31,000 in our jails here in Georgia we
have over 53,000 in our prisons here in
Georgia we have over a hundred 67,000
people that’s under some former
community supervision here in our state
we have a hundred and eighty nine
thousand kids that are trapped in
failing schools in our state your theme
is do you believe in magic I’m telling
you that if we don’t believe in magic
then we’re going to have those numbers
going to be so huge that we’ll never be
able to keep up with them all across our
country we see mass incarceration we’re
starting to see how veterans inside our
prisons veterans who fought in Iraq
Afghanistan come home end up in our
prisons and Georgia is so bad we have
what we call veteran dorms have we
become a country that we allow those who
fight for our freedoms that we have just
to be the stand and talk and then when
they come home
they can’t find good health care they
can’t find education they get out of the
military and can’t find good skills and
then they end up in our prisons because
they are addicted to drugs or on the
streets failing schools throughout our
state that 189 kids that I talked about
some of those schools have been failing
for 16 years in a row some of the
schools in our rural communities have
schools where the elementary has been
failing for 12 years in a row the middle
schools may fail in for 12 years in a
row and the high school has been failing
for 12 years in a row and we know that
when a child can’t read above grade
level they end up in our prisons my
question to you students who are here at
Emory University how long do we continue
this path that will allow our working
class to become disposable into our
prisons our children who are growing up
watching Sesame Street ending up in our
prison
there’s not a person probably in this
audience that has not been affected by
mass incarceration in somewhere that you
know somebody that’s inside our prisons
let me tell you some of the great things
that Georgia is doing one of the things
we’ve done with Banda Box here in
Georgia which means that if you do your
time and you give the government
everything that you’re supposed to give
then we allow you to apply for a state
job but more importantly we are trying
to eat train them inside our prisons
we’re doing welding and heating and air
and inside our prisons we’ve had to put
charter schools inside our prisons
imagine that I went to a charter school
graduation we had a young lady who’s the
valedictorian and in her speech she
talked about that when she came to
prison she had no credits for middle
school when she had no credits from high
school and she graduated valedictorian
inside the prison we have children that
are being born inside our prisons we now
in Georgia we have drug courts veteran
courts mental health courts because we
were locking up those who are suffering
from mental illness we’ve been
incarcerated those who have addiction
problems with drugs and alcohol and our
prisons are being overrun it’s a sad day
when the state budget ended up almost as
the prison budgeted up almost as big as
the education budget in some places
across the country we have to do better
not just for a budget crisis but we have
to do it because that’s our work force
that we’re developing we cannot talk
about bringing jobs home if we don’t
take care of those here at home and have
a well-equipped work for us one of the
things that was big issue that we have
in our prisons across America is that
when you get out of prison you’re on
zero we remove you from everything and I
don’t do we remove you from everything
well we take everything from you when
you get out we give you a bag with your
closing a debit card with $25 on and
then we send you back to the same
neighborhood
after 25 years after 30 years after 50
years being incarcerated you go in on a
flip phone when you come out on a smart
phone we got to do better than that as a
society we have to educate in our
communities we have to be intentional
with a blended education now we have
meth and crack cocaine and heroin that
is ripping through our communities not
just in inner cities but both in a role
in inner cities children not too far
from here in TIF I had an opportunity to
go down to TIF Tifton and they call it
not fit that’s Tifton spelled backwards
because they have no hope of making it
have we built a society where we have
generations that don’t believe they
can’t make it it breaks my heart I know
this was Sesame Street but it breaks my
heart going up and down the state when
you asked children what they want to be
and I said I don’t know it breaks my
heart where our school systems are more
like our prisons now where when a child
gets in trouble in school they get
suspended in to catch a case with the
district attorney so Damon if I was
pushing you and you pushed me in the
locker room because we were liking what
my wife don’t like my wife but we were
pushing each other in the school and we
catch a case because of the district
attorney instead of dealing with over
local level every day on a Friday
throughout our state we have juveniles
catching cases with our district
attorneys things that we used to handle
at the local level now I’m telling you
if you believe in magic then we need to
get back to what we used to do the
basics that we need to get back to being
able to educate our children and deal
with the small disruptive behaviors in
