Joining us. Once you hear from him. He is my greatest inspiration. With that ill get started. Marilyn mosbys baltimore state attorney, given it for marilyn. Well known for taking bold mov moves, not as well known she has become a dear sister friend of mine. Also huge inspiration. She is doing so much good work to help reform the criminal Justice System in this country. She is leaving the standard with baltimore. Please give it up for marilyn. [applause] and you might know him from the addition, i might rake out into a poisoned answer a quick. He is here today for the dance moves and for being a producer extraordinaire, he is also here to help inform this process today. Michael bivins. Next step we have colin warner who will hear more from later on in this program. So important when we talk about these issues that we are not just talking policy, were talking about the people who these issues have impacted. Colin warner is here today. We will watch a trailer later on this afternoon. Welcome to the stage. [applause] next up we have a wellknown activist in baltimore, and organizer, ray kelly. He founded the National Spotlight on the city after freddie gray staff. His work has been seen on the department of justices overview of Baltimore Police department work. He is here today to join us to talk about what he can do to influence the policy phase. Next up is andrea who is a bostonarea activist and author uses her personal experience working in the criminal legal system and then being incarcerated in federal prison to fight reform. We will hear from you today, welcome to the panel. [applause] next up, we have james who is a Michigan State representative. He is michigans youngest state representative. Before that was the youngest elected city council member. Soft and were young hard on young people for not being of all. Lets give it up for [applause] last but not least i call him my mentor, i call him doc, none other than doctor eric dyson to round out the panel. You know him very well. Give a warm welcome. [applause] please be seated. So you know, there folks in the audience have no current so we will try to get to your questions. If you see the volunteer holding a note card, they can take your question via the dont card this afternoon. A morning everyone. Is a still morning time customer. Yes were 46 minutes left i really think its important that before we dive into some other pieces of this that we hear the term, mass incarceration and criminal Justice Reform so often. We throw them out so much that people start to lose the compassion about the issues. Want to take a moment to set the stage. Marilyn, i want to start with you. What massive incarceration is and why we should care. Both the definition and how we define it, how it impacts us and why we should care be utilizing our energy to throw ourselves in and get of all. Id love for you to use example. When we talk about mass incarceration we need to think about for a very long time the criminal Justice System has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color. Weve criminalized our communities and ways in which nonviolent offenders have resulted in a disproportionate impact of individuals, africanamericans been incarcerated. When we talk about reforming the, its a matter of trying to address the systemic issues and ensuring that we are not just walking up black people based on nonviolent offenses. Next, i want to go to doctor dyson. I know youre done taking a selfie now. So i want to talk to doctor dyson to answer the same question before we get into some of the anecdotes. So add to a marilyn talked about. Its great to be here with doctor angela and the other panel here this morning. I think about mass incarceration, we think about as the attorney mostly has said, the disproportionate concentration of people of color and what we now know as the Prison Industrial Complex which means, local jails, federal jails, and prisons who warehouse disproportionately africanamerican and latina pedal people. So for nonviolent drug offenses that other people are told you go home and become a better johnny or jill, shanika and jamaal are sent to prison. There sent to prison because theyre introduced to it in terms of detention in public school. Look at the relationship between discipline when your children are kicked out the second and third grade, god knows even kindergarten. Then they are no has a disciplinary problem then they go to detention, and then from detention docent to local detention centers. That becomes a feeding sell for a jail cell which becomes a warmup for prison. Again, these are not people who are inherently criminal but they have become criminalized. When the honorable ms. Mosby talks about criminalization, that means your children are targeted for specific slots in prison and in jail. Mass incarceration suggests that a disproportionate number of people of color are subjected to this for doing the same offenses that white and other peoples commit. Their given time off, time release, programs or judges allow them to work off their time. But that is not the case for black and brown people. That leads to an accumulation of black and brown bodies in prison. Think about it, in the 80s we had the numbers of people in prison that has doubled and tripled. Now we have 1. 2 or 1. 