LIVELaura Flanders & Friends - Corporate Prison Reform Will Not Keep Us Safe: A Report from Los Angeles
Under the view of the iconic Hollywood Sign, a struggle is being waged over the future of policing and incarceration. Los Angeles is ground zero for fights over the job of District Attorney, Police Chief, and the size of prisons and jails. It recently became one of the only cities in the US to cancel construction of a jail. Activists have forced out two police chiefs, while conservatives have brought two recall petitions against the DA. Corporations that have profited from prison communications are now profiting on electronic monitoring. And in this election year, with criminal justice reform a major issue, how are activists pushing back against false narratives on crime? Looking at the fight inside and outside the system, Laura Flanders talks to activists and elected officials in Los Angeles. All this from the city where SWAT teams were invented, from the state where Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon launched their careers, and the nationwide boom in prison construction was born. Can today's Los Angeles change the script? "Los Angeles has a history of repression, and I think because it's Los Angeles, they're also masters at narrative, so they'll mask it with pictures of palm trees and Venice Beach and all of these other things. But really, when we look at the history of Los Angeles, it's deeply rooted in racism, deeply rooted in racist repression and oppression, and deeply rooted in a system of policing that absolutely descends from slave catching," - Melina Abdullah "When we talk about closing Men's Central Jail, yes, we're trying to close that particular building, but what it requires is every jail in our county to reduce its population . . . We're trying to decarcerate globally across the jail system, that will then allow us to close this monument of essentially torture in our communities." - Mark-Anthony Clayton-Johnson "The reason why I've done this work is because I've seen how the system works, and I've seen how it doesn't prevent harm and violence. It only responds to it . . ." - Eunisses Hernandez "What if something went off and said that I wasn't where I was supposed to be, and all these cops showed up? . . . At [the age of] 15 thinking the cops are going to show up . . . that is one thing that I will always say that shamed me in my life. I felt unworthy. I felt like I was a bad person." - Sheila Natt ". . . 94% of the people that are terminated from the electronic monitoring program pre-trial are terminated on technical violations . . . If the point is to use this electronic monitoring to help people stay out of jail and come to court, why are the technical violations leading you right back into jail?" - Anthony Robles Guests: Melina Abdullah: Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter, Los Angeles Mark-Anthony Clayton-Johnson: Co-Executive Director, Dignity & Power Now Eunisses Hernandez: Los Angeles City Councilmember, District 1 Sheila Natt: Former Teen Ankle Monitor User Anthony Robles: Youth & Community Organizer, Dignity & Power Now
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