those communities and that we need to do
whatever we can to help our prisoners
become what we call returning citizens
see because that’s what they are 97% of
the people that’s inside our prisons
will come home one day and you have to
ask yourself the question how do you
want them to come home do you want them
to be
a person that is still desperate that we
haven’t changed their playground we
haven’t changed their playmates and we
haven’t changed their playthings if I
get taken away from society please
rehabilitate me give me a tool a skill
that when I get out I can take care of
my family you know James ogre thought
when the founders of Georgia built
Georgia and protected Georgia by
recruiting what we now call convicts to
protect Georgia and built Georgia
well we flipped it we still got a debtor
of prisons throughout our nation we put
fathers in prison because they can’t pay
for child support you get a civil action
you may end up in prison because of
contempt of court we’ve got to do things
better and when those that we removed
from our communities why not teach them
welding why not teach them how to drive
big rigs why not teach them how to do
data and programming inside our prisons
one of the great things we’ve done here
in Georgia is that we put tablets in all
53,000 returning citizens hands inside
the prisons you know how we’ve paid for
it not one tax increase through snack
bars and they listen to the music and
they get emails from their loved ones
and we put educational material on their
on their tablet and when we did this in
the state of Georgia we found out that
fights went down inside the prisons
throw overs with drugs and all other
types of things thrown over the of the
wire that went down may start getting
hope again even lifers need hope because
as I said before 97 percent of them will
come home one day and as you saw here on
this video where the little boy sat on
the steps and complained about his
father being in prison we know the
likelihood of a child who has a parent
that’s incarcerated there’s a likelihood
of that child being incarcerated too
look at the facts our educational system
is broken in most cases we have our
juveniles filling up our yd C’s we have
15,000 in the state of Georgia inside
our what we call youth detention centers
you add to 189 its trapped in the
failing schools and what I mean by
failing school that means a school that
can’t make a sixty point one out of a
hundred I wouldn’t eat at a restaurant
they can’t make 100 either we’re serious
about changing how we do things or we
stop talking about it stop making those
promises stop dreaming about magic
wouldn’t it be great that Emory
University was packed because of the
applications of people coming from all
over
ask yourself the question here of there
189 s kids trapped in failing schools in
Georgia that’s more kids
that’s enrolled in Georgia University
Georgia Tech and Georgia universities
and state colleges in the state of
Georgia that my friends is something
that I truly believe has to be
intentional to deal with we have to
argue for education reform in our state
and we have to argue for education
reform and prison reform that’s working
together and some of you may say well
I’m not too happy about prison reform
well let me tell you this here if you’re
a faith believer this look book I read
call the Bible John wrote that from the
prison of Revelations Joseph Smith some
time in prison Shadrach Meshach and
Abednego Smith some time in prison even
Jesus spent some time in prison even had
a trial and some Christians believe that
since he came back from the dead he too
was a returning citizens
and that’s what we call Georgia now our
prison inmates we put in prison we
called them now returning citizens
because we must do the stigma and shame
that goes with incarceration it’s like
putting a reg scholar letter on those
folks and it goes inside our prisons how
do we look at ways of changing this
thigma that goes with a mass
incarceration and believe I’m not here
Emory University you know some of you’ve
been late for class and you were racing
around you pass a speed limit and you
just didn’t get caught a lot of us
didn’t get caught and we should be
incarcerated but is this thing called
grace and mercy second chances giving
people a second chance to restore their
lives I don’t know about you but growing
up in North Philadelphia one of the
worst ghettos in America there was a lot
of times I didn’t think I was gonna make
it and even now I have a mother who’s
strung out on drugs
who’s 79 years of age do I give up on
her no most of the men in my family that
grew up with that either dead or in jail
my mother had a seventh grade education
in my father at a seventh grade
education but somehow I made it I made
it by having a mentor and we two now in
the state of Georgia are recruiting and
building mentors for what we now call
our returning citizens can you imagine
being away from your family for 30 years
and they are transient and they move who
helps you reintegrate back into the
community and what we have normally done
across America we give them a bus pass a
bag of clothes and go find your way and
they end up either on our streets or
back in our prisons I’m gonna take you
to see love story I met an individual
who he’s doing 25 years inside of our
federal prison here he was telling me
about his son who’s five years old was
expelled expelled from school
