New Abolitionists Radio – More than 130 police chiefs, prosecutors and sheriffs acknowledge legalized slavery & human trafficking a problem in the USA

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Tune in for two hours of news, information and commentary related to 21st Century Slavery & Human Trafficking.

Asserting that “too many people are behind bars that don’t belong there,” More than 130 police chiefs, prosecutors and sheriffs — including some of the most prominent law enforcement officials in the country — are adding their clout to the movement to reduce the nation’s incarceration rate. The group includes the police chiefs of the nation’s largest cities, including William J. Bratton of New York, Charlie Beck of Los Angeles and Garry F. McCarthy of Chicago, as well as prosecutors from around the country, including Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney.

• Wisconsin’s capital city arrested nearly one-third of the Black children who live there in 2013. A report from the American Civil Liberties Union found that more more than 80 percent of the children who are sent to state juvenile detention centers from Madison’s Dane County are Black youth. Many Black children are arrested for normal childhood behavior, yet charged with crimes like “disorderly conduct.” According to Amren.com, a Black child is 14 times more likely to be arrested for disorderly conduct in Madison, than a white child.

• Rather than face federal investigations Judicial Correction Services Inc., a company that once was criticized by a judge as helping Harpersville run a “debtors prison” and “judicially sanctioned extortion racket,” is being allowed to pull up stakes and leave scot free after dozens of towns cancelled contracts with the company around the state. JCS issued a brief statement Monday that it was ceasing operations in Alabama..

• Our message is getting out. A little-known provision in the Kentucky Constitution that still allows for slavery as a form of punishment is drawing calls for change in next year’s General Assembly. Specifically Section 25 of the Kentucky constitution states that: “Slavery and involuntary servitude in this state are forbidden, except as a punishment for a crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” “It’s inapplicable, and it’s outdated language,” said John Johnson, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. “The horrors of slavery and what it means — we ought not have that in our public constitution.”
The human rights commission is urging lawmakers to pass legislation next year to amend the wording. If adopted by a three-fifths majority in both the House and Senate, voters would still have to approve the changes in the 2016 general election.

• Tallying more than 600,000 online votes over the last few months, “Women on 20s” has been campaigning to replace Jackson with a woman has chosen Harriet Tubman, the 19th century abolitionist who escaped slavery and led other slaves to freedom via the ‘Underground Railroad.’ As their pick to adorn the $20 bill and now plans to petition the White House. Their goal is to have a new bill in circulation by the year 2020 .

•Today we will not be doing our America is #Ferguson segment. Instead we’ll open the lines for callers and continue next week with Nevada is #Ferguson.

• This week’s Rider of the 21st Century Underground Railroad is Shawl Whirl. More than 25 years after police tortured him into confessing to a murder he didn’t commit, Shawl Whirl walked out of an Illinois prison Wednesday afternoon, finally free. An appeals court in August threw out his conviction and ordered a new trial, but he never went back to court. Prosecutors dropped the case, and on Tuesday, a judge dismissed all charges.

• Our Abolitionist in profile is William Lambert, (1817-1890)

Expect all of that and more tonight on New Abolitionists Radio.