As millions of people ponder a future without police and prisons, and as authorities try to dream up ways of derailing the momentum of popular insurrection, Maya Schenwar and Victoria Laws new book, Prison By Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms, provides a guide to staying on the path to transformation. In the book, Schenwar (Truthouts editor-in-chief) and Law (an investigative reporter who has been covering prison issues for Truthout and other outlets for years) balance two critical needs. First, they alert us to reformist policy tricks and rebranding that authorities will use to keep reproducing oppression on a mass scale. Second, they help us shape our imagining of a different society to view abolition not like a monumental goal we have no hope of ever reaching, but something we practice every day. In this interview, Schenwar and Law discuss how they came to write the book, why reform movements can often co-opt the push for abolition, and why working toward abolition is not simply a distant vision but something we must practice every day.

James Kilgore: How did you come to write this book and why do you think it is relevant at this moment?

Victoria Law: We started writing this book in 2015. We could never have predicted this moment of demands to defund the police, increasing calls for abolition and people wanting to know what a world without police (and prisons) might look like. But here we are and our book examines the pitfalls of popularly proposed reforms that come up repeatedly as alternatives to mass incarceration. These alternatives fail to recognize that policing and imprisonment are built on bedrocks of white supremacy, colonialism and patriarchy. They also ignore the underlying causes of why people commit harm (or engage in acts that are criminalized). Instead, these alternatives pose seemingly more humane measures than locking people in physical buildings, called jails, prisons or immigrant detention centers. But theyre still forms of coercive control. One wrong step like going to the store without permission could mean incarceration. We challenge these reforms and highlight how people are creating new ways to address and prevent violence and harm. Like everyone, I have engaged in and been personally impacted by violence and harm. Punitive policies do nothing to prevent or address harm, nor help people heal from harm.

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Maya Schenwar: Yes Vikki and I were both wary of how sinister new forms of confinement and policing and surveillance were gaining traction in the name of reform.

Part of this wariness emerged from witnessing my sister go back and forth between jails, prisons and other forms of confinement for 15 years, mainly due to her addiction to heroin. When she wasnt in jail or prison when she was free she wasnt actually free. She was bound to an electronic monitor, under harsh probation restrictions, or confined in a mandated drug treatment facility she couldnt leave. This took a toll on her. She would always say her main desire was to be entirely free from institutions, but it felt impossible. None of these alternatives did anything to help her move beyond addiction; study after study has shown us that in general, you cannot mandate people into lasting recovery.

Meanwhile, Id been researching incarceration and editing stories about prisons for many years for Truthout. When I started writing about prisons in 2005, few people wanted to read about that issue. By 2015, there was so much energy fueling the prison reform train. And there was a massive and long-overdue national focus on police violence, anti-Blackness and racial injustice, in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement and related struggles.

Although there was momentum behind shrinking the system among grassroots activists and powerful organizing happening, politicians were putting energy into reforms that would not change the carceral system at all. We saw a need for a book that would address the limits of and the harm caused by many popular reforms that were being accepted as improvements.

What do you mean by your title: Prison By Any Other Name?

Schenwar: Our title shows how the common reforms we describe are often new forms of imprisonment. Electronic monitoring is a good example; its basically a form of house arrest, as you note in your work, James, terming it e-carceration. We also write a lot about the use of psychiatric hospitals and locked-down drug treatment centers as places to put people as alternatives to prison. These reforms are popular, including among many liberals, because they seem kinder and gentler but they still involve keeping people whove been criminalized out of the larger society. They dont challenge the process of deeming people criminal, a label which is overwhelmingly applied to Black and Indigenous people and other people of color, trans people, disabled people, drug users and other marginalized groups.

These things are not the same as prison: Most people would rather be confined and surveilled in their home than behind bars. But the only options should not be a bad cage or a worse cage. We need to imagine a society with no cages at all.

Can you talk about one or two of the most memorable or surprising encounters you had with people you interviewed in researching this work?

