Diamond goddess/haiku

The diamond goddess
whisphers lust in her breast voids
loves dream of power.

My #1 Favorite Qoute

*From AWARDthePoet's Spoken Word CD 'Tha Ghetto Process'

"People always talkin bout and preachin bout revolution. They say they're looking for a revolution, wanna start a revolution but aint no revolutionary people around. To me you talkin all this $#!+ because you amongst revolutionary people, you just might not know how to do the $#!+ the *%U& you talkin bout otherwise the people in your company are the people that would be down witcha you and you could start something off! It's about action N!&&@ not about just sitting there flapping your gums boring me and $#!+"

Eternal Soul

I am the eternal soul.
Don't confine your mind but stay on the grind.
Each morning after giving thanks I connect with my intellect.
Knowing the right life choices I will by all means select.
And all the bad choices I will by all means reject.
Never with my goals and education will I gamble or bet.
Because the rules have been set and an education I will get.
So put this in consideration while I'm in contemplation
About the violence on campus that the guilty ones are perpetrating.
This is a historically black school so why are brothers and sisters acting like fools?
Let's not hate, let's consolidate as we contemplate our behavorial state
And learn to cooperate and not contaminate our historic state and leave future
generations something to commemorate.
Let me convey, better yet let me sway you the right way.
Listen and these words will glisten in your mind through all time while some say don't eat the swine not knowing the choice in thine, water or wine.
I choose the wine, see ya on Mt. Zion. Who's the King, not the lion.
As we sag we drag and lag behind and confine our minds to a previous time while our forefathers crying.
The campus violence is not game it's a shame, who's the blame?
Our behavioral state is insane so I complain because you're helping A&M's enemies in their campaign.
First contemplate, secondly incarcerate a violent mental state causing us and the mainstream to separate.
You think the violence is cool, you're a fool, and we're in school so be cool.
As some faculty act devious I get grievous knowing the emptiness of our pantry is due to their deviltry.
Seek and remove the evil cause after this historic college is gone there will be no equal and A&M's enemies will assure there will be no sequel!
All poets should unite, excite, ignite and write to keep up the fight to make school unity tight so everyone will do what's right.
The pen is mightier than the sword so let's get every pen in the same stroke and write as one accord.
By the way I'm brother Marcus J can't stay but who's to say maybe I'll be back again someday.
Getting back on the grind expanding my mind through time while my pen is steadily on the grind.
Can't you see how it rhymes and whines; twisting the mind like a pretzel nothing like Hansel and Gretel?
Some want to preach and teach but get treated like Screech!
So as writers and poets get loose on loose leaf I will tie up all their loose ends as we make amends of our violent sins and restore glory to this story because a break in concentration will cause an unwelcome transfiguration of the situation at hand my man!

Abandon Ship

I dived into her ocean in search of her precious fruit.
For stories I was told that my taste buds it would surely suit.
My submarine at full throttle I did submerge.
Deeper and deeper I went at the warm waters urge.
Not fully knowing her pleasures but on the verge.
As my vessel pounded her ocean floor I could hear her scream: "you can go no further and no more!"
There lay my vessel with its precious cargo and family jewels intact.
The hull softened as it lay in those warm murky waters on the ocean floor unable to move and erect no more.
Suddenly the floor gave up its elusive treasures.
For whom all men strive to attain its yet unknown pleasures.
The lure of that watery land can entrap and cost a man.
Suddenly the engines restarted and were out of control and about to explode.
Unprepared my ship was not fully equipped so without haste I had to abandon ship.

Dying Star

Feeling like a bright star about to burn out.
My gleam and twinkle was once very stout.
Never a trouble maker, still I had my flaring bouts.
How did I begin to lose my clout?
Now my only choice is to explode like a supernova.
Reaching out to start new life.
Could this be the ultimate fate of my stress and strife?
I once shined down on you from afar.
As lovers on Lovers Lane looked upward from their car.
Is this the end; I once shined so bright?
You caught a glimpse of me as I streaked by one night.
I drop this body, spread my wings; take flight.
My destination lies just beyond the twilight.
Expanding mental, physical and new spiritual heights.

