http://www.thenation.com/blog/178028/meeting-minds-chris-christie-and-mumia-abu-jamal-mass-incarceration#
Let’s play a game: is the following quote attributable to A) Mumia Abu-Jamal, former Black Panther and now political prisoner currently serving life without parole at State Correctional Institution - Mahanoy or B) sitting New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Republican with a nasty reputation who is embroiled in a potentially career ending scandal?We will end the failed war on drugs that believes that incarceration is the cure of every ill caused by drug abuse. We will make drug treatment available to as many of our non-violent offenders as we can and we will partner with our citizens to create a society that understands this simple truth: every life has value and no life is disposable.I’d forgive you if you got this one wrong. That’s an excerpt from Christie’s second inaugural address delivered after he was sworn in as governor again yesterday (January 21). It’s surprising on a few levels.Usually when Republicans are engaged in anti-drug war/incarceration rhetoric, it has more to do with a desire to reduce government spending, not any type of compassion for the people who are being thrown in these cages.It’s also genuinely shocking that a potential presidential candidate, of either major party, would think it wise (in a major speech, no less) to push back against the idea of incarceration as an answer to the so-called “drug problem.”
are we seeing desperation or a plan that with it's improbability of a republican advancing it is really smoke and mirrors, i don't think we should breakout and pop any corks on the Cristal, his own party opposition would sink any effort to lower population in prisons not good business for a potential for profit institution.
Which brings me back to Mumia. The Feminist Wire is running a weeklong series centered around the issue of mass incarceration and including new works from Mumia Abu-Jamal. What Mumia did say about mass incarceration and the current model of our criminal justice system:
Social structures—courts, police, prisons, etc.—have within them a deep bias about what constitutes crime and what does not. Any social structure is a product of its previous historical, economic and social iterations, and these previous forms bear significant influence on later forms. The present system, in addition to being increasingly repressive, is the logical inheritance of its racist, hierarchical, exploitative past, and it is also a reactive formation to attempts to transform, democratize, and socialize it.
It’s certainly a more radical take than Christie would ever venture, but it’s also an examination of this country’s history of oppression that is necessary to take into account when discussing prison/mass incarceration. Our current carceral state is not an accident. It is necessary for the maintenance of a white supremacist/capitalist United States. It is an extension of the philosophies that have made this country what it is.
if he has no history on this subject and being a reportedly aggressive DA it would be more counter to his everyday life to have empathy for those he is charged with putting in that jackpot, major change in the light of self destruction is more of an attempt to lessen the blow just an opinion