3, one and half Million People in prison. The most of any industrialized nation. Masses of those happen to be people of color. Not only are they doing the same thing, theyre getting harsher sentences in the refusal of judges in some cases because theyre locked in with mandatory minimum sentences which makes a difference when you have an attorney general like eric holder and place like jeff sessions. Jeff sessions has reignited the war on drugs. And the word drugs is the world black and brown people. Mass incarceration is the masses of people of color being subjected to penalties that specifically target us in ways that throw away the key when we are put into jail. Finally, the criminal Justice Reform means we need to reform the criminal Justice System that is often unjust to us. When we look away for what we do, we overlook what they do, when we give them a second, third, fourth chance, when they have affluence of. My child is too rich to go to jail so please let him out. Whereas, the people in the in baltimore are not seen as affluenza and as a result they go to jail. When we think about the fact that a white woman is skilled at the police in minnesota, what happened . The police chief has to resign. What happens with Linda Casteel announces to the Police Person that he has a gun on this person, he is skilled within seven seconds. The reform of the criminal Justice System suggest the inputs we make, the data they devry from looking at the number of times were stopped, lando castille, 50 or 60 times over the past ten years, so we see a reform of criminal justice and we have to find a way to make sure judges are not bound by mandatory minimum sentences. People of color are not subject to arbitrary forms of reprisal in a system that doesnt Pay Attention and finally that we get the same brakes as everybody else. If you do the crime you do the time, youre being ignorant. Thats not how why folk do it. They hook their kids up and find way from being in prison. One thing i think is also important this morning, i believe a focus groups and i think this will help set the stage as we transition to the anecdotes of personal stories. I need yall to be active participants. And its been a long morning but stay awake for second and engage. The first question i have please dont be ashamed this is a family conversation. How many of your have been incarcerated at some point in your life . How many of you all have a Family Member who was or is . In the last question, keep standing is how many of you all have a good friend who was or is . So when you look around this room, when you look at even the stage, we dont have a choice but to engage on this issue. It literally impacts almost every person in this room. With that, i want to transition a to you, collin. And the reason i want to go to before you answer theres a trailer that we have about your story. But that i want you to talk about what happened in your personal experience. If we could run the trailer. You focus on your breathing it will bring you out of your mind. Into your body. Just know that you are not alone. Crime today is an american epidemic. I know killer. The system doesnt work for people who cannot afford to defend themselves. The whole neighborhood know what happened. The whole neighborhood note that you grabbed the wrong guy. Im innocent man. Everyone saying you did something. I work for free if you take a look at his case. They will keep me in here. You know i would die before i do that. He got your family, your life, where you wasting your time on me . Is not just about you is bigger than that. Collin from texas or louisiana, he wouldve been executed long ago. Longer sentences, more prison, they took everything from me. Everything. I cannot pretend the situation doesnt exist. We cannot leave an innocent man in jail. Im going to take you home. Its just a matter of time. [applause] thank you for being here. I really want you,s quickly as you can because this is top because weve seen the trailer, but i want you to share a little bit about your experience, being wrongfully convicted many of us are well aware where we know somebody who is wrongfully incarcerated or wrongfully arrested. Talk about the impact on that for you and how that shaped your life being wrongfully incarcerated and having to say for so long knowing your innocent. Hello everyone. My name is colin warner. Eventually just the a synopsis of what happened to me. What i can say is that i was literally dead. Dead upon being convicted for a crime that i did not witness, participate in or have no knowledge. The feelings that i could share with you theyre not too many words that could adequately fit into your mind but, have a know what life taken away for something i seen this as a murder, is hell. Based on the movie hope that each and everyone will get the movie because you dont have to be incarcerated to get something from the movie. We cannot be afraid. We have to step in and this is one of the things that surprised me after doing 21 years in prison. They worked diligently to help get out of prison. [inaudible] [applause] but it sounds like youre saying is we are timid as a people but there are too many that dont have calls in this complex but they are serving time for things they shouldnt be serving time for such the earlier point. We dont have the proper representation. [inaudible] and also the lives of every man, woman and child. Reach out. The only way we can accomplish anything is by coming together to. [applause] an activist for folks that are incarcerated and then having served time there yourself, i would like for you to paint a picture because you say that informs your work of why its so important to not only address the issue of folks going in but also addressing the condition folks are forced to live in behind bars. I want to say thank you to the naacp for inviting this platform. We come from the voices of the hundreds of thousands who are sitting right now as we are convened here in a cage and the effects of that on our children