Habitation

Clear days of old;
Antebellum.
Not too fancy,
Mediocre.
Bright color seen
perfect warm nest.
Young harmony
Child fairyland

Secondary,
Tall pine in back.
Conspicuous,
Lone pompous rose
Toxic ivy
Marigold patch
Null pottery
Stream overflow
Taste pure water

Ordain infant
Adore always
Wife trustworthy
True nuptials
Man unyielding.

Fallen Angels

In the devils web I've been entangled.
The inner struggle, right and wrong rages.
I'm stumbling in the Holy pages.
My aspirations are being strangled.
Separated from God; a lone stranger.
My reward seems blocked at every stage.
I stand begging the Lord: "Please open my cage."
Lost wings, no longer seen as an angel.

First step is to hear God's word the devil smears.
Second step is to believe, soul revived.
Third step is to confess; keep Him near.
Fifth step is to be baptized; power realized.
Eternally held by God; love so dear.

Psalm 86

Hear, O Lord, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
Guard my life, for I am devoted to you.
You are my God; save your servant who trusts you.
Have mercy on me, O Lord
for I call to you all day long.
Bring joy to your servant,
for to you, O Lord.
I lift up my soul.
You are forgiving and good, O Lord,
abounding in love to all who call to you.
Hear my prayer, O Lord;
listen to my cry for mercy.
In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me.
Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord;
no deeds can compare with yours.
All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord;
they will bring glory to your name.
For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
you alone are God.
Theach me your way, O Lord and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart
I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.
The arrogant are attacking me, O God;
men without regard for you.
But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Turn to me and have mercy on me;
grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant.
Give me a sign of your goodness,
that my enemies may see it and be put to shame.,
for you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

African-American Church Pulpit

"Revelations Of Those On The Outside Looking In."

The eyes of the LORD are on church leaders. What can be seen is that these holy grounds are treated like personal prizes and not God's House. I had a revelation that God wouldn't close HIS HOUSE when people are homeless! The church as sanctuary seems to be just rhetoric from man and not what GOD intended. During this revelation I could clearly see so-called pastors, preachers, bishops and most sadly those calling themselves reverend (thought that GOD said this is My Name and no other man shall have it?) All these church leaders do is use community problems for pulpit subject matter! What they should be doing is getting in the highways and byways like Jesus when he walked among the poor and afflicted. I knew they would label me a sin for speaking from what's within my revelation. These HOUSES of GOD have become raped with mans' self-aggrandizement with GOD fearing members being "baptized in dirty water." The rape of the African-American Church is occurring because when it comes to materialism, one can be poor and still be guilty (thou hath not yet paid for what thou hast). What happened to the idea that the most important thing if filling the pews with pastoral and muscial emotionalism. Anyone who's been in enough of these churches has seen at least two or three different styles of playing on guilt and emotion. Praising God is secondary to everything in the church, even the color scheme of the sanctuary. If restaurants can be open 24 hours, why can't churches be refuges for those who are looking, whether or not they have money for the church cup? The rape of Martins' dream is occurring because of the fragmented thinking of a population that refuses to vote two-legged beasts out of office. It's based upon the fact that neighbors don't speak to one another because they fear that they might actually like one another despite their differences. The African-American Dream is dying because the neighborhood is dying. If neighborhoods of African-Americans die then the "dream" dies! When neighborhoods die then the church membership dwindles. When membership dwindles pulpit subject matter is about those on the outside looking in. What should be done is to go out there in the highways and byways and minister to them about using GODS' HOUSE as a spiritual as well as a physical sanctuary and shelter as if they were HIS WINGS! We've gotten away from sermons that brought comfort, condolence, encouragement and sympathy. Instead of egos we need to hear church leaders as "wounded healers," ones who heal in spite of his or her own infirmity. Church leaders need to get into the highways and byways next to their Sunday subject matter instead of standing up there pointing out the specks in poor peoples eyes! This atmosphere of consolation echoes the words of the prophet Ezekiel, who went to the exiles by the Chebar and exclaimed, "I sat among them" (Ezek. 3:15). When was the last time these African-American church leaders stood for something or someone other than themselves? What can be seen is them hanging around the white power structure downtown rubbing elbows at city halls across America. Stay tuned for: "Uncle Toms in the Pulpit"

