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Q&A
Addressing root causes and generational impacts of incarceration
1:10:42
·
171 sec
The discussion focuses on the importance of addressing the root causes of incarceration and its generational impacts. Council Member Stevens emphasizes the need for a holistic approach, while Stanley Richards shares his personal experience with generational incarceration and the importance of family support in breaking the cycle.
- Emphasis on looking at incarceration issues holistically, including root causes
- Stanley Richards shares his family's experience with generational incarceration
- Discussion on the importance of strengthening families to prevent future incarceration
- Highlight on the need for resources to help parents build better lives for their children
Althea V. Stevens
1:10:42
And also how the families are being affected.
1:10:44
A lot of them are as generational.
1:10:46
So you know for me it's like we can't look at this in an isolated way.
1:10:49
I'm always like how do we look at things holistically and it just seems to be that this is not part of the conversation when it actually really needs to be because it's kind of fueling the system.
1:10:58
So definitely, obviously, this report is needed and necessary, but that is my one critique is that we are not addressing some of the root causes that
Jonathan Lippman
1:11:06
are being That issue comes up periodically with certain fixes like the raise the age movement and all the different, you know, legislative proposals.
1:11:17
But I agree with you that that, we don't focus enough on on that end of the problems.
1:11:25
You never get to all these adults who are in there if if we had focused enough at the at the front end.
Althea V. Stevens
1:11:33
Yeah.
1:11:33
And I I say it all the time.
1:11:34
If we invest in our young people on the front end, we won't be investing on the back end.
1:11:38
And we was and and listen.
1:11:39
Financially, we would we would save the city and the state money.
1:11:42
And so that's just it just does not seem like it is one of the pushes.
1:11:45
It's like okay I get it, we can walk and chew gum at the same time when we're talking about you know the incarceration industry and also how do we prevent it and so you know would love to think about how do we continue to work together to make this focal point of it because it often does not seem like it is, and I often feel like I'm over here by myself fighting uphill about it, and and we're talking about closing Rackers Island, if we're not talking about how Horizon is currently at the same time expanding, it just seems counterproductive.
Stanley Richards
1:12:14
Yeah.
1:12:15
Yeah.
1:12:15
No, I totally agree.
1:12:16
And I think, you know, working with nonprofit organizations like Fortune and working with individuals is also working with families.
1:12:22
And I'll give you a quick example.
1:12:24
This work for me is generational work.
1:12:26
I went to prison, my sister went to prison, my brother went to prison, all three of us.
1:12:30
And when I got out and I changed my life, I wanted this work to be a generation.
1:12:34
I didn't want my kids to have to believe that I like I believed that the path for me was jail and prison.
1:12:41
And thank goodness, my four kids, they are not in jail.
1:12:44
They have not been involved in the criminal justice system other than my oldest son for a moment.
1:12:48
My grandchildren.
1:12:49
I want my grandchildren to go up to think about college as their pathway, not Rikers, not jails, and not prisons.
1:12:55
So while we are not directly talking about it, I can tell you as a service provider at Fortune, when we work with individuals who have families and we work with those families, we strengthen those families.
1:13:06
We prevent young people from going into jail and prison because they have parents who have survived jail and prison, and they have parents who have the resources and the strength to help them build the life that they envision for themselves.
1:13:17
So I agree with you.
1:13:18
While we need to talk about it and we need to invest in it, there is a way in which we could collectively understand our work.
1:13:25
That our work is not about the individual, it's about the generations that have been impacted by mass incarceration in New York City.
Althea V. Stevens
1:13:33
A % agree, and I just for me, which is why I think it was important to even bring it up in this conversation, but moving forward when we're talking about the system, we need to talk about it in entirety.