he was a big-time drug deal in this
little town here in Georgia
and he said PT he called me PT for
pasture too he said what should I do to
help my son I said you need to advocate
from behind the walls for your son if
you don’t he’s gonna end up in the
prison so he called his grandmother and
said give me the teacher’s name and
address cuz I’m gonna write our letter
for my son he sat down he wrote that
letter he said I know you expelled my
son he said but my son is a collateral
damage because of me I sold drugs
his mother is hooked on crack cocaine
and his selling herself on the street he
said but the drugs that she’s hooked on
I sold them all throughout the community
I did some bad things but I need you to
do whatever you can to help my son
because I can’t help him from behind the
bars and as his principal got this here
letter the grandmother was walking in to
pick up the homework from the kid who
was expelled and immediately the
principal saw the grandmother walking
through the doors and she was had tears
running down her face as she was reading
this letter and she ran over to the
grandmother and the grandmother said you
don’t have to kick me I’m just here to
pick up the paperwork for my son in the
homework she said no no no no I want you
to go home and I want you to grab this
boy and bring him back to school and
then she called the newspaper and she
called the pastor and it preaches the
local community and before you know it
everyone in this town had rallied around
this little boy but more importantly
this father went on a writing this
letter I have changed my life I’ve got
my associate degree in prison I got my
BA degree in prison and I’m in a
seminary class here in the federal
prison
and he’s changed his life he’s now
preaching the gospel inside the prison
he’s an ordained minister and now the
whole community is helping this
returning citizen by helping his son
what are we going to do how much magic
are we gonna believe in across this
country what purpose do we have as a
nation as a college as a university to
change the detractor e of someone else’s
lies one of the other greatest things
about James Oglethorpe he said nan
Sibley c-elysee which is short means and
my Italian may be a little bit butchered
he simply means not herself but for
others what do you do for others that
same book I read says to whom much is
given much is required
we always say yes to the giving when
people give us things or blesses with
things and we end up having things given
to us and we succeed but we never say
yes to the requirement we have a
requirement to make this nation better
by making sure that no one is disposable
no more victims I believe in magic thank
you
you
have over 53,000 in our prisons here in
Georgia we have over a hundred 67,000
people that’s under some former
community supervision here in our state
we have a hundred and eighty nine
thousand kids that are trapped in
failing schools in our state your theme
is do you believe in magic I’m telling
you that if we don’t believe in magic
then we’re going to have those numbers
going to be so huge that we’ll never be
able to keep up with them all across our
country we see mass incarceration we’re
starting to see how veterans inside our
prisons veterans who fought in Iraq
Afghanistan come home end up in our
prisons and Georgia is so bad we have
what we call veteran dorms have we
become a country that we allow those who
fight for our freedoms that we have just
to be the stand and talk and then when
they come home
they can’t find good health care they
can’t find education they get out of the
military and can’t find good skills and
then they end up in our prisons because
they are addicted to drugs or on the
streets failing schools throughout our
state that 189 kids that I talked about
some of those schools have been failing
for 16 years in a row some of the
schools in our rural communities have
schools where the elementary has been
failing for 12 years in a row the middle
schools may fail in for 12 years in a
row and the high school has been failing
for 12 years in a row and we know that
when a child can’t read above grade
level they end up in our prisons my
question to you students who are here at
Emory University how long do we continue
this path that will allow our working
class to become disposable into our
prisons our children who are growing up
watching Sesame Street ending up in our
prison
there’s not a person probably in this
audience that has not been affected by
mass incarceration in somewhere that you
know somebody that’s inside our prisons
let me tell you some of the great things
that Georgia is doing one of the things
we’ve done with Banda Box here in
Georgia which means that if you do your
time and you give the government
everything that you’re supposed to give
then we allow you to apply for a state
job but more importantly we are trying
to eat train them inside our prisons
we’re doing welding and heating and air
and inside our prisons we’ve had to put
charter schools inside our prisons
imagine that I went to a charter school
graduation we had a young lady who’s the
valedictorian and in her speech she
talked about that when she came to
prison she had no credits for middle
school when she had no credits from high
school and she graduated valedictorian
inside the prison we have children that
are being born inside our prisons we now
in Georgia we have drug courts veteran