and communities such as the organization understand how important it is with the swift dramatic increase of black women in this country, i thank you for being aware of the importance of the issue so yes i was a criminal defense lawyer sentenced to serve a two year federal prison sentence. I am born and raised very proud in roxbury massachusetts. My children are still living in massachusetts with my husband and family and we have a fourthgeneration. We understand firsthand whats happened in the country over the past four decades starting with a war on drugs which was a war on black people. Its incarcerated with many people that never left so thats the work of the National Council it was affected by mass incarceration as a criminal defense lawyer and being married to a man who two decades ago served a ten year mandatory minimum drug sentences. I didnt think that there is anything anybody could tell me about the criminal Justice System when i left my five month old daughter in the parking lot of the federal prison in danbury connecticut to step into that prison. Its an increase of incarceration and im going to tell you they are separating mothers and children but when we talk about the violence and gun violence and social issues that we are dealing with in our communities today, we cannot do that and find solutions that are separate from dramatic criminal Justice Reform that happens in this country it is directly in relation to the housing of. I was with grandmothers, mothers and their daughters on the same drug case in incarcerated for a minimum of ten years mandatory minimum sentences and if you ask them where are your male counterparts, their husbands, brothers, uncles, they are also in a federal prison somewhere serving these drug sentences. We have to understand the very importance of stepping out from lawyers, doctors, all members of the naacp. I understand what our people think and how we tried to separate ourselves. We cannot continue to do that. They spend their lives in all of the communities and now it is taken the Fastest Growing incarceration population in this country they are separating. Women cannot mother from inside of a prison payphone. It doesnt work. We have to understand the conditions are perfect. 90 there in the prisons, federal, state and county are women suffering from, and they are victims themselves. They are criminalized and incarcerated for being poor and struggling with addiction. How dare us as a country allow that to be the solution whose lives have been devalued by the systematic lives of all of us. If we begin to go down to a laundry the laundry list we hope to introduce the dignity with the senator in washington, d. C. That bill speak directly to what you are referring to as the treatment and conditions living within the prisons across this country. You cant stop separating women from their children or criminalizing and stop putting them in prisons where they need to be in the communities. They build affordable decent housing. Imagine if we had the Public Education system that the Trump Administration is trying to privatize. These are the issues we need to focus on a when collins spoke he said something that made me think of your work with my brothers keeper brothers keeper in boston is that you cant give up on your kids. To me that was such an impact. Fullstop meant we dont spend quite enough time with the kids being part of a village that is constructive. We are very reactive in the community and most recently with a lot of the reaction to kids being told by the police were very reactive in this active work and we love to hear about it. I want to make sure everybody is feeling good and when im in constant i say if you are feeling all right. The reason im here is because i was invited. I represent so many different parts of the city as a voice for people that are crying out and needing something. These kids dont even realize. The best thing to do this summertime is good to a facility to swim, play ball, color, whatever is five or six hours out of the day so you were not out on the streets in trouble with a tshirt, baggy, one each and you met somebody else on the other side of town you normally. When i think about the kids today, my job and where i come from i try to give as much as i can to them, 700 memberships. All they have to do is go online and register. We wanted to change. It affects all of us even if it isnt our child because shes at the bus stop and the cop was riding down the street. To do what i can and where i can so this being here today is an opportunity to share the microphone with some of the panelists to say that yes, we have to look at the kids. In my field a lot of artists leave the field and dont come back. They lived behind the gate. If you are behind the gate, you say that so the audience can connect with you. Today for me as much as i can get all of this on this microphone because theres about 15 of us out there. I get to connect with you and when we go back home you can think about the panel and all this information that you take back with you to know anything i can do in your community, i am online and easy to get out and i dont just go to boston i go from new york to Portland Oregon and i love getting down and talking with the kids. Hispanic youve been on both sides of that, reacting to the most tragic situations in the community thinking mainly of freddy gray but youve also been proactive in the policy and changing things. I want you to just lean in a little bit and talk to folks here about the things they can do to impact the policy process whether its a legislative solution, changing a regulation on the books and changing the way