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to End Drug War Injustice |
August 30, 2006 - New Haven Independent (CT)Speakers Target A Criminal Injustice Systemby Melinda Tuhus |
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Rodney Lewis (pictured above) spent almost four years in a Connecticut prison, most of it in maximum security. At a packed public hearing on prison reform Tuesday night in the City's Hall's aldermanic chambers, he said (audio link, Mp3 Format), "Every time they put the cuffs and chains on me, I would lose a piece of myself, of my dignity." And that wasn't the worst part.
The forum was sponsored by People Against Injustice, a New Haven-based criminal justice reform group, and organized by Barbara Fair (pictured below, reading a letter from an inmate describing abysmal prison conditions). Fair is perhaps Connecticut's most passionate opponent of the war on drugs that puts thousands of mostly non-violent criminals behind bars in Connecticut alone. (The majority of the state's 18,000 prisoners are there for drug-related offenses.) Fair wanted a forum in New Haven because many local people are unable to get to all the public hearings on proposed legislation held in Hartford.
The first speaker was Rodney Lewis. He said he was picked up on the street for selling drugs and ended up in the "super max" facility at Northern Correctional Facility not because he was violent but because he was insubordinate. He described the isolation, the humiliations, the threats and harassment by the correction officers. He described an equal-opportunity racialized atmosphere, with white guards calling black prisoners "nigger" and black guards calling white prisoners "cracker."
The worst part, Lewis said, was feeling everyone else's pain as well as his own, knowing that people couldn't cope with their environment. To listen to his statement, click here (Mp3 Format).
Barbara Fair told the crowd that her own son, imprisoned on a drug charge, was put in maximum security six years ago when he was just 18 because he couldn't cope with prison and was having mental health problems. The conditions there just made things worse, she said. "That was the worst experience I ever went through in my life," said Fair. Her son was transferred out of super max after a few months.
Mary Johnson and Caroline Bridgman-Rees (pictured above) are activist octogenarians and members of People Against Injustice. "The stories are just unbelievable," Johnson said. "There are so many thousands of people right here in this state who have been affected, who shouldn't have been in prison in the first place, and the conditions are just horrible."
Later in the evening, a group of Yale students came in, eager to work on criminal justice issues. Several state legislators also attended, including state Rep. Toni Walker and state Sen. Toni Harp from New Haven. Alice Tracy came too; she's the mother of David Tracy, who committed suicide at age 20 a few years go while incarcerated at Wallens Ridge super-max prison in Virginia (one of almost 500 Connecticut prisoners who were sent out of state by then-Governor John Rowland to ease prison overcrowding).
Fair was ebullient after the hearing. She was encouraged by the number of people who attended and the range of experience represented students, legislators, community activists and ex-prisoners. She said the immediate goal of People Against Injustice is to grow its membership and spread information to the public and lawmakers about the reality of Connecticut prisons and why they need to be reformed.
Full article, including reader comments, available at www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2006/08/criminal_justic.php
© 2005-2006 New Haven Independent
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