courts mental health courts because we
were locking up those who are suffering
from mental illness we’ve been
incarcerated those who have addiction
problems with drugs and alcohol and our
prisons are being overrun it’s a sad day
when the state budget ended up almost as
the prison budgeted up almost as big as
the education budget in some places
across the country we have to do better
not just for a budget crisis but we have
to do it because that’s our work force
that we’re developing we cannot talk
about bringing jobs home if we don’t
take care of those here at home and have
a well-equipped work for us one of the
things that was big issue that we have
in our prisons across America is that
when you get out of prison you’re on
zero we remove you from everything and I
don’t do we remove you from everything
well we take everything from you when
you get out we give you a bag with your
closing a debit card with $25 on and
then we send you back to the same
neighborhood
after 25 years after 30 years after 50
years being incarcerated you go in on a
flip phone when you come out on a smart
phone we got to do better than that as a
society we have to educate in our
communities we have to be intentional
with a blended education now we have
meth and crack cocaine and heroin that
is ripping through our communities not
just in inner cities but both in a role
in inner cities children not too far
from here in TIF I had an opportunity to
go down to TIF Tifton and they call it
not fit that’s Tifton spelled backwards
because they have no hope of making it
have we built a society where we have
generations that don’t believe they
can’t make it it breaks my heart I know
this was Sesame Street but it breaks my
heart going up and down the state when
you asked children what they want to be
and I said I don’t know it breaks my
heart where our school systems are more
like our prisons now where when a child
gets in trouble in school they get
suspended in to catch a case with the
district attorney so Damon if I was
pushing you and you pushed me in the
locker room because we were liking what
my wife don’t like my wife but we were
pushing each other in the school and we
catch a case because of the district
attorney instead of dealing with over
local level every day on a Friday
throughout our state we have juveniles
catching cases with our district
attorneys things that we used to handle
at the local level now I’m telling you
if you believe in magic then we need to
get back to what we used to do the
basics that we need to get back to being
able to educate our children and deal
with the small disruptive behaviors in
those communities and that we need to do
whatever we can to help our prisoners
become what we call returning citizens
see because that’s what they are 97% of
the people that’s inside our prisons
will come home one day and you have to
ask yourself the question how do you
want them to come home do you want them
to be
a person that is still desperate that we
haven’t changed their playground we
haven’t changed their playmates and we
haven’t changed their playthings if I
get taken away from society please
rehabilitate me give me a tool a skill
that when I get out I can take care of
my family you know James ogre thought
when the founders of Georgia built
Georgia and protected Georgia by
recruiting what we now call convicts to
protect Georgia and built Georgia
well we flipped it we still got a debtor
of prisons throughout our nation we put
fathers in prison because they can’t pay
for child support you get a civil action
you may end up in prison because of
contempt of court we’ve got to do things
better and when those that we removed
from our communities why not teach them
welding why not teach them how to drive
big rigs why not teach them how to do
data and programming inside our prisons
one of the great things we’ve done here
in Georgia is that we put tablets in all
53,000 returning citizens hands inside
the prisons you know how we’ve paid for
it not one tax increase through snack
bars and they listen to the music and
they get emails from their loved ones
and we put educational material on their
on their tablet and when we did this in
the state of Georgia we found out that
fights went down inside the prisons
throw overs with drugs and all other
types of things thrown over the of the
wire that went down may start getting
hope again even lifers need hope because
as I said before 97 percent of them will
come home one day and as you saw here on
this video where the little boy sat on
the steps and complained about his
father being in prison we know the
likelihood of a child who has a parent
that’s incarcerated there’s a likelihood
of that child being incarcerated too
look at the facts our educational system
is broken in most cases we have our
juveniles filling up our yd C’s we have
15,000 in the state of Georgia inside
our what we call youth detention centers
you add to 189 its trapped in the
failing schools and what I mean by
failing school that means a school that
can’t make a sixty point one out of a
hundred I wouldn’t eat at a restaurant
they can’t make 100 either we’re serious
about changing how we do things or we
stop talking about it stop making those
promises stop dreaming about magic
wouldn’t it be great that Emory
University was packed because of the
applications of people coming from all
over
ask yourself the question here of there
