Rise and Reform

Recently, eight individuals from Texas were given prison sentences ranging from 30-100 years for protesting ICE’s fascism in America. To put that into perspective, the longest sentence anyone in that group of people faced is longer than anyone faced for invading the Capitol on July 6, 2021. Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent that shot and killed Renee Good, is also now back on the job in a different state. 

I recently came across a video of a woman sitting in her car with her partner and child, filming a conversation with two masked ICE agents after being pulled over. When her partner asked why they were pulled over, one of the ICE agents said “you look like a target that we have”. You look like a target that we have. That is blatant racial profiling. We are now also seeing a lot of Indigenous people in the United States getting detained. This is not about legal status, this is about racism.

The government may be backed by copious amounts of money, but we are backed by the community. We have each other. There is a lot of power in our community. Boycotts led to several Starbucks locations across Canada closing since their support of Israel’s genocide in Palestine, boycotts are now having serious impacts on Tim Hortons since their support of transphobic author J.K Rowling. Not to mention, due to people in New York City getting out there and voting, we now have Zohran Mamdani in power in New York City. He is drastically improving quality of life and is setting an example for other politicians. Our actions have a huge impact on our society. Fascism thrives on fear of civilians, and we can’t let it. 

What does this have to do with prison reform and inmate rehabilitation? 

This has a lot to do with prison reform and inmate rehabilitation. The changes Mamdani is making in New York have caused murder rates to hit a historic low. This is hard evidence that if we come together to vote for a politician with a backbone who actually cares about our wellbeing, crime rates drop. In addition to that, I’ve also talked a lot on my blog about how social services play a big role in inmate rehabilitation. Paying for childcare, investing in affordable groceries, and actually creating cleaner streets, are going to make a huge difference. I am really excited to see how much crime goes down in the next 4 years. This was caused by people coming together and deciding that they deserve better. There is a by-election happening in three districts across Ontario soon. This is something to think about as the election approaches. Who of the available candidates are actually willing to fight for us instead of for the people already in power?

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