Injustice, Inc's Author to Speak at HPRP's Free Speaker Forum on September 20th

Next Wednesday, September 20th: HPRP's Speaker Series!

On September 20th, you are invited to attend the Homeless Persons Representation Project (HPRP)'s kickoff of their 2023-2024 speaker series. Speaking will be University of Baltimore School of Law Professor Daniel Hatcher, Esq., and he will discuss his new book, Injustice, Inc.: How America's Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor (University of California Press, 2023).

When: Wednesday, September 20th, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Where: Enoch Pratt Central Library (400 Cathedral St., Baltimore, MD 21201), Wheeler Auditorium

This talk will be moderated by Youth Action Board Co-Chair Levy Johnson and Jenny Egan, Esq., Chief Attorney for the Juvenile Division of the Public Defender in Baltimore and co-founder of the Baltimore Action Legal Team.

This event is free, but registration is encouraged. Given the COVID-19 surge, masking is strongly encouraged and this event will be recorded for those unable to attend.

Here is a summary of the speaker's book:

From UC Press: "Injustice, Inc. exposes the ways in which justice systems exploit America's history of racial and economic inequality to generate revenue on a massive scale. With searing legal analysis, Daniel L. Hatcher uncovers how courts, prosecutors, police, probation departments, and detention facilities are abandoning ethics to churn vulnerable children and adults into unconstitutional factory-like operations. Hatcher reveals stark details of revenue schemes and reflects on the systemic racialized harm of the injustice enterprise. 

"He details how these corporatized institutions enter contracts to make money removing children from their homes, extort fines and fees, collaborate with debt collectors, seize property, incentivize arrests and evictions, enforce unpaid child labor, maximize occupancy in detention and "treatment" centers, and more. Injustice, Inc. underscores the need to unravel these predatory operations, which have escaped public scrutiny for too long."

                        

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Source: Homeless Persons Representation Project email, September 13, 2023.

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!

In celebrating our Hispanic/Latino communities and residents, Mayor Brandon M. Scott, the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MIMA), and the Baltimore City Hispanic Commission are recognizing individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Latino community. Follow MIMA on social media to learn more about our outstanding leaders. A number of free community events will be held as part of the celebration: Feria Somos Baltimore Latino 2023 / Somos Baltimore Latino Fair 2023 Saturday, September 16th, 11 am - 6:00 pm Sacred Heart of Jesus / Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (600 S Conkling St, Baltimore, MD 21224) Somos Baltimore Latino Learn more here! TIANQUIZTLI | Latin American Market & Festival 2:00 pm Walk with Little Amal in Patterson Park 3:00 - 7:00 pm Festival outside Creative Alliance (3134 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, MD 21224) Saturday, September 16th Creative Alliance Free, learn more here! Hispanic Heritage Month Event: Latino Trivia Night! Tuesday, September 19th, 6:00 - 8:30 pm Centro SOL and the Latino Racial Justice Circle El Salvador Restaurant (207 South Broadway 2nd Floor Baltimore, MD 21231) Please RSVP Festival de Independencia Sunday, September 17th, 12:00 - 9:00 pm Joseph Lee Park (6300 E. Pratt St. Baltimore, MD 21224) Learn more here! Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration and Community Resource Fair Saturday, September 23, 2:30pm - 5pm  Faith Center (351 S. Woodyear St, Baltimore, MD 21223) Folkloric Dance Class with Artesanas Tuesday, October 3rd, 5:30-7:30 pm Enoch Pratt Free Library (400 Cathedral Street Baltimore, MD 21201) Free, please RSVP Latino Cultural Festival Saturday, October 7, 11am-7pm Patterson Park-Pulaski Monument (2900 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, MD 21224) Latin Nations of Fiesta Baltimore Parade Sunday, October 8th, 9 am  Patterson Park Pulaski Monument (parade starts at 3919 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, MD 21222. ***** Source: MIMA Monthly Newsletter, September, 2023.

Author of "The Black Butterfly" to Speak at Free September 16th Symposium

 

Attendees will hear from housing experts on topics such as: Recouping Money Damages to Your Unit, Housing Law Updates, Innovation in Development like Tiny Homes, Apply for Housing Grants, and so much more! The Keynote Speaker at this event is Dr. Lawrence Brown, author of The Black Butterfly, a novel that addresses the intersections of racial equity and housing. CLICK HERE to register!

Ada Deer, Native American Rights Advocate, 88

 

Deer - a member of the Menominee tribe in Wisconsin - was a champion of tribal sovereignty, the first chairwoman of the Menominee in Wisconsin, and the first Native American woman to lead the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She was the first member of her tribe to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the first to receive a graduate degree, the first woman to lead the Menominee, and the first woman to lead the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In the early 1970s, Deer led the effort to overturn the federal government’s policy of “termination” — a series of laws that since the late 1940s had restricted and in some cases eliminated tribal sovereignty in favor of integration within the rest of American society. She spent years meeting with representatives and senators, writing briefs and organizing protests. In 1973, President Richard M. Nixon signed the Menominee Restoration Act, and in 1975, the tribe regained its sovereignty. She also worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Peace Corps, and later taught at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Social Work. 