Law: One of my early and most memorable interviews was with Elliott Fukui. Starting from the age of 12, Elliott had been placed in involuntary psychiatric confinement 20 times in seven years. He described how psychiatric confinement, which is often seen as something helpful or protective for those who are experiencing suicidal ideation or mental health crises, actually mimic the punitive structures of imprisonment including solitary confinement, physical violence, lack of human contact, and failures to acknowledge the role of systemic racism and oppressions or underlying traumas leading to mental health issues.

By the time I interviewed Elliott, he was in his thirties, had built a strong support system and developed a safety plan among his friends and community to support him when he was verging on crisis. Hes now an organizer who gives trainings about disability justice training which includes both examining the political history behind the ideas of madness and confinement and building a wellness and safety support system so that a person (and their loved ones) can avoid being entangled in a system that might end with involuntarily confinement, under medication or other controls. His experience challenges the idea that people who are most impacted must look to outside experts to determine what is best for them and instead can create their own paths to safety and wellness.

Schenwar: Patricia, a mother of five, wrote me about being confined to an electronic monitor. Shed been charged with burglary for entering the home of a friend, with whom she had an open-door policy, to retrieve her own medicine. When she got in touch, she had been on house arrest with a monitor for two years. Shed expected to be done in six months. Her sentence dragged on and on largely because she could not pay the weekly fees of $115 to be on the monitor. She cut corners. Her family went a winter without heat, their car was repossessed, they stopped going to the doctor, but still fell behind. Meanwhile, the restrictions of house arrest meant she couldnt even take her children to the park. Her case worker told her that her sentence would continue until she caught up on fees. Meanwhile, she was charged for every week that her sentence was extended.

Here she was, trapped in her home due to poverty. In our first conversation she had told me, If I had just done time, I wouldve been done by now. My whole family is on house arrest and my kids cant understand why.

Stories like Patricias made us want to show how these alternatives that are assumed to be better than prison are still harsh, punitive, oppressive, harmful, and that if we support them, were supporting deep harm inflicted upon human beings, families and communities.

Many actors in these new forms of incarceration pose as guardians of social welfare and protectors of the poor. Can you talk a little about who these people are, how they function and why they pose a danger to an agenda of transformation?

Schenwar: So many people are being deputized as police. Teachers are enlisted to call in the police about a whole range of discipline problems, fueling the school-to-prison pipeline. Doctors, nurses, social workers, child care providers and many others are mandated reporters to Child Protective Services. In 18 states, everyone is a mandated reporter, meaning were all being called upon to police our neighbors parenting. Psychiatrists perpetuate institutions of coercive control in the name of mental health. Case workers serve as gatekeepers to social services and ultimately police their clients. Some policing practices involve recruiting community members to serve as the eyes and ears of the police, surveilling their neighbors and calling the police whenever they sense danger a determination often grounded in racism, classism, transphobia and ableism.

People didnt get into these professions to be police, but its what theyve become. Its not just people with badges and guns. What makes it so insidious is the way in which its supposed to be enforced by all of us. Thats why Vikki and I and other abolitionists are calling for an end to policing, not just the official police.

Obviously, you both think deeply about how racial oppression is intertwined both historically and in these processes of reform. Many people are familiar with the disproportionate incarceration of Black people, but have you found new dimensions to racial oppression in these reforms that you write about?

Law: Racism, colonialism and white supremacy show up in all the popularly proposed alternatives. For instance, we examine the child welfare system, which some have dubbed the New Jane Crow because of how it targets Black women and women of color. People often think this is designed to help parents and children. In reality, the system surveils, controls and punishes. Mariame Kaba calls it the child kidnapping system. A parent doesnt have to be accused of abuse or violence to become entangled in the child welfare system; child welfare intervenes because a family is living in poverty and someone calls in a complaint not having heat in their building or letting their children go to the nearby playground while theyre at work. Many of these types of complaints and the systems reaction draw on cultural assumptions about Black women as mothers vestiges from the times of slavery when slave owners justified breaking apart families and selling children by telling themselves that Black women did not love and care for their children. When we were writing this book, a series of events occurred where people called child welfare on Black mothers because their children were left asleep in a car. At the same time, white parents were writing about raising free-range children, where they allowed their 7-year-old children to roam the city, including taking the subway, without any parental or adult supervision. Public reaction to free-range parenting was mixed, but the child welfare system did not become involved. In the cases of Black mothers who could not afford daycare, children were taken away and placed in foster care.

