(Photo credits: Corey Torpie)
by Viviane Faver
In recent months, a lot has been said about how the coronavirus affects our lives. However, we do not hear any news about the situation in jails and prisons.
Aware of this, progressive Democrat Jamaal Bowman hosted last week a “people’s hearing” in order to know more about the situation. With a 48,000 population in New York alone, usually overcrowded and unable to do social distancing, prisons and jails have been breeding grounds for COVID-19 spread.
In an exclusive interview for the New York Beacon, Jamaal Bowman addresses this topic as well as its underlying conditions.
New York Beacon: We are aware of the contagion of the virus in jail. What are the main complaints of prisoners? Has any action been taken in this regard?
Bowman: We’re working with criminal justice organizations to call for Governor Cuomo or do more to release people from jail who are more vulnerable to COVID-19. There are thousands of people in prison who are over a certain age who are no longer a threat to society who need to be released, and others who are in jail because they cannot afford bail or minor issues.
We are asking for this release, not just in New York but across the country. Many were released from federal prison and transferred to confinement at home, where thousands are being left there, but much more needs to be done.
New York Beacon: How do you see the educational system in New York. What are your proposals for improvement?
Bowman: The whole system should change. Suburban communities are welfare communities where their kids go to schools with enough books, have enough resources, have small class sizes, and have only 18 kids in the class with one or two teachers. When you go into urban communities with low income, the class size can be high as 40 students, which is unacceptable.
Fully financing schools is the first step. We must also focus more on early childhood education because many families struggle because they are new parents, do not earn enough money, and deal with housing instability. They need much support, and early childhood education through Universal Child Care can provide that support.
Indeed, I will mention that our schools need to be racially and economically integrated. Because we live in segregated communities and schools are often segregated. Finally, we need a project-based learning approach as opposed to the standardized testing that we use now so that children can be ready for the real world. In the real world, you work on a real-world project, you are a problem solver, but many of our kids don’t get to practice that in school because of how our curriculum and the testing system works. So that’s the things I would change.
New York Beacon: What about Inequality?
Bowman: I will go back to the beginning of our country, the Constitutional Convention, only property-owning white men were allowed to be a part of the Constitutional Convention. It was only them who wrote our decoration of independence and our constitution.
Because of that, in our constitution, there is racial and economic inequality.
Over the last 40 and 50 years, real wages in our country have been stagnant, while food, housing, education, and Child Care clothing have gone up. We have seen the concentration of wealth in the hands of the 1%. At the same time, the majority of us suffer, so to deal with the issue of inequalities, we have got to do a few things. Number one: we have to reform our tax code to make sure the wealthy people among us pay their fair share to make sure Wall Street pays its fair share and to make sure large corporations pay federal taxes none of that is happening right now. That’s a key.
Number two, we have to deal with monopolies and antitrust legislation issues because that is what’s happening if you have corporations like Amazon, Facebook, and others consolidating power.
And building these monopolies allows them to create these monarchies that control the entire nation and create economic oppression. So we need to deal with antitrust and anti Monopoly to break up big Tech in breakup monopoly corporations.
Finally, we need to genuinely talk about reparations in our country, and we need to invest in a federal job guarantee to make sure everyone has a job. Make sure housings are available as higher education and investing in minority and black owned businesses. That’s a few things we need to do to deal with economic equality.
In the end, Jamaal Nowman asks everyone to vote for Joe Biden. Out Donald Trump!
About Jamaal Bowman
Jamaal Bowman is the Democratic nominee and likely next Member of Congress in New York’s 16th District, representing parts of Westchester County and the Bronx. Dr. Bowman has been an educator and advocate for public schools for over 20 years and most recently served as principal for the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action (CASA), a public middle school he founded in 2009 in the Baychester neighborhood of The Bronx. He is a life-long New Yorker who now lives in Yonkers with his wife and their three kids.
