"Incarceration Inc."

According to the Justice Policy Institute, Philadelphia is ranked as having the highest incarceration rate of any U.S. city. What's even more startling is 12 percent of those incarcerated are residents from Juniata Park and Feltonville.

Philadelphia’s prisons hold a percentage of citizens, many of whom are from Juniata Park, Kensington, Feltonville, Torresdale and Frankford, which is more than three times higher than New York City. Not only does Philadelphia have some “hauntingly” incarceration figures, African American and Latino American men from Juniata Park, Kensington Feltonville, Torresdale and Frankford make up a large number of those that are incarcerated.

In addition, Philadelphia is the nation’s most important penal system that generates and has exhausted a great deal of revenue earmarked to the prison system. For example, more than 25% of the city’s budget goes to the criminal justice system, while nearly one-billion dollars are spent on cops, courts and prisons from the state budget, while funding for Philadelphia Public Schools continue to decline.

The inmates are a byproduct of a lucrative business opportunity for private ventures such as phone card companies, specialized police training, food distributors, furniture distributors, etc. Suffice to say; if there was ever a business that is recession-proof--its incarceration.

Philadelphia has a plethora of ethnic diversity, and yet, it also has a very high rate of African American and Latino American men incarceration percentage with more than 70%. While the jail business is booming, in Philadelphia, African American and Latino American are likely to continue to contribute to the industry by committing an array of crimes that range from extortion, distribution of illegal drugs, to murder.

Consequently, while the prison business continues to boom, African American and Latino American men from Juniata Park, Kensington, Feltonville, Torresdale and Frankford are more likely to contribute to the industry than any other ethnicity and where imprisoning its citizens is occurring at such an alarming rate--Charles Darwin would be astonished.

Let me be candid. I believe that people KNOW the difference between right and wrong. Most children grow up in families that teach morals and values. They attend churches, mosques, and synagogues that teach them about loving and kindness. Throughout the formative years in school, children are given the tools how to succeed rather than fail. But unfortunately, there are those who consciously make the choice to do wrong.

Even if you are poor, it does not give you the right to commit crimes against innocent victims and to take what is theirs for yourself. If you so choose to do so--and I am speaking directly to drug dealers, thieves, violent people, rapists, perpetrators of domestic violence, and murderers--you need to be removed from society so that law-abiding people don't have to worry about their sons, daughters, family members, and the elderly ending up in a drive-by shooting by people who are looking to inspire fear and lawlessness in our community and our city.




Best Regards,


Anthony P. Johnson, Candidate for State Representative for 42nd Ward & 180th District
647 East Raymond Street
Philadelphia, PA 19120
215-744-1773
215-715-0355
antho@earthlink.net

Will You Help Me?

Dr. Arlene C. Ackerman, Superintendent of Schools
School District of Philadelphia
440 North Broad Street
Philadelphia, Pa 19130


Dear Dr. Ackerman,

I humbly request your assistance in a matter that can make a difference in the quality of life for hundreds of young people.

I am proposing that the School District of Philadelphia donate the R.S. Walton Elementary School Building located at 28th & Huntingdon Street, Philadelphia, PA 19132, to Dream Field Academy. The building, located in North Philadelphia, has since been vacant since Barry Elementary School exited it more than three calendar years ago. The property is now being used as a dumping ground and for other illegal activities in a community that is in dire need of quality and effective programs.

I have written Bill Fox Jr., Director of Real Property Management several times over the last two-years requesting the donation of the property, but he has informed me that the building at the time was not for sale.

R. S. Walton Elementary School is a beautiful old building that resembles an 18th Century Castle. The school has three floors with 7 to 8 rooms on each floor. It has several fire towers and a cement school yard.

R.S. Walton Elementary School can hold over 500 people. If the building is donated, Dream Field Academy along with its affiliates of other community organizations and faith base organizations, as well as partnerships with the neighborhood schools, will be able to provide effective programs to a neighborhood that is decimated with violence, an increase in youth and adolescents not completing school, thereby increasing the dropout rolls and poverty.

R.S. Walton Elementary School holds special memories for me. You see Dr. Ackerman; I attended this institution as a child from kindergarten through sixth grade from September 1976 to June 1982. The academic enrichment, the support, and love that the faculty and administration provided me as a youth is a tradition that must continue in the community.

Dream Field Academy is a grass-roots organization, and we cannot afford to rent or lease the building. That is why this generous donation will help Dream Field Academy and ensure that we can continue to provide quality educational projects and enrichment for the community that is in need.

Will you help me?

Thank you, in advance for your cooperation regarding this matter.



Sincerely,


Anthony P. Johnson, Candidate for State Representative, Ph.D. Candidate, Author, Founder & CEO
Dream Field Academy
Office: 215-744-1773
Cell: 215-715-0355
antho@earthlink.net