Epoch of the Black Scorpion Phoenix '05

African Love Map

Captured by the beauty of Lillian.
I think of her on the coast of Durban.
With her is where I want to be.
So beautiful she could be a Wodaabe.
There's no way to assign a worth,
indeed the most beautiful person on earth.
Being near her could lift m from the Diaspora.
We could make a start in Liberia.
For her hand I would ask her ma ma,
permission to marry her in Ghana.
We're not moving too fast too soon
There's a home waiting for us on the coast of Cameroon.
There's no place I'd fail to go,
Yes even to Bembe in the Congo.
We could lie on our backs admiring God's moon,
sharing kisses in the meadows of Gabon.
Please don't say no and bring my eyes to shed a tear.
My friends would have to console me on the streets of Zaire.
I would remain faithful in Tanzania, celebrate her beauty in Kenya.
For love I would carry her cross in Askum, Ethiopia.
My love for her would not wonder,
it could stop the the hate and civil war in Rwanda.
What God has joined together let no man put asunder.
For her I'm a one woman man.
I will breakt he multi-wife customs of Swaziland.
Our love stays strong and so I continue to pray,
we could start a farm in Great Zimbabwe.
For Lillian I'd leave America,
and hold onto to her all the wayt to South Africa

Freedom of Religion

Freedom of Religion, right of a person to form personal religious beliefs according to his or her own conscience and to give public expression to these beliefs in worship and teaching, restricted only by the requirements of public order. Religious liberty differs from toleration in that toleration presupposes preferential treatment of a particular creed by the state because it is an established church or, in some cases, is the predominant religion of the population. The United States was the first, and for some time the only, nation to include the principle of religious liberty in its basic laws. The nations of antiquity permitted torlerance to individuals of minority religions, provided they took part in the public worship of the national gods. Soon after Christianity became established as the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, heresy and heterodoxy became equivalent to treason. After the Reformation this condemnation of atypical religious beliefs was continued by nations with established reformed churches, and those who disagreed with the established church were punished. The colonists immigrating to the New World brought with them the same doctrine of religious intolerance, and in many of the American colonies dissent from the established order of worship was regarded as sedition. The charter of Rhode Island, granted in 1663, is notable for being the first to include a declaration of teh right to religious liberty. This doctrine gradually spread to the other colonies, and at the time of the American Revolution the principle of religious liberty was explicitly adopted in various state constitutions. The process culminated in the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, which in Article VI forbids the establishment of any religious test as a qualification for federal office, and in the 1st Amendment forbids the passage of laws "respecting the establishment of religion ofr prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Gender Discrimination and Civil Liberties Violations in the Alabama Department of Human Resources

The combined force of well-meaning but misguided laws, judicial traditions and government policies drive many loving fathers out of their children's lives. For instance, the former head of Brooklyn Family Court said, "You have never seen a bigger pain in the ass than the father who wants to get involved. This type of involved father is pathological." Such judges are creating a river of wounded children and fathers. Most fathers and organizations have responded with commiseration, fellowship and counseling. Policy and lawmakers must consider some of the rewards of mothers and other custodial parents such as: free food, free legal aid, free medical, free shelter, tax deductions and billions in Child Support. In 2006 Alabama collected $281 million dollars in child support; it was a record. How was it used? Senators, Legislators and Judges need to discuss ways in which child support payments affect family structure, teenage delinquency and income disparities between parents. They should also contact Dr. Richard Weiss, Assistant Professor at Auburn University, Director of DADS of Alabama when considering legislation in the interest of equal justice!

Where's The Love? Excerpt from: AWARD "THE MANIFESTO

As you read on, I must now inform you that these words are being transmitted to you from a higher dimension. I live my life constantly sliding between the cracks of the universe using the keys of knowledge often disregarded by those who fail to look beneath the surface. These keys are locked within complex codes of language and housed within temples of thought. Every breath I've breathed in, you had already exhaled. A molecule that's in my eye used to be part of the wall for your ancestor's cell. So I can touch your past and your future. So you have been told. Read on and behold and fear not being empowered or please pass this code to another. We are united while Love is injured, Love is dying. Love was stabbed in the back by a lack of self respect.