Deer became President Bill Clinton's assistant secretary of the interior for Indian affairs in 1993 in charge of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She vowed to reform the bureau from top to bottom and make it work for Native Americans. By the end of her tenure in 1996, she had made enemies among Native American advocates and Administration politicos, though most agreed she had done the best with an awful hand. She did successfully defended the agency against severe budget cuts demanded by Republicans in their Contract for America after they took control of Congress in 1994, denouncing them as “genocide.”

On August 7, a week before her death, Governor. Tony Evers declared the date Ada Deer Day in Wisconsin.

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Sources:

Read the August 18, 2023 New York Times article.

Visit the Ada Deer Wisconsin Women Making History profile.

Read the National Park Service's profile.

National, State, and Local Organizations urge Congressional Leadership to Denounce White Supremacist, Anti-immigrant, and Hate Speech.

The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) and 92 other national and 67 state organizations have sent a letter dated August 1, 2023 to Congressional leadership asking them to unequivocally denounce white supremacist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and its use by Members of Congress, and encourage Members of your caucuses to refrain from using this dangerous rhetoric.

The letter reads:

"We the undersigned organizations, urge Congressional leadership to unequivocally denounce white supremacist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and its use by Members of Congress, and encourage Members of your caucuses to refrain from using this dangerous rhetoric. As we approach the fourth anniversary of the anti-immigrant terrorist attack in El Paso, Texas, that killed 23 people on August 3rd , 2019, we are reminded of the deadly impact of this rhetoric. 

The perpetrator of the El Paso attack was motivated by the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy, which he believed was being facilitated by a “Hispanic invasion.” Four years later, this same “invasion” and “replacement” rhetoric is leveraged by Members of Congress to further political agendas related to immigration and national security. They echo white supremacist claims of a “white genocide” orchestrated by a “Jewish cabal”, who use immigrants and minority populations as pawns in a nefarious plot. This rhetoric, and its related dog whistles, dehumanize migrants and asylum seekers, posing them as an existential threat that must be met with violence. 

Again and again, our country has experienced hate violence inspired by this conspiratorial rhetoric. We know this because terrorists tell us this in their screeds. Driven by fears of “replacement” and “invasion,” terrorists targeted the Latino community in El Paso, Texas, Black Americans in Buffalo, New York, and Jews in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in Poway,California, among other communities.

Despite this repeated violence across the US, Members of Congress continue to invoke the antisemitic and anti-immigrant conspiracy theories that have inspired multiple violent attacks. Members have referred to peaceful migrants and asylum seekers as “invaders” or as an “invasion” 90 times in their official capacity in hearings, on the floor, or in official press releases. 

Immigration and border policy are important topics that demand Congressional discussion. We implore Senate and House leadership to not only condemn references to conspiratorial and bigoted rhetoric, including references to the “great replacement” and an “invasion,” but to encourage the Members of your caucus to refrain from using such rhetoric. We cannot allow prejudiced and inflammatory language to dominate critical policy conversations, nor to threaten the safety and liberty of our communities. 

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Sources: 

Read the August 1, 2023 Letter.

Read the August 2, 2023 Arizona Mirror article.

Read the NDRN summary article.

Maryland Needs Its Own CRA Law

 A Maryland CRA Law Would Help Underserved Communities and Support Economic Development

Economic Action Maryland and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition — released reports this month advocating for a statewide community reinvestment act in Maryland, that they say would help increase homeownership and other financial lending opportunities for residents and business owners, especially people of color. Both groups and other housing advocates plan to push for the legislature to pass a bill next year. Del. Melissa Wells (D-Baltimore City) introduced legislation this year to propose a state-level community reinvestment act, but withdrew it.

The proposed act would apply to roughly two dozen state-charted banks and seven credit unions that include Cecil Bank, EagleBank, Sandy Spring Bank, HAR-CO Credit Union, and Post Office Credit Union of Maryland Inc.

If enacted, a Maryland Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) law would apply to banks and credit unions with about $46 billion in assets. It would cover mortgage companies that made over 68,000 loans in 2018-2020. These assets and lending activity are considerable resources that should have a CRA obligation for reinvesting in underserved neighborhoods. 