the Police Interact in the communities so what do you suggest Going Forward that folks can do to engage. I want to welcome everyone to Baltimore City. The no boundaries coalition, we are an Advocacy Group so our foundation is raising a resident voice. It was powered by definition with the ability to ask so trained organizers and advocate, its knowing when to act and not only that but how to act. What we promote is engagement. Of course it always starts with a focus on being a communal voice in the communities because of the lack of hope from the oppressive practices. A lack of hope in the communities. So we can do things ourselves that we kind of recognized now as a time to act. But we craft our solutions and in the Numerous Community meetings we do talks and listening campaigns and we have the visibility and constant engagement. The investigation because it happens on our back door steps, it was important that we made sure the media didnt control the narrative and we make sure people were hearing from us and that fight goes on. Its always hard to get people to go through those structured meetings that lead up to the big event. Thats the big engagement. In Baltimore City we have a time with the present decree. What we try to do now is make sure people recognize this is a generational moment in baltimore , and if ever you wish to be up in front of anything, now is the time. This is your actual opportunity to influence the chain. Its a mandatory minimum of the war on drugs and like doctor dyson said, we have the history of this. We have the first look at the consequences of the past practices. Thats what it is used for the control the communities and now we have privatized and people were making money directly off of people being incarcerated and all over the country we have to kind of look at the root issues of all of this. We have to find out why our communities are targeted in these type of issues after 150 years. Why do we still have these pockets of people that are the front. We have to stop using incarceration to treat the consequences from the systems past practices. We have to not to say the system is broke but we have to recognize the system is working perfectly. We have to think about changing the system, so by disengaging, you can say that it doesnt affect me until it affects you. To think theres something going on there is nothing we can do. Im going to detroit right now to visit my brother whos been locked away for 28 years. You can be somebody that some dogs then you come out of shouting against a negro but that is a different story. Free your mind and the rest will follow. [applause] [cheering] first of all how old are you . We get so excited that there is a young person doing these things. It speaks volume about your courage. We are kind of on this policy prescription path about what you did as a legislator the first bill was im currently a state representative right now. Just outside the city of detroit i met a gentleman that was wrongfully arrested for mistaken identity in the description says he came out to visit me after i met him at the congressional caucus and he was telling me about what had happened. So as soon as i became a state legislator he said he was traveling around getting other representatives to step that the legislation so he brought it to me and at that time the time i probably known him for about a year or so. What it does is expunge as the individual for mistaken identity its a majority republican state, so a lot of times you go for the expungement across the board but we can go in baby steps. You ran for the states attorney and had the courage to do it. Often talking about how they will be like a prosecutor though . And i want you to talk about why you chose that particular path. One footnote im going to mention because maryland was great just not just with the freddy gray case but with so many instances folks have been targeted, theres someone running against her thats been put up because maryland is not in their pocket and she has been courageous. I want you to know we are aware of that. Sometimes they target you so i want to hear from you on why you chose this particular path and then we will understand. The mission of a prosecutor is to speak justice and so the idea on the concept that prosecutors would be in the position to seek justice is not abnormal. When i was 14yearsold like many of you my cousins grew up with me like a brother killed outside of my home in broad daylight when he was mistaken as a Neighborhood Drug dealer. If it wasnt for that testimony or a neighbor that had the courage to come forward and cooperate my family wouldnt have received any kind of justice. This was my first introduction to the criminal Justice System. I see my cousin with all these aspiration to the flood is perplexing to me is the individual responsible was also a 17yearsold. So, having to go into the courtroom and see the number of africanamerican men going in and out with chains and shackles i wanted to know how to reform the system so what we are now understanding is prosecutors have a great deal of discretion, one of the most powerful advocates in the criminal Justice System is discussion ended not only has an impact on victims but we can all see how white house collateral consequences on the community. So understanding and recognizing that systemic reform comes from within and we think about the role of a prosecutor who decides whos going to be charged, whether youre going to be charged with, what recommendations this will make. When 95 are white and 79 are white men and as a woman of color i represent 1 you understand the disproportionate impact that its had. I