Dialogue on Race & Society
Racial justice an issue of great and growing significance to our country and way of life. It is also an extremely challenging dialogue to initiate.

Recognizing this, we began our dialogue in November 2016 with three two hour sessions. Each session started with our viewing of one of the videos below and was followed by a discussion.
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In the new year, we have continued our dialogues with two more sessions based Bryan Stevenson's book, Just Mercy. Read below our learnings and leanings to create just action in our Southern Arizona community.
An attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson wrote Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption   

Biblography

Just Mercy  by Bryan Stevenson  2014

A review of Just Mercy by Ted Conover, October 17, 2014 “New York Times”

A Wild Justice:  The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment by Evan Mandery, 2014

A review of Wild Justice by David Oshinsky, August 30, 2013 “New York Times”

Cruel and Unusual:  The Culture of Punishment in America by Anne-Marie Cusac , 2009

“The Execution of Clayton Lockett,”  by Jeffrey Stern in June 2015 “Atlantic Magazine”
National correspondent at The Atlantic magazine, Coates wrote Between the World and Me.

Biblography

Baldwin, James.  The Fire Next Time.  1963

Coates, Ta-Hehisi,  Between The World and Me.  2015

Coates, Ta-Hehisi, “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” Atlantic. October 2014

Coates, Ta-Hehisi, “Letter to My Son.” Atlantic.  September 2015

Coates, Ta-Hehisis, “The Case for Reparations.”  Atlantic.  June 2014

Goldberg, Jeffrey, “A Matter of Black Lives.”  Atlantic.  September 2015

Fields, Karen. Fields, Barbara.  Racecraft:  The Soul of Inequality in American Life. 2012.

Sharkey, Patrick.  Stuck in Place:  Urban Neighborhoods and the End of Progress Toward Racial Equality.  2013

West, Cornell.  Race Matters. 1993

Wiley, Kenny.  “Talking About Ta-Nehisi Coates”  in UU World.  Winter 2015
Associate professor of law at Ohio State University, Alexander wrote The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

Biblography

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. by Michelle Alexander.  2012

Under Standing Mass Incarceration:  A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time. by James Kilgore.  2015

The Struggle Within:  Prisoners, Political Prisoners, and Mass Movement in the U.S. by Dan Berger.  2015

Locked Down and Locked Out:  Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better.  By Maya Schewar  2014

Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace:A Brillant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League. by Jeff Hobbs 2014

“Mike Brown’s Shooting and Jim Crow Lynchings Have Too Much In Common.  It’s Time for America to Own Up.” by Isabel Wilkerson in The Guardian, August 25, 2014

What We Learned From JUST MERCY
discussion on February 19, 2016

Major Themes
  • Mandatory sentencing prohibits full assessment of mitigating 
  • Capital punishment is unjust and must be abolished
  • Self-serving decisions of law enforcement and prosecutors are pervasive
  • More accountability is needed for prison guards, police, sheriffs…all involved in the criminal justice system
  • Decision making and guidelines in the criminal justice system appear arbitrary
  • There is too much corruption
  • There is too much use of isolation in prison
  • Recidivism is high because there is no effective rehabilitation

Fred’s additions
  • Services for mentally ill prisoners are inadequate
  • The prison business has a large economic presence
  • Racial and class bias throughout the criminal justice system
  • Witnesses with conflicting interests are unreliable
  • Exoneration can require many appeals and substantial financial resources
  • Incompetent lawyers make life and death decisions for clients
  • Electing judges politicizes justice
  • Women without proper health care during pregnancy are vulnerable to a confusing mix of anti-abortion laws

What Do We Need to Learn More About? What Questions do we still have?
  • What is the research on the most effective rehabilitation?
  • What do we do about and for victims of crime?
  • How did it ever happen that children were tried as adults?
  • Who decides what kind of rehabilitation and education prisoners 
  • We need to find out more about Maryland’s rehabilitation program?
  • We need to learn more about the history of the care for the mentally ill?
  • How did we get to the place where legislators rule over the judicial system? (Creating laws that bind sentencing)
  • How do we rehabilitate our society?
  • We need to learn more about restorative justice?

Fred’s Additions
  • What are safeguards for reviewing and monitoring attorney competence?
  • How can we hold courts accountable for negligent actions?
  • How do we adequately address our history of institutional racism and the ideology of "white supremacy"?
  • Does privatizing the criminal justice system reduce the quality and efficacy of prisons?
  • Should all states be required to pay for and assess mental competency?
  • Should children be waived into adult courts? What is the most effective treatment of children?
  • Is solitary confinement torture?  Does it succeed in changing behavior?