If you paid attention to the Boston Globe‘s recent report of our real life version of the hit HBO show, The Wire, you’d think drugs and gangs were some kind of implicit connection. You’d think the problem begins and ends with low level drug dealers who get into the flashy life style. That’s why I was so enlightened when I watched Eugene Jablecki’s powerful documentary The House I Live In which reveals the truth about the Drug War, its historical roots and how it plays out in the present.

First and foremost, the film puts a human face on the brutality of drug laws as they currently stand in the U. S. It emphasizes what

Michelle Alexander (The New Jim Crow:  Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness), David Simon (The Wire), and others write and speak about when they discuss drug policy in the U.S. From the film’s website which points out “a vast machine that feeds largely on America’s poor, and especially on minority communities. Beyond simple misguided policy, The House I Live In examines how political and economic corruption have fueled the war for forty years, despite persistent evidence of its moral, economic, and practical failures.”

Organizations like Families Against Mandatory Minimum have been working for years to end policies that the film highlights. When poverty leads to no jobs and people of color try to survive by selling drugs, where do we start to make change?  Many politicians never get past the tip of this iceberg because the depth of the problem is not acknowledged.  The film explores how these realities sell votes in this country where “tough on crime” is a mantra chanted by the Democrats as well as the Republicans. It is a film that lawmakers need to see so they stop mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes.

The film also shows something that opened my eyes: overdoing drugs such as cocaine and even heroin was once considered a public health problem rather than a need for criminal prosecution.

On a personal note, Eugene Jarecki, the filmmaker and producer– supported in his producing efforts by such powerhouses as Danny Glover, John Legend and Brad Pitt –frames the film with a black housekeeper who worked for his family, Nanny Jeter.  The difference between his upbringing and survival chances and her son’s are heartbreaking.  For those of us who know what it is to come from privilege, the difference in these chances in life only emphasize more clearly the devastation of Drug War policies.  Nanny was offered double her salary to follow Jarecki’s family from Connecticut to New York.  Desperate for money, she did, and her son paid the price.  But it was our society that created much of the poverty and drug traps her son stepped into.

At a recent showing at Shiloh Church in Washington D.C., a panel speaker said after the film that Rosa Parks was the icon of the Civil Rights movement and Nanny Jeter, the icon of the Drug War.  U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters said the film showing was the most important event happening last weekend in Washington D.C. besides the inauguration of President Obama  This discussion is still available here.

The film can be screened at home streaming from your computer or you can catch a showing in a city near you.  Either way, options are shown at the film’s website.  It’s probably one of the most important documentary experiences I’ve had.  Watch it.

My contribution for Martin Luther King day is a blog I wrote for the Rag Blog in Texas. MLK Day reminds us about fighting for human rights. It might seem like an oxymoron, convicted criminals blogging for dignity, equality, and inalienable rights, but here’s why it’s not.

Please check it out here

I can’t say I’m nuts about Texas.  Guns. Trucks.  Giant Highways.  Death Row.  But there’s a fascinating program in the Mountain View Women’s Prison outside Temple,Texas, where more than 90 inmates take almost two years of training to work in the Braille translation facility and produce about 5,000 to 10,000 Braille pages per month. The Houston Chronicle reported this story in December.  Braille was developed in the early 19th century by Louis Braille, who lost his eyesight to a childhood accident., and it begins with six-dot coded letters, words and punctuation.

In the picture above, a woman works with what is called, “digital tactile graphics,” one of the skills that add to women becoming certified in Braille.  Most of what they produce is for elementary and secondary students who are blind. In this 610 person prison, a woman could work in Braille– if she is accepted into the program — or she could train dogs for the handicapped in the kind of program I wrote about in an earlier post. But yep,she could also be sentenced to death.

Random you say, a program in braille in a prison?  I agree that much of what is offered behind bars seems chosen because someone got an idea and ran with it.  At Framingham, when I worked behind bars, the women had a bonsai tree program and they also made flags a la Betsy Ross.  Prison industries is not what I would call “logical.”  Some would say labor is cheap and prisoners are used, sometimes abused,more than taught skills.  In the “Women in Building Trades” at Framingham, in the first years, women were not using tools because tools were not allowed behind bars for them!

But training someone to be a Braille transcriber seems worthwhile even if it seems somewhat random because the jobs earn real money ($50,000 a year says the Chronicle) and may help women with re-entry, a true sore spot for prisons, nation-wide.

Mountain View is the only prison in Texas which has this program but according to the National Prison Braille Network, there are over 36 programs operating in 26 states. In Mountain View, women get a yearlong program in some basics such as math,music and foreign language.  Then they work on computersbut only after accomplishing the “vintage Perkins Brailler, a manual typewriter that uses keystrokes to emboss raised dots on sheets of paper.”

Two women from the program.

Check out my new blog at    Boston Daily

In this time of giving I’ve been thinking about the ways prisoners show their loved ones how much their care about them.  Cards are common and prisoners often spend time creating art and whatever small gifts they can muster for family.  When I taught at Framingham, Dolly used to knit for her grandkids; I knew women who sold art to make money to afford to send a present beyond the bars.  I have cards; I sent cards.  I relish every effort someone makes who lives behind bars.

What people don’t often realize is that there are some innovative programs around the country that specialize in the very real need that prisoners have to make a difference, i.e. giving to others helps make their lives meaningful.  A program I came across in Washington state offers prisoners the opportunity to repair bicycles for kids.  As reported by the Associated Press on Oregon Live , they use formerly loved (used) and abandoned bikes

photo by AP/in The Seattle Times/Mike SiegeI

One of the most appealing parts of the program is that men who were convicted of heinous crimes against children want desperately to make up for their crimes through this program.  While some need training to fix bikes, others come in with experience.  As one man involved said, “I’m here trying to help other people. I believe in karma.”

Another well-known program where prisoners get to give back is the Prisoner Pup program at over thirteen prisons in Massachusetts.  Prisoners train dogs to help people who are blind or deaf or have disabilities.  They make a 12-18 month commitment ,according to the National Education for Assistance Dog Services website:  The purpose is to give prisoners a real and important responsibility and to allow them to help others.  According to NEADS, “Puppies spend most of their time with the primary handler going to classes, recreation areas, and dining halls.”  Each puppy sleeps in his or her primary handler’s cell.  Prisoners learn how to teach their puppy tasks, groom them and give them exceptional obedience skills. “Whether going to a medical appointment, the TV lounge, or the family and friends visiting room, the puppy is usually right by the handler’s side.”