Schenwar: By the time theyre 18, the majority of Black children have experienced a child protective services investigation. As the child welfare system increasingly targeted Black and Indigenous families in the 1960s and 1970s, it became more punitive. And punitive meant tearing children from their families.

Racial oppression is pervasive in the helping institutions we discuss in our book. Many people love the idea of mandating mental health treatment instead of prison, but these treatments are coercive and inherently oppressive if theyre mandated by a court. Black people are three to five times as likely as white people to be handed a schizophrenia diagnosis one of the serious categories is most likely to result in court-mandated treatment. In the 1960s and 70s, some doctors called schizophrenia protest psychosis and insisted on strong sedatives to address it: trying to literally suppress peoples drive to participate in Black liberation movements. In the late 19th century, some Southern towns labeled Black residents insane by census-takers. Throughout history weve seen how these labels increase peoples vulnerability to measures like sterilization and institutionalization.

We cant separate this countrys systems of care from its explicitly punitive institutions, pretending the former are free of racial oppression.

You obviously place a heavy emphasis on gender analysis. In what ways do you think the gender dynamics of reform are different than what happens when mass incarceration is done with steel and concrete cages?

Law: There are both similarities and differences. For instance, when a father goes to prison, he often has a female partner or family member to take care of his children. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to be primary or sole caregivers to their children. Incarceration removes a mother from that role, making it more likely that her children will land in foster care and be legally terminated from her custody. In 1997, Congress passed (and Clinton signed into law) the Adoption and Safe Families ACT (ASFA), which mandates that, if a child has been in foster care for 15 of the past 22 months, the state needs to begin proceedings to terminate parental rights.

Popular alternatives to incarceration, such as mandatory drug treatment or involuntary psychiatric confinement, might have the same effect. If a mother (or other caregiver) has no one to care for her children while she is confined Somewhere Else, she risks having her children placed in the foster care system. In response, in New York State, advocates, including formerly incarcerated women, fought for the ASFA Expanded Discretion Act to allow judges to pause ASFAs timeline for parents in prison and those whose children are in foster care while they are in residential drug treatment.

Can you describe how you became abolitionists and why it is particularly useful today during the mass uprising?

Law: We live in a society [obsessed with] punishment and punitive policies. This hasnt stopped violence and harm from happening. If it did, we should be living in one of the safest eras in human history.

We need to recognize that, everyone in this world (who is older than a baby or toddler) has both engaged in harm and been impacted by harm. Mass incarceration and the popular alternatives to mass incarceration do not address the underlying reasons behind why harm and violence happen. They dont challenge or change structural conditions (such as racism, misogyny or poverty) or individual reasoning and behavior.

Were in a momentous time when increasing numbers of people are recognizing police do not keep us safe and are often purveyors of violence. Locking up people (mostly Black, Brown and other marginalized people) has not kept us safe, either. We need to put more resources into structures that have proven to meet peoples basic needs and to keep us safe. These include affordable housing, access to medical and mental health care, food, living-waged employment (if not a universal basic income).

When we interviewed Ruth Wilson Gilmore, she encouraged us to think about abolition not as an aspirational adventure but as already-accumulated encounters, awarenesses and activities. She pointed out that organizing for workers rights is a step toward abolition; organizing for environmental justice is a step toward abolition; anything that gets us closer toward meeting peoples actual needs and transforming conditions that are likely to produce harm is a step toward abolition. This helps us view abolition not like a monumental goal we have no hope of ever reaching, but something we practice every day.

Schenwar: Getting to abolition was a journey. My first real, deep personal interactions with the system involved a friend who was incarcerated prior to his deportation, my sisters incarceration in juvenile jail and friends who were incarcerated for acts of civil disobedience. In all of these cases, I could tell myself, Ok, we could get rid of juvenile jail and stop incarcerating people for immigration and end the drug war and free political prisoners, but wed still need prisons to address real problems. Of course, incarceration doesnt solve problems, it entrenches and deepens problems, but this is the mindset thats pervasive in our society, that we somehow need prisons.

