Tag: prison

Movie review: Sing Sing

Unlocked

Since I saw the trailer months ago, I’ve been eager to see the movie Sing Sing. “Divine G (Colman Domingo), imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.” My wife and I attended a Monday night showing at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.

From RogerEbert.com: “Writer-director Greg Kwedar and his script partner Clint Bentley developed the project after buying the rights to the 2005 Esquire article ‘The Sing Sing Follies,’ by John H. Richardson. But they didn’t just shrink-wrap a true story in Hollywood cliches. They did what good journalists would do and re-reported the entire thing by interviewing people from the story as well as various participants in the Sing Sing correctional facility’s theater program.”

Acting!

One interview of the directors of Ghostlight [a movie I highly recommend] and Sing Sing on their cinematic explorations of empathy via theater notes: “{Sing Sing] revolves around an original production called Breaking the Mummy’s Code, most closely following founding member John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield (Domingo) as he prepares for an upcoming clemency hearing. Divine G soon finds himself challenged, then befriended by newbie Clarence ‘Divine Eye’ Maclin (as himself), a lone wolf selling drugs who can intimidate someone in the yard one minute, then casually quote King Lear the next.” Mummy’s Code, BTW, is a wildly fascinating production, evoking, among others, Robin Hood, Freddy Krueger, Hamlet, and a Roman citizen.

The movie had the opportunity to be a canned feel-good story, but it didn’t because of the persona of the Domingo character and verisimilitude of the theater director (Paul Raci from Sound Of Metal); Divine Eye (Maclin), a newbie would-be actor in the play; and the other actors.

RTA

Hmm. Maclin’s IMDb includes Unlocked: The Power of the Arts in Prison, which “captures the unsparingly honest stories of formerly incarcerated men and women who participated in RTA’s prison arts program. The film offers a different model for criminal justice, emphasizing life skills that lead to success after prison.”

What is RTA? Rehabilitation Through the Arts. “RTA helps people in prison develop critical life skills through the arts, modeling an approach to the justice system based on human dignity rather than punishment.” Oh and here’s the Unlocked short film, which features Maclin and others I recognized from the movie Sing Sing! 

“Founded at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in 1996, RTA has provided arts-based workshops to thousands of incarcerated men and women, transforming lives and breaking the cycle of incarceration with proven results: less than 3% of RTA members return to prison, compared to 60% nationally. To learn more about our work, ask questions, or provide support, please contact us.”

The fact that this is based on a true story – clips from the original Breaking the Mummy’s Code shows up in the end credits – makes this even more compelling.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 98% positive rating with critics, 93% with audiences. One of the three negative critics’ takes misses the point completely: “The story itself presents a flawed notion of ‘serving time’ and becoming ‘reformed’ as a result of incarceration without unpacking the institutional violence that lands Black men behind bars at a disproportionate rate.” It’s just not THAT movie. The one that it is suffices.

NY: released from prison? you can vote

Poll workers are needed

elon-voting-bars-buttonMy sister Leslie and I attended the service at Trinity AME Zion Church in Binghamton, NY, on October 9. During the announcements, it was noted that “if you are convicted of a felony and released from prison, you can vote. If you are convicted of a felony, and your sentence is suspended, you can vote. Visit the New York State Board of Elections website to register or re-register to vote.”

Read this information from nycourts.gov. “All other criminal convictions do not take away your right to vote. So, misdemeanor and violation convictions do not prevent you from voting even if you are serving time in jail.” The legislation that allowed this was passed in September 2021, yet I managed to miss it.

Moreover, “before being released from prison, you will be notified verbally and in writing by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (“DOCCS”) that your voting rights will be returned once you are released. You will also receive a form of application for voter registration and declination form, help filling out the form, and written information on voting. You can submit your forms to the state or county board where you live or have the DOCCS submit it for you.”

I’ve long been frustrated by states who decided that a felony conviction permanently disenfranchised someone. Once someone has “paid their dues,” they should be given the rights of any citizen, if only so they can feel ownership in the society they are returning to.

Voting

In New York State, early voting starts on Saturday, October 29, and runs through Sunday, November 6. One must request an absentee ballot online or by mail by October 24 or in person by November 7. One must return the absentee ballot by November 8.

