Prison vs. Harvard in an Unlikely Debate

Inmate debate team is part of Bard College program helping give prisoners a chance for a better life

Carl Snyder, a prison inmate and member of the Bard Prison Initiative Debate team, speaks during a debate against Harvard College Debating Union. PHOTO: PETER FOLEY FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

On one side of the stage at a maximum-security prison here sat three men incarcerated for violent crimes.

On the other were three undergraduates from Harvard College.

After an hour of fast-moving debate on Friday, the judges rendered their verdict.

The inmates won.

The audience burst into applause. That included about 75 of the prisoners’ fellow students at the Bard Prison Initiative, which offers a rigorous college experience to men at Eastern New York Correctional Facility, in the Catskills.

The debaters on both sides aimed to highlight the academic power of a program, part of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., that seeks to give a second chance to inmates hoping to build a better life.

Ironically, the inmates had to promote an argument with which they fiercely disagreed. Resolved: “Public schools in the United States should have the ability to deny enrollment to undocumented students.”

Carlos Polanco, a 31-year-old from Queens in prison for manslaughter, said after the debate that he would never want to bar a child from school and he felt forever grateful he could pursue a Bard diploma. “We have been graced with opportunity,” he said. “They make us believe in ourselves.”

Judge Mary Nugent, leading a veteran panel, said the Bard team made a strong case that the schools attended by many undocumented children were failing so badly that students were simply being warehoused. The team proposed that if “dropout factories” with overcrowded classrooms and insufficient funding could deny these children admission, then nonprofits and wealthier schools would step in and teach them better.

Ms. Nugent said the Harvard College Debating Union didn’t respond to parts of that argument, though both sides did an excellent job.

The Harvard team members said they were impressed by the prisoners’ preparation and unexpected line of argument. “They caught us off guard,” said Anais Carell, a 20-year-old junior from Chicago.

The prison team had its first debate in spring 2014, beating the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Then, it won against a nationally ranked team from the University of Vermont, and in April lost a rematch against West Point.

Preparing has its challenges. Inmates can’t use the Internet for research. The prison administration must approve requests for books and articles, which can take weeks.

In the morning before the debate, team members talked of nerves and their hope that competing against Harvard—even if they lost—would inspire other inmates to pursue educations.

“If we win, it’s going to make a lot of people question what goes on in here,” said Alex Hall,a 31-year-old from Manhattan convicted of manslaughter. “We might not be as naturally rhetorically gifted, but we work really hard.”

Ms. Nugent said it might seem tempting to favor the prisoners’ team, but the three judges have to justify their votes to each other based on specific rules and standards.

“We’re all human,” she said. “I don’t think we can ever judge devoid of context or where we are, but the idea they would win out of sympathy is playing into pretty misguided ideas about inmates. Their academic ability is impressive.”

ENLARGE

From left, prison inmates Carl Snyder,, Dyjuan Tatro and Carlos Polanco embrace after winning the debate. PHOTO: PETER FOLEY FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The Bard Prison Initiative, begun in 2001, aims to give liberal-arts educations to talented, motivated inmates. Program officials say about 10 inmates apply for every spot, through written essays and interviews.

There is no tuition. The initiative’s roughly $2.5 million annual budget comes from private donors and includes money it spends helping other programs follow its model in nine other states.

Last year Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, proposed state grants for college classes for inmates, saying that helping them become productive taxpayers would save money long-term. He dropped the plan after attacks from Republican politicians who argued that many law-abiding families struggled to afford college and shouldn’t have pay for convicted criminals to get degrees

The Bard program’s leaders say that out of more than 300 alumni who earned degrees while in custody, less than 2% returned to prison within three years, the standard time frame for measuring recidivism.

In New York state as a whole, by contrast, about 40% of ex-offenders end up back in prison, mostly because of to parole violations, according to the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Link : http://www.wsj.com/articles/an-unlikely-debate-prison-vs-harvard-1442616928

David Cameron tells Jamaican MPs: UK will not pay reparations for slavery – video

Prime minister David Cameron tells the Jamaican parliament that the UK would not make reparations for its role in the Caribbean slave trade. Speaking on Wednesday after calls for the UK to make reparations, Cameron said that although slavery’s ‘wounds run very deep indeed’ he hoped Jamaica and Britain would ‘move on from this painful legacy’

David Cameron has called for Jamaica and the UK to “move on” from the deep wounds caused by slavery but ducked official calls for Britain to apologise for its role or pay reparations.

Speaking to the Caribbean country’s parliament, the prime minister struck a defiant note as he spoke of his pride that Britain had played a part in abolishing the “abhorrent” trade, without highlighting its historic involvement in the transfer of slaves from west Africa and ownership of slaves in the Caribbean.

He called for the two countries to “move on from this painful legacy and continue to build for the future”.

His trade trip to Jamaica, the first for 14 years by a UK prime minister, has been overshadowed by the issue of slavery. Cameron was warmly received by a military band playing God Save the Queen on arrival at the airport and received a hug from the country’s prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller.