Several things pushed me fully toward abolition. One was reading and re-reading Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Beth Richies work, as well as my mentor Kathy Kellys writings from prison. They encourage us to think beyond incarceration. My friend and pen pal, Lacino Hamilton, who remains in prison in Michigan after more than 20 years inside, has also been one of my primary mentors. Lacino has a deep analysis of how the systems groundings in anti-Blackness and capitalism translate to how everyday life unfolds in prison that you cant just take those things away from prison; but must uproot those groundings. And witnessing the brutality of my sisters repeated incarcerations, and how they never addressed any of her issues but made them worse, caused me to question the entire system more deeply.

It is very significant that calls to abolish police and prisons are now infusing mainstream public discourse. This call to uproot the entire system is being emphasized again and again. Even if some people do not immediately agree, the fact they are even hearing abolition is a thing, that policing is a manifestation of white supremacy and capitalism and should be vanquished is significant. It plants a seed.

Police, prisons and the alternative prisons we describe in our book grew out of a foundation of oppression, and they continue to reproduce oppression on a mass scale. Once someone fully comprehends that, its hard to argue that these institutions have any place in the life-affirming and liberatory society we want to live in.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

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We Must Not Exchange One Cage for Another -- Let's Abolish ...

The same thoughts keep running through his mind. That guy sitting in his cell wondering if hes going to outlive his sentence, all the amends he made or wants to makewill he get to see that through? Will he get to be like me and the numerous other people who are formerly incarcerated and are doing great things in the community right now? I think about them and that my voice has to be in advocacy for them.

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eyond the urgency of the San Quentin COVID outbreak, Lockhearts day-to-day work at Planting Justice is about the longterm project of prison abolition, which means working with people to build healthier communities. The definition of that is manifold. It means helping formerly incarcerated people get on their feet through green jobs at Planting Justice, awakening them to a new sense of purpose by building raised flower beds for clients and tending to plants at the organizations nursery and farm. It means teaching about sustainability and food justice in public school classrooms, juvenile detention centers, jails and prisons. It means helping people who live in food deserts start urban gardens. It means handing out free kale smoothies at Castlemont High School during a time when many are going hungry because of the pandemic-induced recession.

If we go in and teach these people how to grow their own food and how to be sustainablethe Black Panther Party got it right, Lockheart says. With no food and no options, [people are] gonna go get it how they can. And unfortunately, thats crime. And crime equals prison. We wanna abolish the prisons, we wanna abolish all these systems, but we first have to plant the seeds of love, trust and sustainability.

Lockheart and his fellow reentry coordinator Diane Williams sow those seeds by helping their colleagues get acclimated to life outside of prison, sometimes in ways people whove never been incarcerated may take for granted. Planting Justice gives former residents, as formerly incarcerated people are called there, clothing and food stipends; Lockheart and Williams help them navigate bureaucratic tasks such as reinstating a drivers license after a DUI. They offer emotional support too. Meditation circles are as much a part of the workday as pulling weeds and watering strawberries and squashes.

Really its believing in them and whatever they bring to the table thats positive, encourage that, says Williams, who brings 40 years of social work and substance-abuse counseling experience to Planting Justice. So much stuff that happened to us as a little kids, we keep recycling it as adults until we process it and move on. So were just helping each other move on here.

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lanting Justice takes a big-picture view of how access to healthy and environmentally conscious practices can help address some of the wounds of systemic racism and mass incarceration. Another one of the organizations projects zooms out even further, addressing the ways the unjust systems that marginalize Black and Indigenous communities began with colonialism.

The organization collaborated with the Sogorea Te Land Trust to give two acres of land back to people of the Ohlone community of Northern California. The Ohlone people arent a federally recognized tribe, nor do they have a land base. Now, two acres of the Rolling River Nursery are an Ohlone cultural heritage site and a space for ceremony.