189 s kids trapped in failing schools in
Georgia that’s more kids
that’s enrolled in Georgia University
Georgia Tech and Georgia universities
and state colleges in the state of
Georgia that my friends is something
that I truly believe has to be
intentional to deal with we have to
argue for education reform in our state
and we have to argue for education
reform and prison reform that’s working
together and some of you may say well
I’m not too happy about prison reform
well let me tell you this here if you’re
a faith believer this look book I read
call the Bible John wrote that from the
prison of Revelations Joseph Smith some
time in prison Shadrach Meshach and
Abednego Smith some time in prison even
Jesus spent some time in prison even had
a trial and some Christians believe that
since he came back from the dead he too
was a returning citizens
and that’s what we call Georgia now our
prison inmates we put in prison we
called them now returning citizens
because we must do the stigma and shame
that goes with incarceration it’s like
putting a reg scholar letter on those
folks and it goes inside our prisons how
do we look at ways of changing this
thigma that goes with a mass
incarceration and believe I’m not here
Emory University you know some of you’ve
been late for class and you were racing
around you pass a speed limit and you
just didn’t get caught a lot of us
didn’t get caught and we should be
incarcerated but is this thing called
grace and mercy second chances giving
people a second chance to restore their
lives I don’t know about you but growing
up in North Philadelphia one of the
worst ghettos in America there was a lot
of times I didn’t think I was gonna make
it and even now I have a mother who’s
strung out on drugs
who’s 79 years of age do I give up on
her no most of the men in my family that
grew up with that either dead or in jail
my mother had a seventh grade education
in my father at a seventh grade
education but somehow I made it I made
it by having a mentor and we two now in
the state of Georgia are recruiting and
building mentors for what we now call
our returning citizens can you imagine
being away from your family for 30 years
and they are transient and they move who
helps you reintegrate back into the
community and what we have normally done
across America we give them a bus pass a
bag of clothes and go find your way and
they end up either on our streets or
back in our prisons I’m gonna take you
to see love story I met an individual
who he’s doing 25 years inside of our
federal prison here he was telling me
about his son who’s five years old was
expelled expelled from school
he was a big-time drug deal in this
little town here in Georgia
and he said PT he called me PT for
pasture too he said what should I do to
help my son I said you need to advocate
from behind the walls for your son if
you don’t he’s gonna end up in the
prison so he called his grandmother and
said give me the teacher’s name and
address cuz I’m gonna write our letter
for my son he sat down he wrote that
letter he said I know you expelled my
son he said but my son is a collateral
damage because of me I sold drugs
his mother is hooked on crack cocaine
and his selling herself on the street he
said but the drugs that she’s hooked on
I sold them all throughout the community
I did some bad things but I need you to
do whatever you can to help my son
because I can’t help him from behind the
bars and as his principal got this here
letter the grandmother was walking in to
pick up the homework from the kid who
was expelled and immediately the
principal saw the grandmother walking
through the doors and she was had tears
running down her face as she was reading
this letter and she ran over to the
grandmother and the grandmother said you
don’t have to kick me I’m just here to
pick up the paperwork for my son in the
homework she said no no no no I want you
to go home and I want you to grab this
boy and bring him back to school and
then she called the newspaper and she
called the pastor and it preaches the
local community and before you know it
everyone in this town had rallied around
this little boy but more importantly
this father went on a writing this
letter I have changed my life I’ve got
my associate degree in prison I got my
BA degree in prison and I’m in a
seminary class here in the federal
prison
and he’s changed his life he’s now
preaching the gospel inside the prison
he’s an ordained minister and now the
whole community is helping this
returning citizen by helping his son
what are we going to do how much magic
are we gonna believe in across this
country what purpose do we have as a
nation as a college as a university to
change the detractor e of someone else’s
lies one of the other greatest things
about James Oglethorpe he said nan
Sibley c-elysee which is short means and
my Italian may be a little bit butchered
he simply means not herself but for
others what do you do for others that
same book I read says to whom much is
given much is required
we always say yes to the giving when
people give us things or blesses with
things and we end up having things given
to us and we succeed but we never say
yes to the requirement we have a
requirement to make this nation better
by making sure that no one is disposable
no more victims I believe in magic thank
you
you
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