Poll workers are being sought in NYS for early voting, as well as on Election Day, November 8. And one gets paid! I worked for the general election in 2021.

But does it matter?

My great concern is that there are so many election deniers running for office across the country that the very fabric of our democracy is likely in peril. Their general narrative is “if I win, I won fairly, but if I lose, it was rigged.” This is particularly problematic when these are candidates for governor and secretary of state, who have a hand in certifying the state’s election results.

Other threats to democracy, such as gerrymandering and disinformation, are also problematic. I’ve read stories with the same basic facts; one says the candidate or official is “rattled” or “confused,” whereas another will make no such characterization.

In the NY governor’s race, Alan Singer notes that “MAGA lunacy is not just rampant in the Red States. Republican Party candidate Lee Zeldin is bringing his version” to the Empire State. True enough.

He’s running against the current governor, Kathy Hochul. Frank Robinson calls her the “Worst Candidate I’ll Have Ever Voted For,” and he’s not wrong. He concludes, “At least Hochul’s corruption is merely business-as-usual for New York, not as far down on the vileness scale.”

One of my US Senators, Chuck Schumer (D), is up for reelection. I’ve seen a couple of his warm-and-fuzzy ads. But I have NO IDEA who his Republican opponent is. (Who the heck is Joe Pinion?) There is also a LaRouche party candidate named Diane Sare.

Still, I vote. I ALWAYS vote.

Documentary review: Attica

Rocky

If “Attica” is just a line you recognize from the movie  Dog Day Afternoon, you should watch the Oscar-nominated, 2021 documentary of that name.

Now, if you were around then, you will discover a lot of details that you forgot, or more likely, did not know at all about one of the most significant prison riots in the United States. “This unnervingly vivid dive into the 1971 uprising… sheds new light on the enduring violence and racism of the prison system…”

A little over half of the approximately 2,200 prisoners took over the facility on September 9, taking 42 staff hostage. They had tired of their brutalizing conditions and sought to be treated like human beings. The stories in the film were told by some of the former prisoners. As one critic correctly notes, “I don’t think Attica glorifies the prisoners, but it does humanize them. That is, it presents them as human beings.”

There were four days of negotiations, including with the state Commissioner of Corrections, Russell G. Oswald. While there were some prisoners who wanted to hold Oswald and other negotiators hostage as well, the prisoner leadership opposed this, saying that they should deal in good faith.

Other people interviewed in the documentary included the families of the guards held hostage. Attica is a small town in rural Wyoming County, southwest of Rochester and southeast of Buffalo. The Department of Corrections is the major employer. Most of the prison personnel were white local folks, while most of the prisoners were black and/or Hispanic, creating a definite culture clash beyond the guard/prisoner dynamic.

During the negotiations, authorities agreed to 28 of the prisoners’ demands. But they would not agree to complete amnesty for the inmates involved with the prison takeover.

Nixon’s the one

The film shares audiotape of Nelson Rockefeller conferring with Richard M. Nixon. The governor assured the President that he would not accede to the demands to go to Attica, a position that Nixon applauded. Then on September 13, Rocky ordered armed corrections officers, and state and local police to retake the prison.

The next thing that happened, you may know. Or not, as disinformation was sent out by Rocky himself, disputed initially by ABC News reporter John Johnson and soon by medical examiners.

But it is what happened AFTER the siege that I had never heard about or seen before. It was quite disturbing in its own right. And that’s the strange thing about the movie. If you don’t know how the story ends, you might get three-quarters of the way through and still hold out for a happy ending.

The movie by writer/director Stanley Nelson got positive reviews from 50 of 51 critics. And the 51st has a snippet that says, “Extraordinary archival footage… You can’t just dismiss it as hyperbole.” I watched it on Amazon Prime.

Allowing people in prison to vote

Fourteen states and DC allow voting rights to be restored automatically upon release from prison.

elon-voting-bars-buttonHmm. The idea of allowing people in prison to vote had never really crossed my mind before recent events.