Unfortunately, the Federal CRA law has not significantly reduced inequalities and discrimination in Maryland. Between 2018-2020 in Maryland, some statistics from Economic Action’s policy brief and a 20-page paper found that Black applicants were denied at all financial institutions at a rate 1.6 times higher than white applicants; credit unions denied Black and Native American applicants slightly more than two times more frequently than white applicants; although Black residents account for 29% of the state’s population, about 20% received single-family loans; in Baltimore City, where the Black population was 62%, about 33% of those residents received those same loans; and in Montgomery County, where the Latino population was 18%, about 10% of those residents received single-family loans.

According to a June 20, 2023 whitepaper by Josh Silver of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), a Maryland CRA law would:

(1) Help narrow racial and equity gaps in lending. In Baltimore City, 33% of the loans went to African Americans whereas they constituted 62% of the population.

(2) Plug gaps in the federal law. While Federal CRA law applies to banks, other state laws in Massachusetts and Illinois also apply to mortgage companies and credit unions. A state law would address needs and neighborhoods not explicitly addressed by the federal CRA. Maryland’s Commissioner of Financial Regulation could conduct separate exams for counties, assessing performance more rigorously in Baltimore City and underserved rural counties. Federal CRA exams usually rate performance on a metropolitan level that hides poor performance most often occurring in the underserved counties.

(3) Increase loans, investments, and services in communities of color and modest-income neighborhoods across the state in both urban and rural areas. While some gaps have narrowed modestly, underserved communities continue to be overlooked. For the state as whole, lending institutions made 32% of their loans to low- and moderate-income (LMI) borrowers during 2018-2020 while 31.6% of the population was LMI. A significant disparity, however, emerges in the City of Baltimore where LMI borrowers received 58% of the loans but were 73% of the residents.

(4) Would apply CRA to institutions with tens of billions of dollars which offer tens of thousands of loans. State-chartered banks have about $38 billion in assets and state-chartered credit unions have almost $8 billion in assets. The top ten independent mortgage companies issued almost 68,000 home purchase loans in Maryland in 2018-2020.

(5) Would channel significant increases in loans and investments to Maryland’s neglected communities. Moreover, a state CRA law is needed to address sizable racial and income disparities in access to loans. In the state as a whole, lenders made 20% of their single-family loans to African Americans from 2018 through 2020 while 29% of the population was African American. The gap is even wider in Baltimore, a city that is 62% Black but where just 33% of loans went to African American borrowers.

(6) Could have the examiners consider the sustainability of lending by considering default and delinquency rates. This is particularly important for vulnerable and underserved communities and is often overlooked by federal CRA exams.

(7) Could contain provisions that counter CRA ratings inflation and that would motivate improvements in performance to communities of color. On a federal level, banks pass their CRA exams about 98% of the time. Banks that fail their exams cannot receive deposits from a state agency. The Commissioner could also adjust fees based on ratings received.

Finally, a state CRA is one of the most effective economic development strategies a state can undertake. Studies have shown that the federal CRA has increased lending and banking services in modest income communities. A state CRA law could build on this success. A rigorous Maryland CRA would homeownership and small business ownership, and benefit the state many times over in terms of higher gross domestic output, higher tax revenues, and reduced dependence on the state safety net.

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Read the June 20, 2023 Maryland Matters article.

Conference on "Beyond Confinement: Rethinking Corrections & Rehabilitation in Maryland"

Maryland Alliance on Justice Reform to hold Free Corrections Reform Conference on September 9th

The Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform is hosting an important event from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 9th at the University of Baltimore School of Law on "Rethinking Corrections and Rehabilitation" in preparation for the 2024 legislative session and beyond.  

Featured speakers include Secretary Carolyn J. Scruggs, Maryland Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services, and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.  

Major sessions will be:

Re-imagining Maryland’s Approach to Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Justice Reinvestment.

(1) Demystifying and Reforming Maryland's Parole Policies and Practices - This engaging discussion will highlight the current policies and practices associated with seeking parole in Maryland and the decision-making process.

(2) Unlocking Potential through Correctional Education - This panel discussion delves into the transformative impact of correctional education, exploring how it equips individuals with essential skills, knowledge, and opportunities for personal growth, fostering a pathway towards successful reintegration into society upon release.

(3) Navigating Rehabilitation Implementation within Correctional Facilities - The lecture explores solutions-focused approaches for navigating the complexities associated with rehabilitation implementation.

Correctional Oversight.

(4) No Excuses: Preparing for Reentry & Reintegration in Maryland - This panel will explore the implementation of successful strategies and innovative approaches to reshape and address reentry challenges, ultimately ensuring the success of all returning citizens.

(5) Reimagining Corrections - The panel discussion, "Reimagining Corrections," delves into innovative approaches to transforming the traditional corrections system.

(6) Policy Reform & Legislative Advocacy - This session provides an overview of various legislative proposals that impact corrections championed by MAJR and partner organizations.

Detailed information is available at this link. 

Register Now for this important (free) conference!

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Source: https://www.ma4jr.org/