ATLANTA — It's an issue that unites Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals -- from the White House to Congress -- from Georgia legislators to city councilmembers: Reducing crime, and reforming the criminal justice system.
A major conference -- the Ending Mass Incarceration conference -- takes place this week in Atlanta. And Sunday afternoon at Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, rapper T.I. and members of the Central Park Five are expected to join in the calls for reform.
“I’ve experienced it, I’ve endured it, I overcame it, I beat it," advocated T.I.
Judges and activists are coming from across the nation for this. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard is backing it, along with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Ebenezer's Pastor Raphael Warnock and Rabbi Peter Berg of The Temple and others began planning this more than a year ago -- organizing a faith-based movement to reduce crime by "Ending Mass Incarceration."
Leaders of churches and synagogues and mosques are gathering here in Atlanta to learn how to change laws across the nation to help people who have been caught up in a system that still, often, imprisons non-violent offenders and drug offenders instead of getting help and treatment for them.
"The land of the free is the incarceration capital of the world," Warnock said.
Members of the Central Park Five, incarcerated for a rape they did not commit, are expected here to lend their support as well.
One member of the Central Park Five, Yusef Salaam, told us in Atlanta last week he wants their example of challenging injustice to inspire others now.
"The powerful part is knowing the ending -- that we survived, that we're still here, that we have our minds, that we have our faculties, that we are willing to share. We are willing to help people get out of their own prisons," he said. "Letting people know that we have come-back power. We want a criminal justice system that works. We want a system that is there to serve and protect. We're not blaming the whole system. It's the small group of bad apples that's spoiling the whole bunch."
Some of the issues that will be discussed among this week's events include how to help those who have wrongfully been accused and how to help people who have paid their debt to society but cannot get jobs due to their records.
“Georgia still is Ground Zero for the sheer numbers of people still under correctional control,” said Warnock on Sunday. “Too many of them are there for small offenses, sometimes traffic offenses.”
Former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal (R), who served two terms from 2011-2019, made criminal justice reform one of his top priorities while in office. Through policy, he helped transform a system that no longer automatically imprisons nonviolent offenders -- including suspects who are drug abusers and the mentally ill -- but puts them into court-supervised treatment and rehabilitation. As a result, the state's crime rate is down, the state's prison population is down, recidivism is down, taxpayers are saving millions of dollars, and offenders are getting jobs, supporting themselves, paying taxes, staying out of trouble.
When Keisha Lance Bottoms took office as Atlanta's mayor in 2018, she and the city council eliminated the requirement that suspects accused of violating certain city ordinances -- such as driving on a suspended license, possessing a small amount of marijuana, and committing petty shoplifting theft -- pay cash bonds to get out of jail while awaiting trial. Now, the suspects are released on signature bonds, promising to show up for court. An 11Alive investigation found that, so far, 70 percent of the suspects in those minor offenses who are granted signature bonds do show up for court; and taxpayers are no longer paying thousands of dollars to house someone awaiting trial for months or longer, simply because they can't pay, say, a $200 bond.
One goal of the "End Mass Incarceration" initiative is to expand the signature bond policy to more cities, counties and states.
T.I. summed it up, saying - from first-hand experience - the roots of mass incarceration have little to do with mass crime and a lot to do with lingering, pervasive racism and bigotry.
“You can leave the house on the way to the store and end up with five to 10 years, just because someone thinks that you look like you did something," he said.
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