The Consequences of Slavery

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever; that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest"-Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia QXVIII, 1782. ME 2:227

They Are Still Our Slaves!

We can continue to reap profits from the blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves. *IGNORANCE, *GREED,* SELFISHNESS.
Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, "the best way to hide something from black people is to put it in a book." We live now in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject, through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black bookstores, that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all. GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollar during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income. Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish. They will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. they continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing. They would rather buy some new sneakers than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU. And they still think that having a Mercedes and a big house, gives them "status" or that they have achieved the American dream. They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities. With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media, that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn't wasn't their money. And look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!) They'll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them. SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois, said that there was an innate division in their culture. A "Talented Tenth" he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some "form" of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work, they didn't read that the Talented Tenth was then responsible to aid the Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a *better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, a buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of the goal. Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community. They are content to sit in conferences and conventions, in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, and award plaques to the best speakers, not the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE! They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own. in fact, most of those buppies are but one or two paychecks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our boardrooms. Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are "helping" their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don't worry about any of them reading this letter. Remember, THEY DON'T READ
(Prove them wrong. Please pass this on!)

Operation Moses: THE FALASHAS

One of the greatest mass-escapes in history was carried out by the state of Israel. In a daring covert airlift Israel rescued about 18,000 Ethiopian Falashas out of refugee camps in the Sudan and Ethiopia. At the turn of the century, there were several thousand Falashas in Ethiopia, but by the1980s their numbers had dwindled to at most 25,000, scattered mainly throughout the country's remote northwestern Gondor Province. For two centuries, the Falashas had longed for the promised land, but it wasn't until 1972 that they were officially recognized as Jews by Israel. Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef decreed that the Falashas were "undoubtedly of the tribe of Dan," which made them the inhabitants of the biblical land of Havileh, today's "southern Arabian peninsula." The Falashas believe in the Torah, the basic Jewish scriptures; they're circumcised and observe the Sabbath and the dietary laws. Ironically, one of the keys to the rabbinate's conclusions that the Falashas are indeed Jews was the fact that they do not observe Hanukkah. This festival celebrates the victory of Judah the Maccabee over Antiochus the 4th in the 167 B.C., after which the temple was cleansed and Jewish worship restored. But this was not part of the Falashas' history, because they had left Israel with the "Queen of Sheba" long before, during Solomon's reign. In 1977, when Menachem Begin became Prime Minister of Israel he vowed to help the Falashas. Ethiopian leader Mengitsu Haile Mariam , struggling with a bitter civil war in the early 1970's, had ordered harsh punishment for any Ethiopian attempting to escape. A plan was drawn up by Israel to sell weapons to Ethiopia and Sudan to rescue the Falashas. After only 122 "black Jews" had been rescued the word got out. Mariam, who had demanded the deal be kept secret, immediately called it off. In 1979, when Begin and Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed the Camp David Agreement, Begin persuaded Sadat to talk Sudan's President Jaafar al-Nemery into allowing the Falashas to flow out of refugee camps in Sudan into Israel. Over the next few years, a trickle of Falashas, perhaps as many as 4,000 did make their way to Israel, although that plan died, too, when Sadat was assassinated in 1981, and al-Nemery converted to Islamic fundamentalism. By September 1984 Israel's then Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, met with U. S. Secretary of State George Shultz in Washington, Shamir and the Americans to use their clot with both the Egyptians and the Saudi Arabians to persuade al-Nemery to allow a rescue operation under cover of the International Food Aid Operation. Sudan, which had its own problems with drought, and with civil war in the south was not unhappy at the prospect of having a few thousands less mouths to feed. But again, both Sudanese and Ethiopian officials demanded absolute secrecy. During the first week of January 1985, George Bush, then U.S. Vice-President, having received al-Nemery's approval, ordered a U.S. Hercules aircraft into Khartoum, where it picked up 500 Falashas and flew them directly to Israel. The operation ended for a third time when word got out. Once news did break of the covert operation, Arab reaction was swift and predictable. The Sudanese government denied any role in the airlift, and foreign minister Hashem Osman called in Arab, African, and Asian diplomats to accuse Ethiopia of "closing it eyes" to the Falasha exodus in return for money and weapons from Israel. Ethiopian foreign minister Gashu Wolde replied that Sudan had been bribing a large number of Ethiopian Jews to flee Ethiopia. Kuwait's Alrai al A'am, in a strongly worded editorial said: "The smuggling of Ethiopian Jews across Sudan can be regarded not as a passing event but as a new defeat inflicted on the Arab nation." At the time of operation, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres declared publicly, "We shall not rest until our brothers and sisters from Ethiopia come safely back home."

