Charles Karim Diggs. I’m in Graterford, Pennsylvania, Graterford State Correctional Institution. Um, my topic for this evening is “Love and Economics.”
Wealth should help more than the wealthy. Riches should enrich the community. Success should affect everyone. In what way does wealth and love have to do with crime arrests, prison, convictions, and sentences?
Number one: first of all, America is grounded in a belief that we are better off having a free market, open markets. In other words, that’s the best business plan: win the customers. If you fail to be it, this really sounds fair. With more research, you will find most large corporations and businesses are receiving billions and billions of taxpayers’ dollars to keep them afloat. Subsidies are called “corporate welfare.”
Secondly, most citizens are unable to meet the requirement, nor do you have the political clout to receive all the special privileges that come from being wealthy.
Thirdly, if we desire to change the circumstances of 50 million or more working poor people, we have to rethink and restructure how the economic system can meet the basic needs of human beings.
As long as the love for war is stronger than the need to ensure that decent housing, food, healthcare, and education for all, prison systems will continue to expand. The love for more and more as a culture breeds more competition and less harmony in the society.
I suggest a new history book be written to educate every child and adult about the truth of how America began. It will go a long way to discuss how Indians, Irish, Polish were checked off as non-white race. The blacks, it was different. The African skin color never changed. Sadly, we have a continuation of outdated rules and regulations relating to race. Police, judges, prisons maintain the illegal system of oppression.
Economic liberation has yet to become part of the solution. It is very difficult for most to rise out of being born with no capital or access to capital. Banks don’t lend money to people who have no collateral. To date, all of the economic love of taxpayer’s money is flowing to the corporations. These corporations use your tax dollars to build football stadiums and charge you $15 for a hot dog and use your tax money to build prisons to put you in, and pay judges to sit down and sentence you and your children to all types of prison terms and death sentences.
Our elected officials vote- to devote to give taxes for the useful to people, not for corporations. Our voice is never part of the contract, tallying up your money. What we need is leaders who love human beings, who love the working poor and those who are unfortunately without wealt. Until the same love practice of economics, economic unhappiness will prevail.
We should not expect much change in arrests or sentences, judges sitting down giving you unbelievable sentences for crimes based on economic deprivation and inadequate miseducation. We must change the rules and regulations because selfish monster called greed continues to expand its hunger.
Thank you for listening to my, uh, little essay.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
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