wanted to reform from within and iran even when everybody said it couldnt be done. Now that im in this role and weve applied just as equally if you talk about the occupation we have that but its also important. My Life Experiences speak for themselves. I dont need a cultural sensitivity training to know how young boys were being treated by the Police Departments all across this country. So what are we doing . We have to attack these issues. I talked a little about that before about addressing the issues wyeth takes place. We look at a city like baltimore this is every urban city like america. We have become complacent and we talk about the numbers of young black men being slaughtered in 2015 as 344, 2016 was 314. This year we are up to about 189. We dont ever talk about the fact 24 of the population is in poverty and 35 are below poverty, 18,000 vacant houses we dont talk about the Unemployment Rate between africanamerican young men between ages of 18 and 24 that is more than twice that of white those are the systemic issues and when we talk about getting to our babies, we have to be able to get to them before they get to the criminal Justice System so when we talk about sex. Ive six. Ive taken a holistic approach and ive been in office for two years in seven months and seven months but it feels that its been 27 and a half years. Theres a conviction integrity unit we have the first exoneration of an individual by the name of Malcolm Brian incarcerated for more than 17 years who was exonerated under my administration. When we talk about policy work they were knocking on doors and assuring that we had to be accurate accounting of what was happening in the Police Department they were instrumental i work with no boundaries when we introduce Police Accountability reform those were then adopted by the association when you talk about the work you are doing with women and the jails, ive gone into the jails had worked with the Elevation Program that has now been defunded by the state of maryland when we were helping women as they transition from incarceration back into the community that has been a primary focus for my administration understanding we cant just be reactive. This 50,000 cases a year we have a 93 felony conviction rate and we have to ensure we are getting to our babies before the criminal Justice System. They are in classrooms as opposed to courtrooms and you get targeted and blasted in the media because they say thats not your role. Why am i a prosecutor standing here talking about mass incarceration because we have to have a seat at the table and if you dont have a seat at the table, then you are on the mend you. [applause] now that im sitting here and listening to where we are going, for me it just needs to make sense what im feeling if we are worrying about the young kids and what theyre doing in the street and having to go visit them on sunday in the jails, why when you talk to them as a single parent homes some have a mom and some have a dad, some have an older brother. So a lot of the direction and conversation at the time is really that theres probably not enough love in this situation. Sometimes you just have to talk to your kids and told them that you love them. I dont know how many people wake up and walk outside but i tell my babies i love them. They say bad if you are going to catch a flight we are going to wish you a safe flight and sometimes that right there helps steer a person in the right direction. If you are talking to a kid or google or or a girl or guy they could be like what happened why do you do this. It might be something as simple as im hungry. Im sorry, i feel bad because ive got to eat. I have a young girl, young girlfriend. I know what im doing is wrong, they wont hire me to get a job, what else am i to do . And then when they leave at a young age and go behind the bar some dont even go visit their kids. So part of feeling like no one loves you and you just left alone, now no one is coming to visit you so you feel abandoned. We are talking about mass incarceration but we are not talking about love and that is the problem in the community and who took a stand from my side of the block. So somehow he felt we are feeling is that weve got to be listening to what hes saying because it is still going on today. We are not stepping out on point but i also know something when i go to church, that bishop and pastor was a crackhead. Sometimes we tend to look and judge before someone opens their mouth. Sometimes its hard to hire people and accept them and say thats what i used to be. Lets continue to lift people up and not judge each other. I was given a ten minute warning and i wanted to ensure that each panelist has the opportunity to tell people we conference a lot and have a lot of conversations. But we really have some work to do. The panelists have an opportunity to give one or two things these folks can do while they are sitting in their seats right now or as soon as they walk out of the door what is something we can do to address this mass incarceration crisis to work towards criminal Justice Reform and have an impact . Im going to start with you. That is a good question. I think i was blessed with a family that laid the foundation. I have a Strong Foundation and the communities. Me and i think Young Brothers like when we were growing up we saw ourselves because of the way that our families raised us. Some of the people we grew up around the block with it like you said theres a lot of people that are just hungry but we wanted to be hungry in different ways. What i can tell you is this is the most powerful tool right now is your phone. Social media. We can all