"How Can We Live?" Spoken Word poetry about AIDS: Lets Make it Black History!

A brief poetry spoken word about the AIDS pandemic I wrote for a friend initially. She liked it and included it in a report for school. Lets Make it Black History! I wanted to share it with all. www.Awardthepoet.com Written and copyrighted work by AWARD the poet, slam poet. ... Please Comment and share on here, I can be emailed at awardthepoet@gmail.com, Thank you. For the World Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua & Deps Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verdi Chad Chile China Columbia Comoros Congo Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Fiji Finland France Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Greneda Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea North Korea South Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar, {Burma} Namibia Narau Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda St Kitts & Nevis St Lucia St Vincent & Gr/dines San Marino Sao Tome & Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikstan Tanzania Togo Tonga Trinidad & Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Western Samoa Yemen Yugoslavia Zambia Zimbabwe

Is New Leadership Real Leadership?

In 1990, Lockheed employee and divorced father Bobby Sherill was captured in Kuwait and spent nearly five harrowing months as an Iraqi hostage. The night after his release Mr. Sherill was arrested for not paying $1,425 in child support while he was a hostage. A similar shock awaited Clarence Brandley. In 1980, the Texas high school janitor was wrongly accused of murder. He spent nearly 10 years in prison, most of it on death row, until his exoneration in January 1990. In 1991, Mr. Brandley sued the state for wrongful imprisonment. The state responded with a bill for nearly $50,000 in child support that Mr. Brandley didn't pay while in prison on death row. By federal law neither of these men can have their child support arrears modified or eliminated for the time it was impossible for them to have made the payments. "The Brandley Amendment [42,U.S.C.666 (a)(9) ] says that "once child support obligation has been established, it cannot be retroactively reduced or forgiven by a judge." If a child support obligor becomes disabled, imprisoned, unemployed, or even slips into coma, unless they have the wherewithal or presence of mind to file for a suspension or reduction, their debt will continue to accumulate, and cannot be modified for any reason. The Bradley Amendment all but insures that any non-custodial parent who has a dip in cash flow will be buried under debt that cannot be legally escaped. It often helps chase poor men (and women) into illegal activities or the underground economy, away from mainstream jobs and their children. The damage it does to family structure and relationships are devastating! Judges and lawmakers have created a "river of wounded children" and destroyed parental relationships!" This is clearly wrong and violates every principle of justice and fair play for which Americans have always prided themselves. Once you're branded an NCP (Non-Custodial Parent), you really aren't considered a parent in the same way that the custodial is , child support laws reflect this. Your primary role becomes financial, and to support the custodial parent in their role. We must call upon SENATORS AND LEGISLATORS to sponsor legislation that would repeal [42, U.S.C.666(a)(9), commonly known as the Bradley Amendment, and substitute language that would allow retroactive modification of child support arrears in the interest of justice, and when determined to be in the best interest of the child. This would allow rational judges to do what is right in order to eliminate the manifest injustice faced by tens of thousands of child support obligors. These laws hurt and destroy family structure.---"The germ of our destruction of our nation is in the power of the judiciary, an irresponsible body working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing it's noiseless step like a thief over the field of jurisdiciton, until all shall render powerless the checks of one branch over the other and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."--Thomas Jefferson, 1821

