 |
  |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Civil Rights
“The teenagers and college students who left their homes to march in the streets of Birmingham and Montgomery; the mothers who walked instead of taking the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry and cleaning somebody else's kitchen — they didn't brave fire hoses and Billy clubs so that their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren would still wonder at the beginning of the 21st century whether their vote would be counted; whether their civil rights would be protected by their government; whether justice would be equal and opportunity would be theirs. . . . We have more work to do.”
— Barack Obama, Speech at Howard University, September 28, 2007
A Quick Peek
Civil Rights are human rights. Every person in Hancock County deserves to be treated fairly. Yet, hate crimes still happen. A woman’s race may affect her pay check. A man’s religion may mean bigoted curses are shouted at him.
To be the best community we can be, it’s important that we protect all members of our community. It’s our responsibility to look out for our neighbors, to preserve their rights and their dignity.
The Big Picture
Unequal Pay for Equal Work Still Happens: Imagine that for every $1 your husband earns, you earn just 77 cents. That’s if you’re a white woman. Now, imagine you are African American. You just lost 10 more cents. If you’re a Latina that goes down to 57 cents. It’s not fair. It’s not right. It’s not only happening in your imagination. It’s real.
Hate Continues: In our nation, hate crimes have skyrocketed to 7,700 reported incidents in 2008. That’s an increase of 8 percent. And it’s happening here, too. There were 59 reported hate-crime incidents in Maine in 2006. Maine ranks second and 15th respectively on race and sexual orientation-related hate crimes per capita. From anti-gay slurs at a Hancock County high school to an African-American woman being accosted to a local man finding a swastika on his property: Hate is still happening. Hate has to stop.
Drug Courts and Jail: In 2002 the Justice Department released a report that said approximately 67.5 percent of the people who are in U.S. prisons are arrested a second (or third or fourth) time. Of that number about 51.8 percent are back in jail less than three years after they were released. In Hancock County it costs about $33,000 to keep someone in the Hancock County Jail for a year. For a one-year stay in the Maine State Prison that number jumps to $44,000.
That’s wasted lives and wasted money.
A lot of those crimes are drug and alcohol inspired. Drug courts allow close supervision, frequent testing and monitoring. Studies have shown that drug courts reduce the chances of crimes while people attend them. (Belenko. 1998; 2001) According to researchers, Marlow, DeMatteo and Festinger in 2003, “We know that drug courts outperform virtually all other strategies that have been attempted for drug-involved offenders.”
We have to keep drug courts up and running in our county. We need to allow first-time offenders (involved with crimes that do not involve violence) the opportunity to participate in drug courts. Counseling to promote mental health, avoid substance abuse, and job counseling all can help to reduce the number of people returning to jail.
The Plan
Learn More