However, during the trip, high-profile politicians and campaigners drew attention to a distant relative of Cameron’s, Gen Sir James Duff, who was compensated for losing 202 Jamaican slaves in 1833 when the trade was abolished.

He has also been pressed to “atone” for slavery personally and on behalf of the UK by Bert Samuels, a member of the National Reparations Commission, and Simpson Miller publicly raised the issue of compensation after their bilateral talks.

In response, Cameron initially did not address the issue of reparations or an apology, telling UK media he was in the country to talk about trade and the future. But speaking to the national parliament in Kingston, he made clear the UK wanted to draw a line under the legacy of slavery.

“While there is indeed much to celebrate about our past, it would be wrong to do so while ignoring the most painful aspects of it – a period which should never be forgotten, and from which history has drawn the bitterest of lessons,” Cameron said.

“Slavery was and is abhorrent in all its forms. It has no place whatsoever in any civilised society, and Britain is proud to have eventually led the way in its abolition.

“That the Caribbean has emerged from the long shadow it cast is testament to the resilience and spirit of its people. I acknowledge that these wounds run very deep indeed. But I do hope that, as friends who have gone through so much together since those darkest of times, we can move on from this painful legacy and continue to build for the future.”

Cameron said his reason for wanting to come to Jamaica was because of the need to strengthen the bonds between the UK and the Caribbean.

A No 10 spokesman said Cameron told the Jamaican prime minister that the “longstanding position of the United Kingdom is that we do not believe reparations is the right approach”.

During the trip, Cameron announced the UK would give £300m to the Caribbean to pay for infrastructure. The UK will also build a £25m prison in Jamaica using the foreign aid budget to house about 300 of the country’s citizens currently serving sentences in the UK.

The Guardian view on Britain’s slavery inheritance: reflect and atone

Editorial: David Cameron would rather talk about the future than the past in Jamaica. But slavery bequeathed prosperity to Britain and penury elsewhere

 

Read more

He also pressed Caribbean countries to help stand up for the rights of small islands, including the Falklands, to enjoy the self-determination that has been “so hard won in the Caribbean” amid UK diplomatic fears that Argentina is gaining influence in the region.

Some Jamaican MPs shook their heads vigorously as Cameron said he hoped the two countries could move on from slavery, although they loudly applauded his commitments on foreign aid.

In her speech to introduce Cameron, Simpson Miller said there was more that united the UK and Jamaica than separates the two countries and invited him to holiday with his family on the island.

But she also underlined that there were differences on the “difficult issue of reparations” as they seek to “actively engage the UK on the matter”. Her comments on reparations provoked loud banging on the table by MPs in the parliament, which was far from full for Cameron’s speech.

Andrew Holness, the Jamaican leader of the opposition, told the parliament that there “must be ways of repairing what is universally agreed to be the wrongs of the past”.

In contrast to Cameron, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who lived in Jamaica for two years in his youth, said the UK “should apologise for the slave trade and understand that the history of Jamaica is, yes, one of amazing joy and achievement since independence in 1962, but it’s also a history of the most gross exploitation of people”.

Asked whether he thought the UK should pay reparations, Corbyn said: “We should be doing all we can to try and right the wrongs of the past – improve trade facilities and arrangements, improve support for Jamaica. That is, in a sense, a form of reparation, though I would be interested to hear what the proposals are and what the discussions are.”

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/jamaica-should-move-on-from-painful-legacy-of-slavery-says-cameron

Charlotte PD Considers Banning People From Certain Neighborhoods If They've Been Arrested

Police and city councilors in Charlotte, North Carolina, are debating whether to ban people from being in certain parts of the city if they've ever been arrested. Police would designate the restricted spaces — generally high-crime areas — as "public safety zones," and bar those who had previously been arrested in the areas from entering.

Former arrestees would face misdemeanor charges if they entered the zones, the Charlotte Observer reports. To qualify for a ban, one need not have to have been tried, convicted or incarcerated for a crime — simply arrested.

Neither the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department nor the Charlotte City Council responded to Mic's request for comment Thursday.

Under the proposed rule, police could designate public safety zones in response to activities like drug sales and weapon discharges. They could then send notifications to people who had been arrested in these areas previously, and ban them from entry as long as the area remained designated as such.

The bans "could be appealed" by people picking up children from school or going to work in the zones, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Comprehensive arrest numbers were not readily available for this report, but since 1999, North Carolina hasmandated that all law enforcement departments statewide collect data on traffic stops. According to a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, black motorists were both more likely to be stopped and twice as likely to be searched after being stopped by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police compared to white motorists between 2002 and 2013.

North Carolina Department of Justice data also show that black motorists were more likely to be arrested after a stop between October 2010 and August 2015 — the broadest dataset available.

According to census figures from 2014, black people constitute 32.2% of residents in Mecklenburg County — over which the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has jurisdiction — while white people compose 59.2%.

It's not hard to guess who would be most affected by proposed "public safety zones," considering these numbers.

