People on parole need support, not harassment

Tuesday’s editorial, “When Arresting Parole Violators is Right — or Wrong,” ignores the elephant in the room: racism. Arrests, convictions and prison sentences all disproportionately impact young black men. Chicago’s extreme racial segregation means that those most likely to be on parole are going to live in a few select neighborhoods. Often these young men even live on the same block — what have been termed “Million Dollar Blocks” because of the cost of incarceration of people who live there. Police label virtually any young black man living in those neighborhoods as a gang member — often without any real evidence.

When prisoners are released on parole, they have no jobs and no money. They are dependent on family for housing. As a result, the vast majority have little choice but to return to the same neighborhood they lived in prior to their imprisonment. As a result, those neighborhoods are saturated with people on parole.

As Mick Dumke’s original article pointed out, not one of these arrests has led to anyone being returned to prison — presumably because there is no proof of the alleged violation, or because the prison authorities do not consider innocent social contact a reason to imprison someone. Criminalizing living in a neighborhood with a high number of parolees and people who the police have labeled as gang members simply gives police yet another pretext for harassing young black men.

When people are released from prison, what they need is support and opportunity — not additional harassment by police. Megan Groves, Director of development & communications, Uptown People’s Law Center

Make aldermen’s homes available

So, Ald. David Moore wants to force all private enterprise that is open to the public to provide unlimited public bathroom access on their premises.

Well, I suggest we start with every elected government official making their home available for this purpose first. After all, they are paid by the public to serve the public.

It’s always curious that government officials who have often never run a private enterprise and so often do a horrific job running the public enterprise feel qualified to mandate how businesses should be run.

Earl Weiss, Uptown

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