California reparations panel calls for inmates to receive compensation

California's controversial reparations panel is pushing for the state's legislature to close ten prisons, in addition to ensuring current inmates also receive fair wages and be eligible to vote.

It was earlier reported that the panel was seeking to pass laws creating a wealth tax, mansion tax and/or a property tax in order to fund the billion dollar reparations. The purported figure being mentioned per person is $223,000.

At their meeting in San Diego this weekend, where expert members of the public testified about various issues including prison reform, the panel preliminary approved recommending that ten prisons be shuddered while debating what should be done with the sites.

California state prisons house some of the most notorious prisoners in the country, including serial killers and lifelong gang members.

The savings made from closing the prisons will be used to fund the work of the new government agency being set up to dispense the reparations, the California American Freedman Affairs Agency.

The group has recommended more cushy treatment for current inmates, that includes eliminating certain types of punishment and paying them more money for work done while incarcerated.

The panel's report recommended removing the right to cancel visits as a form of punishment. The report also recommended developing safe spaces for prisoners to spend time with their children 'in non-institutional, non-punitive setting.'

The report wants to allow inmates to be able to choose what programs and jobs they undertake while in prison as well as providing more funding for educational opportunities for prisoners.

The names and locations of the prisons was not established in the report. California has 34 active state prisons.

An activist who spoke about the prison system told the panel: 'There's no way we are getting rehabilitated in these jails today and I heard you guys say: "Let's train 'em better...," No, no, no.'

He continued: 'If you guys want to be serious about reparations, let the last for first on this one...I lost one brother in 2011 in the penitentiary. He died from a staph infection. Four years ago, my older brother got sentenced to 27 years to life for manslaughter which only carries up to 11 years.

'They still doing it to us today! Let's stop this.'

The task force has yet to establish the amount of money that will be dispensed nor have they established what pre-requisites recipients will have to meet. At the most recent meeting, a California residency was mooted as the only pre-requisite.

Task force member, Cheryl Grills, said this past weekend: 'We want to be as inclusive as possible, because the harm is everywhere. It’s omnipresent and it touches all Black folks.'

Kamilah V. Moore, the taskforce chairperson, said that the panel may support allowing those who were 'harmed' in California but moved to another state subsequently to apply.

The only states in the union that currently allows inmates to vote are Maine and Vermont, which counts socialist Senator Bernie Sanders among its representatives.

According to the Vera Institute of Justice, 28 percent of California's 90,000 inmates are black while 20 percent of those in county jails are also black.

Other recommendations included giving the right to vote to inmates, allowing inmates to paid at a fair-market rate for work done while in prison, eliminating the death penalty, more college scholarships for black high school graduates and making zero-interest loans available for black-owned businesses.

The task force also voted to extend their work until July 2024, the group was originally supposed to wrap up their efforts in July of this year.

Speaking to California Black Media, Moore said: 'The task force supports, in spirit, the extension of the life of the task force, by another year, July 1, 2024, for implementation purpose only.... (Read more)

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