This is also not the first time Charlotte has suggested a measure like this. According to the Charlotte Observer, a 2013 injunction against the Hidden Valley Kings gang prohibited its members from "driving, standing, sitting, walking or appearing together in public view." The injunction expired last year, but authorities are could technically renew it.

Link: http://mic.com/articles/126187/charlotte-pd-considers-banning-people-from-certain-neighborhoods-if-they-ve-been-arrested

Christian group has Islam-fearing freakout over Georgia schools teaching basic facts about religion

A conservative Christian organization is paranoid that public school children in Georgia are being indoctrinated into the Muslim faith by their curriculum on world religions.

The American Center for Law and Justice is up in arms because Georgia school children are being taught the differences between Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that students have to learn about the cultures of the Middle East and be able to compare and contrast the world’s three Abrahamic faiths.

At issue is a homework assignment in Walton County that points out that the “Allah” is, aside from the Arabic translation, the same God worshiped by Jews and Christians, which is true. Judaism, Christianity and Islam traditionally stem from the biblical character Abraham and share common texts and prominent figures.

““Allah is the [blank] worshiped by Jews & Christians,” the assignment read. The correct answer is “same God,” which is what the student wrote.

“This is outrageous,” ACLJ wrote. “State education standards require education on Islam, not indoctrination into the religion. Rather than explain the history of world religions, schools are reportedly forcing students to learn the Five Pillars of Islam—the creed one must learn to convert—and teaching students that Allah is the same God worshiped by Christians.”

Reporting by the Journal Constitution quotes parents who were scared that learning facts about Islam means their children were being indoctrinated into the faith.

“Like my daughter had to learn the [Shahada] and the Five Pillars of Islam, which is what you learn to convert,” parent Michelle Kind told local Channel 2 Action News. “But they never once learned anything about the Ten Commandments or anything about God.”

A spokeswoman for the Walton County Public School district said the district isn’t doing anything new and is teaching the basics of comparative religion as required by the curriculum.

Some parents are complaining because they don’t want their children exposed to Islam, but “if you’re learning about the Middle East, it’s very difficult not to teach about Islam,” district spokeswoman Kim Embry told the Journal Constitution.

Embry said the district hasn’t changed its curriculum in 9 years and officials are surprised in the sudden attention.

“We are teaching the same stuff that everyone else is teaching,” she said, adding her own son had similar lessons and he is now a senior in high school. She said the district has recently received phone calls from people from out of state who don’t have children at the Walton County schools.

The ACLJ has similar concerns about Islam being taught in Tennessee said they have filed public information requests at every Tennessee school district to “find out exactly what is being taught in our schools.”

“Something needs to be done,” fretted the ACLJ. “We at the ACLJ are working hard to investigate, expose, and end these unconstitutional practices, and are committed to fighting for the constitutionally protected rights of all public school students. We continue to receive contact from concerned parents and citizens. We are working directly with our clients—parents of students in local schools—and preparing to send out demand letters to these schools if necessary.”

They added they will “not stop” until students’ “constitutionally-protected rights have been restored,” and refereed readers to their booklet about “Shari’ah law’s threat to our constitutional freedoms.”

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/christian-group-has-islam-fearing-freakout-over-georgia-schools-teaching-basic-facts-about-religion/#.Vg7bD0ulInI.facebook

CNN : THE US AND ISIS ARE WORKING TOGETHER IN SYRIA.

Minister Louis Farrakhan on The Rock Newman Show #JusticeOrElse

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan visits us to talk about "JUSTICE OR ELSE, The 20th Anniversary of The Million Man March" this October 10th in Washington DC and his decades long legacy of fighting for Black America.

Minister Farrakhan covers the Presidency, the Black Lives Matter Movement, the state of Black America and much much more in this episode of The Rock Newman Show on the eve of the "JUSTICE OR ELSE" march.

Alabama, Where ID Is Required to Vote, Closes DMVs in Most “Black Belt” Counties

On Wednesday, the state of Alabama announced that it was shutting 31 driver's license offices because of budget cuts. Two columns on Al.com subsequently noted that the cuts—which come on the heels of a 2011 law that requires voters to show government-issued IDs—will disproportionately effect counties in the state's largely Democratic “black belt” region.

Columnist Kyle Whitmire writes that 29 of the state's 67 counties will now lack a driver's license office—and, depending on whether you define the “black belt” as constituting 18 or 24 counties, either 12 or 15 of those newly office-less counties will be in the historically black area. Two-thirds of counties in the narrowly defined “black belt” will lack now a driver's license office (12 of 18); only one-third (17 of 49) of other counties will lack one.

Columnist John Archibald, meanwhile, observes that no Alabama counties in which more than 75 percent of registered voters are nonwhite will now have a driver's license office. Another way of framing the issue: Offices will be shuttered in the five counties whose voters most strongly supported Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley is Republican, and the state's Senate and House of Representatives are both GOP-controlled.

Link: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/10/01/alabama_closes_dmvs_in_majority_of_black_belt_counties_passed_voter_id_law.html