Mark Zuckerberg visits San Quentin: ‘We can’t jail our way to a just society’

[think]

Source: Washington Post

“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” by Michelle Alexander is the Bible for many sentencing reform advocates, attorneys—and inmates. As I have been visiting federal prisons all year for a series on prisons and sentencing reform, it is the one book that is mentioned over and over again.

Sharanda Jones, 48, a first-time nonviolent drug offender serving a life without parole sentence in Texas, said she keeps the book in her cell and called it “my Bible.” Attorney Brittany Byrd, who successfully filed a clemency petition for former inmate Donel Marcus Clark granted clemency by President Obama after 22 years behind bars, has a copy of “The New Jim Crow,” in her Dallas apartment. She met the author when she was in law school and asked her to sign it.

And now, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says the book inspired him to visit San Quentin State Prison with his wife Priscilla.

“We wanted to see first hand what prison conditions are like for people – and we got a chance to speak with inmates and staff,” Zuckerberg said in his posting.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/10/14/mark-zuckerberg-visits-san-quentin-we-cant-jail-our-way-to-a-just-society/

[randys1]

1. AKA voter suppression

[madinmaryland]

2. Even worse than that, is the subjugation of millions of people to a second class citizenship for

the rest of their lives.

[KamaAina]

4. This is why SF just "banned the box"

the one on employment applications that says "Have you ever been convicted of...". There are only limited exceptions for banks, etc.

[madinmaryland]

6. Are they still allowed to run background checks? Even more odious is the

credit report.



BTW, I always thought you were a Ginats fan, but I just read that you are a Los Angeles Dodgers fan. I saw it on the internets, so it must be true!!

[KamaAina]

8. Where in Hell did you read that?

Drudge? Breitbart?

[madinmaryland]

9. Here...

www.madinmarylandelsupremotrumadcboy4joeybee12ignore.com

[KamaAina]

10. Locking. Not a valid source for DU.

[madinmaryland]

16. Off to ignore you go. Oh wait! I'm not a certain Cheatriot fan. Never mind.

[KamaAina]

3. He may well have his eye on the property

Believe it or not, San Quentin sits on about a half square mile of prime bayfront property in Marin! And it's old enough that the state has repeatedly looked into the feasibility of shutting it down. With the passage of Prop 47, reducing penalties for certain crimes, we may be able to reduce the prison population enough to move on that. And you know Zuck keeps enough in checking to swing that kind of a deal.

[KansDem]

11. The prison was built in 1852

A lot of history there.

You make a good observation regarding Zuckerberg's visit. If he can get California to sell it to him, he could make a tidy bundle offering condos, lofts, apartments, and the like located on San Francisco Bay.

I would like to see it preserved as a state historic site, like Alcatraz. If the state tears it down, at least make the land into a state park.

[KamaAina]

12. Maybe we could have joint tours of it and Alcatraz

[KansDem]

17. You know, California could make them both into convention centers!

For professional organizations to hold conferences. I'd love to see the "breakout sessions!"

[KansDem]

5. What the folly?!!

"Sharanda Jones, 48, a first-time nonviolent drug offender serving a life without parole sentence in Texas"

Life without parole for a "first-time nonviolent drug offender?"

[think]

7. Ya, that one really floored me. It makes absolutely no sense....

[appalachiablue]

13. Horrific isn't it, and us as a society all this time. Several years ago I became aware of

Michelle Alexander and her landmark work and book on 'The New Jim Crow' which I've posted about here twice. This barbaric 20+ year injustice and racism has to end.

During the debate I was reminded that Jim Webb was how I first learned of the awful mass incarceration of blacks and PoC in the US that he mentioned last night. It was at a law school forum on criminal justice and law enforcement that I attended in 2006 which Webb co-hosted. He def gets credit for that awareness like him or not..

[dembotoz]

14. new jim crow book changed how i look at thing....would say it is a must read

[jtuck004]

15. Don't need a fucking zillionaire to tell me what good people should fight for.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
Abraham Lincoln

Some already knew this. It exists in the same search for profit you seek. For some, just to hurt their neighbor for nothing more than the color of their skin. And it exists because privileged white people enable it.

They. The 1% that make the choices. Are the problem.

“We wanted to see first hand what prison conditions are like for people" < You didn't. You got to see what they wanted a visiting zillionaire to see. You have no idea what is in those lives, and without that you, apparently, now know even less than when you started.

When the 1% don't pay their fair share, or hog the money that a lot of people worked for, it can remove opportunity from everyone else. That opportunity could have kept someone out of prison.

...“I emphasize that Facebook’s actions are within the law,” said Senator Levin. “As with so much of our tax code, it’s not the law-breaking that shocks the conscience, it’s the stuff that’s perfectly legal.”

As described by the Senator, Facebook’s IPO filing outlines their plan to utilize one of our tax code’s most unjustified loopholes, the stock option tax loophole. When Facebook goes public, Zuckerberg will exercise his stock options to buy 120 million shares of the company’s stock at 6 cents a share, a cost of roughly $7 million. The current market value of those shares will be approximately $5 billion. Facebook will be able to declare $5 billion in deductible losses despite only having distributed assets that were valued at $7 million.

The stock option tax loophole is the only provision of the tax code that allows companies to deduct money for costs without actually spending any money. It allows Facebook to declare to shareholders and potential investors that their expenses remain low, while at the same time declaring to the IRS that those same shares cost them $5 billion and write those higher costs off as a tax deduction. To their shareholders and the stock market, Facebook will present itself as highly profitable, while their tax return will show the opposite. The $5 billion deduction can be used to make otherwise taxable income disappear going two years into the past and up to twenty years into the future. The result: refunds of past taxes and future tax breaks for Facebook totally up to $3 billion. A hugely profitable U.S. company could end up paying no taxes at all for years to come, and everyday taxpayers will end up footing the bill.
...

http://www.uspirg.org/news/usp/facebook%E2%80%99s-tax-dodge-stands-make-billions-company-and-zuckerberg

[Old Union Guy]

18. Would a "just society" have billionaires in it? n/t

[PersonNumber503602]

20. Depends on inflation.

[Old Union Guy]

22. Would a just society have hyperinflation? n/t

[Hotler]

19. ‘We can’t jail our way to a just society.’ Yes we can if......

you jail the right people. You start with the fucking CEO bankers that drove this country's economy into the ground.
90% of the Bush administration for war crimes.
Jail anyone that is still alive from the Iran-Contra scandal.
Everyone that was involved in the rigged vote count that let Bush have the whitehouse.
etc. etc.

[kentauros]

21. But FaceBerg will shut you down if you post "pornographic" cakes:

[font size="4"]No No, Thank YOU, Canada[/font]
October 12, 2015

WARNING!!!

Facebook nearly shut down our page because the following turkey cake was so offensive. Please, hide your children and make sure any elderly folks are out of the room before proceeding! Because the turkey looks vaguely phallic. I mean sure, there are literally millions of mostly naked pictures on Facebook but we put up a turkey cake, darnit, and that crosses a line!

*sigh*



Today may be Columbus Day here in the U.S., but it's also Canadian Thanksgiving, so....



DRIPPY POO WANG TIME, Y'ALL!

I kid, I kid.