Williams, who is part of the Native American community and helped organize the partnership, says that Ohlone ideas of land as sacred inform Planting Justices work. Its a love, she says. You cant tell people, Youve got to love this land because its supporting you. No. Its something you have to develop for people whove been separated from the land.

Understanding the history of colonization is the deeper work, echoes Planting Justice media director Ashley Yates. When you control the land, you control the people, you control the resources. And when were talking about BIPOC communities, you understand theres also a disconnect thats intentional because our spirituality and our communities are vested in the earth. We are an earth-reverent people. So when you disconnect people from that, you disconnect people from their power.

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Planting Justices Prison Abolition Work Starts at the ...

On Friday, before the fiftieth night of violent antifa riots, a protester who identified herself as an Afro-Indigenous non-binary local organizer declared that she is advocating for the abolition of the United States as we know it. This brief declaration arguably encapsulates the destructive spirit of antifa and the impetus behind the violent riots that have ravaged the streets of Portland.

My name isLilithSinclair, Im an Afro-Indigenous non-binary local organizer here in Portland, organizing for the abolition of not just the militarized police state but also the United States as we know it, Sinclair declares in a brief video that went viral on Twitter. She also called Portland stolen land, proceeding to give Native Americans a land acknowledgment. By the way, she also identifies herself as a sex worker, i.e. a prostitute.

By Afro-Indigenous, Sinclair likely means she has black and Native American ancestors. By non-binary, she insists that she does not fall into the binary understanding of biological sex as male or female. In an interview with thePortland Mercury last month, Sinclair argued that Americans have to deconstruct the colonized thought that white oppressors supposedly foisted upon racial minorities.

Weve been working to heal these intergenerational wounds of colonization and genocide for generations. But theres still a lot of work to undo the harm of colonized thought that has been pushed onto Black and indigenous communities, Sinclair told the newspaper. Thats in regards to Christianity, and in regards to all of these different types of oppressive systems that have introduced and enforced the gender binary on communities that did not ascribe to that way of thinking, including indigenous communities both Native American and across Africa.

She spoke about coming out as non-binary, saying it involved unlearning the harm through colonization that Ive been introduced to, but also about making space for our elders who have been fighting the fight for a long time, to try to teach them to see past the colonization path as well. My gender journey took being surrounded by a lot of other Black trans and nonbinary revolutionaries who really helped me unlearn cultural expectations, and the forced performed femininity thats expected in sex work.

Sinclairs call to abolish the United States as we know it is not just a fluke of one speech she gave in Portland. Last month, she told theMercury, I work on abolitionist principles because I know the United States was founded on genocide. I know that there is clearly no respect for the sanctity of human life. She argued that Americas involvement in foreign countries is not leadershipits imperialism and neocolonialism dressed up in a way to make people forget the genocide.

She concluded by celebrating the Stonewall Riots in 1969, now celebrated in June (designated Pride month) as the beginning of the LGBT movement. I think its apt that we are looking at a global uprising against oppressive structures during the month where we celebrate the anniversary of another uprisinganother movement to not just ask for but to demand our rights, she said.

Sinclair believes that white oppression is so ingrained in the minds and attitudes of supposedly oppressed people that they have to unlearn the colonized thought of Christianity and the gender binary which is rooted in the scientific binary of biological sex. She seems to believe that certain cultural expectations rooted in the genocide upon which America was founded have brainwashed her and she needs to unlearn basic truths like the fact that people are male or female.

This comes from Marxist critical theory, which analyzes the world in terms of power and oppression. The evils perpetrated against both black slaves and Native Americans supposedly sully the entire American project, which must be uprooted in order for people to be truly free.

This is nonsense. While black people and Native Americans struggle with various pathologies, American society has taken great strides to level the playing field and ensure equal opportunities. The system is not perfect, but it is not rooted in preserving slavery and genocide.

Yet Sinclair believes this because so many powerful institutions teach it. Just last month, the SmithsoniansNational Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) released a horrifying Marxist lesson on whiteness that deconstructed various aspects of American and Western culture, including capitalism, science, the nuclear family, and Christianity, as nefarious relics of white supremacy. The lesson also claims that a work ethic, delayed gratification, being polite, and getting to meetings on time are aspects of the whiteness culture that must be deconstructed and rejected.

