The Daily Bulletin Archive

Please join McMillan Empowerment Enterprise and the Burchfield Penney Art Center for a discussion on crime, custody, and community on Thursday, May 16, at 6:00 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney. The evening kicks off with an exclusive guided tour of Being There: Bruce Jackson, Photographs 1962–2012. Jackson will share his award-winning work on view at the center and his experiences documenting prison systems.

Well-known in some circles as the dean of prison culture, scholar and humanist Bruce Jackson began visiting penitentiaries in the South in the early ’60s, first to record folk songs and then to interview inmates about their life in and out of the criminal justice system.

Since then, America’s incarceration rate has quintupled, rising for the past 36 years to become the world’s highest: about one in 100 adults, a total of nearly 2.3 million people, is incarcerated today.

According to the New York Times, among African Americans who have grown up during the era of mass incarceration, one in four has had a parent locked up at some point during childhood. For black men in their 20s or early 30s without a high school diploma, the incarceration rate is so high—nearly 40 percent nationwide—that they’re more likely to be behind bars than to have a job.

No one denies that some people belong in prison, but mass incarceration increases poverty and disrupts families, and children left behind are more likely to suffer academically and socially. How do we create a penal system that is more effective for society as a whole? How do we give a second chance to thousands of young ex-offenders transitioning back into their communities?

A panel discussion moderated by Buffalo News columnist Rod Watson will follow. Panel members are as follows:

Karima Amin, founder and director of Prisoners Are People Too, a program that promotes the understanding of the plight of prisoners and their families and the challenges of reentry.

Ron Stewart, Ph.D., professor of sociology, Buffalo State. Stewart’s teachings focus on the African American family, race and ethnic relations, gender studies, and community development. Stewart wrote the book African-American Husbands: A Study of Black Family Life and an array of articles focusing on African American men.

Umar Adeyola, founder of HEART (Helping Empower At-Risk Teens), an agency dedicated to helping address the needs of youth offenders ages 16–19 to help break the cycle between criminality and re-arrest rates.

Alfonso Carter, ex-offender and successful entrepreneur, who will share his passionate reality of growing up in Niagara Falls, New York, and how he was influenced by the street life.

For more information, please visit the Burchfield Penney website.