.

In this dream, as a result of this barrage, my head was swimming trying to figure out a way to make a sensible and convincing argument in favor of support. I considered the cost of incarceration to society, families, communities and individuals, especially over non-violent crimes like drug possession. I thought about the incredible challenges ex-offenders already face with finding a job with a living wage. I thought about the education/skill gap that could be addressed while incarcerated . . . if only the programs were there. And that last point was where I placed the stake . . .

One of the principle causes of the growing burden of prisoners and prisons on our society is really a fundamental outcome of the failure of our educational system.

In other words, we are spending an enormous amount of money incarcerating our population - the largest prison population of any country in the world - because we lack the foresite and commitment to adequately educate our people. Put another way, we are wasting our human capital at both ends of the spectrum. Instead of investing in the very resource that would help our country remain a leader in all areas of human endeavor, we are throwing our treasure away on prisons. And these prisons, year after year, turn out thousands of governmental/societal "dependents", the majoirty of whom will require the support of one program after another, few of which will provide the level of independence human beings need to thrive and contribute.

Instead of using third grade failure rates as a guage to determine how many prisons to be built, perhaps we should be using that same data as an indicator requiring an infusion of educational resources!

Thougts?

Introduction

Hello and good day!

My name is Daryle Brown and while I've started a couple of blogs, I have yet to be faithful to them, failing to update them on anything resembling a regular basis. I think that is because I was being too broad in defining them. I was trying to address too much. While I have opinions on many topics, I am most passionate about justice. Therefore this blog will focus entirely on issues of justice, fairness, and lapses, as I see them, in our societies approaches to a level playing field for all.

A bit of background: I've been accused of being an activist by my friends for over 25 years. While I first joined an Optimist Club soon after college, it was really to provide an opportunity for me to gain experience in public speaking. Well, for those of you that understand God's way with us, He will place you in places and situations that are for reasons you may not realize, to do things you were not expecting. In my case becoming a member of the Optimist Club of Renaissance Detroit was the beginning of 25 years of service to my community. From there my work expanded to Junior Achievement of Southeast Michigan as a volunteer teaching business principles to high schoolers, the founding of the Africare Detroit chapter of Africare, an "on the ground" development organizations focused on providing real solutions to those in need on the continent f Africa, and over the years a host of other community service projects.

My family moved to Chicago (Oak Park actually) in 1997, and soon joined the Trinity United Church of Church. Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. was a pastor that we had become familiar with as a frequent visitor to our church in Detroit, Hartford Memorial Baptist Church. He was (is) a good friend of Rev. Dr. Charles G. Adams, who baptised me, and our children, and married my wife and I.

Trinity is important to this introduction because it was there that my community service inclination led me to join the Prison Ministry. My involvement with prison ministry focused my attention on the cause of justice. For the last 8 years I have visited many prisons and jails in Illinois, and Wisconsin. Our ministry writes to over 150 inmates across America, and we have developed a variety of programs to both try to keep our youth from getting caught up in the justice system, and programs to assist newly released prisoners start a new life.

While most see this population as the discards of society, I have seen the potential they represent. Of course many folks in prison deserve to be there, but a vast number would never see the inside of a prison if not for a society that believes in punishment far more than rehabilitation.

My goal with this blog is to raise awareness of the issues with our law, and the application of it, as our communities are deprived of vitality and hope. Instead we are greeted with despair and hopelessness. I am looking for open dialog that will form consensus toward humanitarian reform of our criminal justice system.

In closing, I would like to encourage allies and opponents alike to contribute their ideas and passion to the commentaries that will be forthcoming.

Daryle