Pennsylvania is One of the Only States that Sentences ‘Death By Incarceration’
#InMyWords: Brenda Harris, Philadelphia
The Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign will be publishing a series of testimonies from those involved with the campaign about why they joined the campaign as part of a national effort to document and uplift the voices of the most affected. The following statement was given during the campaign’s second week of action in Harrisburg on Monday, May 21, 2018.
“Hi my name is Brenda, I’m from Philadelphia and I’m a member of the Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration.
I’m a single mother who raised three children. One of them is doing Life Without Parole, also known as Death By Incarceration.
He’s in an institution that’s built on toxic waste. I talked to him the other day. He told me he has bumps he never had before the whole 20 years he’s been away. That prison should be condemned, along with the areas around it.
I’m not here just to talk about my son, I’m here for all the people who are still on Life Without Parole — over 5000 of them, some of whom didn’t even do what they were charged with. Those that did are thinking about what they have done every day, and regretting it and wanting to turn around and come back to the community to share what they have learned. They all deserve to come home one day rather than spend their entire lives behind bars.
They build these prisons to put people away and never think about what it’s doing to our communities. The money they put into the prison system — $40,000 put into housing one person every year - can go towards schools and housing and healthcare and low income communities.
Some of us don’t have money to last from one month to the next. They say the economy is doing fine. But how is it fine when I, like so many other people, am struggling one paycheck to the next?
The system is not fair and needs to be changed right now! We vote for the politicians, and they need to do what we put them in for. Not just to SAY they’re going to to do it, but to DO it!
And we need to get organized and stay organized! That’s why I’m proud to be part of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.”
Auditing of Pennsylvania:
In addition to uplifting the voices of those most affected, the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign is auditing Pennsylvania 50 years after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged the evils of racism, militarism, and poverty, assessing what the conditions of poverty look like in our state.
Death by Incarceration: Life Without Parole
Pennsylvania is one of only six states that denies the possibility of parole to people with life sentences.
Poor people and people of color disportionately are condemned to life without parole.
Black men are more than 20x more likely to serve life without parole, and black women are more than 7x more likely to serve life without parole.