Now the notion that people who were OUT of prison regaining the franchise HAS been an issue for me. For instance, voting rights can ONLY be restored through an individual petition or application to the government in Iowa and Kentucky, a draconian process.

This was also the standard in Florida until 2018, when the people decided to change it. Voting rights are now restored automatically upon completion of sentence, including prison, parole, and probation.

The right to vote is restored automatically once released from prison and discharged from parole – probationers can vote – in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Oklahoma, and New York. I can support this.

Fourteen states and DC allow voting rights to be restored automatically upon release from prison. Hey, this appeals to me even more.

But in Maine and Vermont, voting rights are retained while in prison, even for a felony conviction. This partially explains the position of Bernie Sanders, Presidential candidate and the US senator from the Green Mountain State

In an interview with Truthout’s Amy Goodman, Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones, notes: “Prisoners are already counted for redistricting purposes, so they are already counted where they are incarcerated, but yet they’re not allowed to vote. So it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

“And if you believe the purpose of prison is not just punishment, but rehabilitation, then allowing people to still have one of their most fundamental civic responsibilities is a key aspect of rehabilitation.”

Of course, this gets into the whole conversation about whether prison is designed for incarceration or rehabilitation. Check out this 60 Minutes story about how a Connecticut prison is trying to implement a German-style (i.e., civilized) system.

How do other countries deal with the voting issue? Here is a chart of how 45 countries regulate the ability of felons to vote in or , out of prison, or not at all. Note that Canada and Germany are among the least restrictive.

This Truthout title caught my attention: Allowing People in Prison to Vote Shouldn’t Be Controversial. “The mass disenfranchisement of incarcerated people [in the United States] has a racist past and a racist present, and has been used in particular as a tool to suppress the Black vote.” This is clearly true.

“The denial of the vote to people behind bars takes a sharp toll on many marginalized communities, subjecting them to what many call ‘civil death’ — depriving a person of all legal rights.”

Naturally, Arthur chimed in on this issue – in fact, his post popped up as I was writing this piece. “Incarceration is disproportionately directed at people who aren’t white. But that’s an issue on its own, and not, by itself, a reason to let all prisoners vote. Or, maybe it should be?

“Maybe it could help restore justice to the criminal justice system by letting the victims of that system have a say. I don’t yet know what I think, but I’m listening.” That’s about where I’m at. But I’m leaning towards Bernie’s position, significant in that I had had NO position only weeks ago.

Nationwide prison strike: pay, voting, et al.

prison strike
Prison strike 2018
About a month ago, wading through my vast vacation email, I came across a story about a nationwide prison strike: incarcerated people across the country were uniting to protest the inhumane conditions that pass for our prison system. Here’s a short video from last week.

The prison strike demands included:

1. Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women. Yes, and while they’re at it, getting rid of for-profit prisons.

2. An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor.

As MoveOn noted, “Many incarcerated people are often forced to work with minimal or no pay in strenuous jobs. Just this past summer, there were incarcerated individuals fighting fires in California for just $1 an hour — though they won’t even qualify to get jobs as firefighters in California once they’re out of prison.” In states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Texas, incarcerated people receive no pay for their labor.

Everyone assumes that slavery ended with the 13th Amendment, but the amendment reads as follows:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution actually created a loophole that legitimized slavery—and is used to this day to force people in prison to work with little to no pay, a strategy that allowed slavery by another name, starting shortly after the Civil War.

3. An immediate end to the racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and parole denials of Black and brown humans. Black humans shall no longer be denied parole because the victim of the crime was white, which is a particular problem in southern states.

4. The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences, pretrial detainees, and so-called “ex-felons” must be counted. Representation is demanded. All voices count!

But, of course, I know a lot of folks don’t care. Recently, on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver urged Floridians to vote because convicted felons can’t, ever, unless the law changes.

Oliver showed people thinking that the issue doesn’t matter to them because of the feeling that people in prison must have done something wrong – which may not be true. But even those who did the crime, once they’ve done the time, STILL can’t participate in the democratic process.

Logic suggests one would want those rehabilitated citizens “to participate democratically in the fundamental act of how we shape our society,” to have a sense of ownership in their communities.

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