Author Discusses “The New Jim Crow”

Dr. Michelle Alexander

LANSING, MI — On January 17, 2012, Michigan’s Fair Chance Coalition and the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus will be bringing Professor Michelle Alexander for the kick-off for the statewide statue to “Ban the Box” on employment applications.  They will also discuss employment and other consequences of a conviction and the barriers that those convictions bring to communities.  The Fair Chance Coalition is  working to change state and local laws that currently reduce employment opportunities for individuals with prior convictions.  They have built a broad based movement, with leadership from formerly incarcerated individuals and those in the legislature.

 

The Coalition states that they would like individuals who have already paid their debt to society a fair chance at employment.  They  want to “ban the box” on employment applications that require applicants to check “Yes” or “No” in response to questions like: 

 

“Have you ever been convicted of a crime (or felony or misdemeanor)?” 

or “Have you ever been arrested?”

 

Monica Jahner, the Director of Michigan’s Fair Chance Coalition’s “Ban the Box Campaign” said, “Passing legislation to “Ban the Box” will help taxpayers, communities and families by giving individuals with former convictions a fair chance to become self-supporting.” 

 

According to the Coalition, studies have shown that ex-offenders stand a much better chance of getting hired, if they reach the interview stage, when they can explain their circumstance in person with the employer.

 

The Coalition’s brochures states:

 

– State residents would benefit from enhanced public safety and reduced expenditures for incarceration. 

 

– Studies have consistently shown that ex-offenders who find jobs are less likely to commit more crimes and return to prison or jail.

 

– Nationally, the recidivism rate approaches 70 percent. The three states with the new laws appear already to have achieved lower rates—40 percent in Massachusetts, 47 percent in New Mexico and 56 percent in Connecticut.

 

– About 40 percent of the nation’s prison population of 2 million is African American. Between 600,000 and 700,000 prisoners are released every year across the country. Their employment prospects are not good, particularly for young black men.

 

Jahner states that an employer will not be prevented from learning about prior convictions in the interview process. 

 

Professor Alexander holds a joint appointment with the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University (OSU) and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Prior to joining the OSU faculty, she was a member of the Stanford Law School faculty, where she served as Director of the Civil Rights Clinic. Professor Alexander has significant experience in the field of civil rights advocacy and litigation. She has litigated civil rights cases in private practice as well as engaged in innovative litigation and advocacy efforts in the nonprofit sector. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Vanderbilt University. Following law school, she clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court, and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

 

She will also speak to the public on employment and other consequences of a conviction and how barriers to employment for individuals with convictions hurt our communities, families, and taxpayers. The program will be held at the Temple Conference Center, The Thomas M. Cooley Law School , 217 South Capitol, Lansing on the evening of January 17th from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m., and a reception will follow.  This event is free and open to the public.

 

Professor Alexander is also the author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”

 

The first lines of the introduction of the book reads:

 

“Jarvious Cotton’s great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting by Klan intimidation; his father was barred by poll taxes and literacy tests. Today, Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a felon and is currently on parole.”

 

Alexander will discuss what she calls the misleading tactics of the law enforcement community, the colorblind language used to frame these policies to the public and the manner in which both major political parties are complicit with the creation of “the new Jim Crow.” 

 

For more information, the Coalition is headquartered at Northwest Initiative at 530 W. Ionia Street, Suite D in Lansing or  call 517-999-2894.   

 

 

This was printed in the January 1, 2012 - January 14, 2012 Edition