Shaka Senghor's visit to UAlbany on Feb. 1st is featured in The Alt.

As much as Senghor’s story is the personal journey of one man seeking redemption and hope, it is also much larger than one single man. “Mr. Senghor’s story provides us with insight into the challenges faced by many young African American men in urban communities and American prisons,” said Frankie Bailey, UAlbany criminal justice professor and chairperson of the event committee. “His emergence as a leader in the criminal justice reform movement illustrates the capacity of those same men for redemption and growth. His message is about becoming a force for positive change.”


More: http://thealt.com/…/07/writing-wrongs-shaka-senghor-ualbany/

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Debra Pane, Author and Teacher, Discusses School-to-Prison Pipeline

Debra Mayes Pane will deliver the keynote address of the UAlbany "Continuing Critical Conversations through Transformative Teaching and Learning" Speakers Series at 2PM on Friday, Sept. 18th in the Standish Room of the Science Library on the University at Albany uptown campus.

The event is free and open to the public (space permitting).

Pane is the author of Transforming the School to Prison Pipeline:  Lessons from the Classroom (2013, with Tonette S. Rocco). She is also founder and director of E-SToPP-- Eradicating the School-to-Prison Pipeline Foundation.

Sponsored by a University at Albany collaborative of faculty and staff from the School of Education, Departments of Africana Studies, Anthropology, Economics, Educational & Counseling Psychology, Educational Theory and Practice,  Music and Theater, Philosophy, Political Science, Public Health, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, The Justice and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century Project (School of Criminal Justice), The Office of Sustainability, The University Libraries, The Institute for Teaching, Learning & Academic Leadership, The Office of Intercultural Student Engagement, UAS, UUP Albany, and The Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

 

For more information, contact Deborah LaFond, dlafond@albany.edu.

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Doug Blackmon's Slavery Book Banned in Alabama Prison

A current court case concerns the decision of Alabama prison officials to bar inmates from reading Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon, who visited Friday, Feb. 3rd.

CNN) — The Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II," by Douglas Blackmon, tells the story of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction south who were imprisoned and forced into involuntary servitude after being convicted of trifling crimes.

Now a modern-day prisoner in Alabama is suing for his right to read the book.
The lawsuit, filed in September, alleges that when officials at the Kilby Correctional Facility in Mt. Meigs, Ala. denied prisoner Mark Melvin access to the book, it was a violation of his rights to "freedom of speech, equal protection and due process." The case is currently in the discovery phase.

The Alabama Department of Corrections declined comment for this story, citing the pending litigation. In their answer to the lawsuit, they admitted that Melvin had been denied access to the book, but denied any violation of his rights.

The Department said the book was in violation of its rules about what kind of reading material can be sent to inmates — namely that "the book, its title, its contents and/or its pictures could be used (or misused) by the plaintiff or other inmates to incite violence or disobedience within the institution." They also noted that the book, which describes the forced labor of African Americans in detail, "could also be used (or misused) in a manner which is inconsistent with legitimate peneological objectives, for instance the rehabilitation of inmates through prison work details and/or the inculcation of a work ethic." More.

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