take a picture in here with somebody else. I sent out emails and its Little Things you dont think can have a big effect. You never know if somebodys going through. We all just use the same hash tag and got it trending. People running down the streets giving high fives and hugs him saying hello. You never know how that can change the world. [applause] the single most important thing of all of you here can do leaving the space today is on the understanding mass incarceration is a civil rights issue a lot of times. You have to really open your mind to that and your heart that and understand. Second thing, you have to understand the people that are most directly affected include at the top of the list incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people have to be in the lead of creating the radical change we need to see happening in the country. Weve left the most directly affected people who are the other expert is both have excellent ideas about how to create and go back to the original intent of justice reinvestment which was to incarcerate folks entering into the system particularly women the Fastest Growing in the population right now and to take the savings and invest that money in 1998 to 2008 legal papers in we built a prison every ten days in this country. And we fill them with black bodies. They are now communities like roxbury in boston and california we have a Million Dollars had a Million Dollars on a single city block. Thats reading thats green car skating and cycling in and out of this burdensome unregulated system. Leaving with a mindset that came with to connect your self with the people who are on the ground doing this work ground getting this working by doing this work and i have experts that know what needs to change. Make sure were putting people in office with us to appreciate the change create the change that needs to happen. There is like a million things that needs to happen because tomorrow there is a public hearing on a city comes resolution to once again introduce mandatory sentencing. I think the act can contact the baltimore mayor, the city council representatives. We have to look at these consequences we suffer and we cant allow this regressive practice to happen again so contact the mayor, reach out to any legislator because tomorrow at 10 a. M. They are going to be talking about doing their jobs once again. [inaudible] i was in boston last month and woke up at like 7 00 in the morning and there was one guy in the gas station. He came over from nigeria four months ago and is there by himself early in the morning. He knew what he was going to do before he came over here. That is a system we need. I will continue to happen if we dont get up and put ourselves to work. Why not do something up here. [applause] thank you all for having me this is my first time at the convention. I met some really great people walking over from the hotel to the convention center. I hope we keep advancing and i hope some of the things we talk about we can fix it and i hope they dont stay on your back. [applause] i know when i was home watching the baltimore thing and the riots and we saw you on television, me and my wife and three small girls we were smiling. People are afraid to speak up. Theres a lot of entertainers that wouldnt want to associate themselves with this because it might affect their image. But none of us are built to be co born with a silver spoon. If someone left you money because they came into some money. I know we have to spend money to enjoy ourselves and i hope you have a safe trip back to your city. Some of the things we talk about the only way we will know if it worked as if we can see it in our individual cities so lets continue to be a voice and continued to spread love and come see us on tour. [applause] when we look at the number of young men being slaughtered in our streets not just baltimore but also chicago and boston we become far too complacent. We as African Americans have become somewhat its not just the artists that are afraid to speak up. Theyve got into the position of status. I think individually we can check ourselves to say this is unacceptable. I was in a school at Frederick Douglass and a man said to me i understand q. You talk about instant gratification and think longterm but im selling drugs because it takes care of my four sisters. My father is incarcerated and my mother isnt in the picture so i need to do what i needed for survival. I think what we also need to do as a community is to understand the importance of the time that we are currently in. We have a federal administration touting regression is making America Great again. We have to understand the importance of the local election. This is the one time that we need to understand the importance of the word federalism. Healthcare reform, local level, immigration reform, local level. Understand the importance of investing in the foot soldiers doing the work. I would just challenge youll to use the hash tag. We have so much on the line and we need to act like it. We talked about the Shrub Administration and whats going on that its but its being branded on the department of justice and they are coming after you and your weed. Maybe you dont have some that are causing might. It really is a war on drugs so it is no laughing matter. It would make voting harder. Once we realized we knew what we are up against in maryland is right they have everything to do with this but we have a responsibility we may know it and coming from an elitist view i urge you to go back. Its the importance of showing up. Thank you all for being here today and to the panel thank you all so much for being here