Alabama Prison Crisis Fact Sheet

ALABAMA IS OUT OF STEP WITH THE REST OF THE NATION. Over-reliance on imprisonment sets Alabama apart from the national trend toward more effective use of correctional options. Alabama's prisons are chock-full of people whose likelihood of continued offending would have been greatly reduced if they had been sentencing to mandatory treatment instead of prison.
CURRENT SENTENCING POLICIES CONTRIBUTE TO SHARP RACIAL AND GEOGRAPHIC DISPARITY IN INCARCERATION. Over-reliance on imprisonment in Alabama is marked by racial disparity in the prison system-with African Americans comprising 60 percent of prisoners, while they represent just 26 percent of the state's population overall. Whites, who comprise 71 percent of state residents, fill just 40 percent of prison beds. And over-reliance on imprisonment is marked with unjustified geographic disparities, especially in the application of Alabama's harsh habitual offender law-with just eight counties accounting for more than a third of prisoners sentenced in this fashion. And prisoners committed from Montgomery were two times more likely to be sentenced as "habitual offenders" than those committed from Mobile.
"TOUGH" POLICIES ARE FAILING TO ACHIEVE CRIME-CONTROL GOALS. If the purpose of prisons is to combat crime then Alabama's tendency to "lock them up and let the parole board sort them out" must be viewed as a failure. Between 1994 and 2003, Alabama's incarceration rate shot up by 41 percent yet the state's index crime rate fell by a paltry nine percent. During the same period, the nation as a whole experienced slower growth in incarceration rates, which rose by 25 percent, but much greater reductions in the crime rate, which fell by 24 percent.
WRONG-HEADED APPROACHES TO SUBSTANCE ABUSE ARE DRIVING PRISON POPULATION GROWTH. The use of incarcenration for offenses that are directly tied to substance abuse contributes significantly to Alabama's overcrowding crisis. Among the ten leading commitment offenses, the top three are substance-related. In 2004, more people were admitted to prison for possession of marijuana than for first-and-second-degree assaults combined. While many states have taken steps to reduce incarceration of substance abusers, Alabama is allowing addition to drive prison growth. Between 1999 and 2004, commitments for drug possession and DUI shot up by 28 percent and 17 percent, respectively, while admissions for offenses against persons fell by 14 percent.
THE POLICY CHOICES ARE CLEAR: A permanent prison crisis that fuels ever-more costly prison expansion; or rational sentencing standards and a comprehensive statewide system of community corrections serving every court jurisdiction and every county.

*These facts are taken from the report "Alabama Prison Crisis," written by Justice Strategies.

Alabama Prison Crisis Acknowledgements and About the Authors

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Justice Strategies research team would like to convey our gratitude to Ethan Nadelmann, Asha Bandele and Gabriel Sayegh at the Drug Policy Alliance for their collegial support and generous sharing of knowledge and insights about drug policy reform-and for their brilliant and inspiring leadership across the nation on these important issues. We are also grateful to the policy advocates and activists whose untiring work is blazing new pathways to reform in Alabama and across the Southern United States.: Lisa Kung, Kenneth Glasgow, Kobi Little, and Rhonda Brownstein-and to the staff at the Southern Poverty Law Center, without whose help we could not have produced this report for timely release. And we are especially grateful to Raquiba LaBrie, Susan Tucker, William Johnston and the amazing staff at the Open Society Institute for their steadfast support of our policy research efforts.



ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Judith Greene is a criminal justice policy analyst. She is a research associate of the Justice Policy Institute and the Women's Prison Association. Over the past decade she has recieved a Soros Senior Justice Fellowship from the Open Society Institute and the Women's Prison Association. Over the past decade she has recieved a Soros Senior Justice Fellowship from the Open Society Institute, served as a research associate for the RAND Corporation, as a senior research fellow at the University of Minnesota Law School, and as director of the State-Centered Program for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. From 1985 to 1993 she was Director of Court Programs at the Vera Institute of Justice.

Ms. Greene's articles on criminal sentencing issues, police practices, and correctional policy have appeared in numerous publications, including The American Prospect, Corrections Today, Crime and Delinquency, Current Issues in Criminal Justice, The Federal Sentence Reporter, The Index on Censorship, Judicarture, The Justice Systems Journal, Overcrowded Times, Prison Legal News, The Rutgers Law Journal, and The Wake Forest Law Review.

Kevin Pranis is a criminal justice policy analyst and a campaign strategist. A past Soros Justice Fellow, Mr. Pranis has produced educational materials, training manuals, reports and white papers on topics that include corporate accountability, municipal bond finance, political educations, prison privatization and sentencing policy. His work has been covered in numerous publications, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.