Decarcerate PA will be participating in this teach in hosted by the Unitarian Society of Germantown:
MASS INCARCERATION TEACH IN
Come to the “Teach-In” ** November 3, 2013
The Unitarian Society of Germantown ** 6511 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19119
12:30 to 4:30 p.m.
…A massive penal system has emerged in the past few decades, unprecedented in world history, driven mainly by race and class. … (Unjust drug and penal laws)…keep blacks and Latinos on the plantation…pawns in profit-making schemes including burgeoning private incarceration corporations.”
Mass incarceration is the Civil Rights issue of our time. 92% of the prisoners are non-violent, most languish in jail for drug or immigration offenses. The US has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. Everyone pays: in 2010 we spent $37.3 billion to imprison 1,316,858 inmates, approximately $28,323 per person. Schools are closing, health care costs are skyrocketing, community social services are deteriorating, yet the federal 2013 budget for prisons is $6.9 Billion.
Where is the outrage? Where is the movement to reorder our priorities and prove that we affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person? When do we start to build the beloved community?
Learn how you can spur your congregation to act to stop the destruction of whole communities in both inner cities and rural towns caught up in the prison industrial complex. There will be panels of outstanding leaders in the field; you will meet victims of the system; you will develop plans that will help your congregation become a part of this movement. From now until November, we will keep in touch suggesting videos for you to show, bibliography of pertinent materials to read, and neighborhood institutions to contact so you and your associates will come to the Teach-In fired up and ready to go. Be a part of it!
For more information contact: The Ending Racism Committee, USG, or Tanmari27@gmail.com