To call this throwing the baby out with the bathwater would be an understatement. In fact, nefarious teachings like this actually encourage black people to reject basic standards of hard work, delayed gratification, politeness, and timeliness that are essential for getting ahead in a free-market society or almost any society, for that matter.

This experiment in Marxist critical theory also emerges inThe New York Timess 1619 Project, which claims that Americas true founding came in 1619 with the arrival of the first slaves, rather than in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence. According to this theory, every aspect of American society must be examined and uprooted in the interest of racial justice.

When vandals toppled a statue of George Washington in Portland, they spray-painted 1619 on the statue. When Claremonts Charles Kesler wrote inThe New York Post Call them the 1619 riots, the projects founder, Nikole Hannah-Jones, responded (in a since-deleted tweet) that it would be an honor to claim responsibility for the destructive riots and the defamation of American Founding Fathers like George Washington.

In a November 9, 1995 op-ed, the 1619 Project founder condemned Christopher Columbus as no different from Adolf Hitler and demonized the white race as the true savages and bloodsuckers. She went on to describe white Americas dream as colored Americas nightmare. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) expressed a similar sentiment when she called for the dismantling of Americas economy and political system, in order to root out supposed racist oppression.

Yet the 1619 riots have arguably oppressed black people far more than the U.S. supposedly does. The riots have destroyedblack lives, black livelihoods, and black monuments. At least 22 Americans have died in the riots, most of them black.Retired police chief David Dorn was killed by looters breaking into his pawnshop in St. Louis. Chris Beaty was shot while helping two women who were being mugged in Indianapolis. Antonio Mays Jr., a 16-year-old boy, was shot and killed outside the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) in Seattle. Secoriea Taylor an 8-year-old girl! was fatally shot as her mother attempted to park a car near a group of protesters close to the Wendys where Rayshard Brooks had been killed by police.

Lilith Sinclair likely has the best of intentions for her advocacy thats what makes it so tragic. Indeed, she told theMercury that she cares a great deal about providing essential goods and services to help her community.

Yet this advocacy for the abolition of the United States, her rejection of colonized thought, and her goal to expunge the genocide of Americas founding are truly dangerous. She has brainwashed herself and she is fighting to destroy a country that has brought an unprecedented degree of freedom and prosperity to its citizens and to the world.

After the rally that Lilith Sinclair addressed, rioters launched fireworks and other incendiary devices near the Portland Police Bureau as others walked the streets with katanas. The next day, antifa rioters set fire to the police union and again attacked the federal courthouse and Justice Center. Portland is a war zone, thanks in large part to this noxious critical theory.

Tyler ONeil is the author ofMaking Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at@Tyler2ONeil.

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Portland Activist Calls for 'Abolition' of the United States

"African American history has too often been overlooked, whitewashed and relegated to the confines of a single month," Heastie said. "I am proud to serve in this incredibly diverse legislative body, and one that continues to work to represent the diversity of our people and our history. I am also proud that today I can tell Association for the Study of African American Life and History New York State Director Bessie Jackson, a constituent of mine who for years has advocated for the recognition of Abolition Day, that her hard work has finally paid off."

Legislation passed today would establish Abolition Commemoration Day, which would be observed on the second Monday in July. This commemorates the Abolition Act, which passed the New York State Legislature on March 31, 1817 and abolished slavery effective July 4, 1827. Abolition Commemoration Day, not only marks the end of slavery in New York, but also honors the bravery and sacrifices of abolitionists (A.10831, Pretlow).

"Slavery was not an institution confined to the south New York had its own long history with its cruelty and horrors. Our state also has a legacy of abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman and countless others," Pretlow said. "By recognizing Abolition Commemoration Day, we remember and shed light on both sides of Black and African American history, and New York State's history, including the parts that are too often glossed over."

"Freedom was never given, it was fought for. Today marks the creation of a new holiday Abolition Commemoration Day to recognize the end of slavery in New York State and a start to teaching our full uncompromised history. New York was one of the largest slave-holding states in this country and we are convinced that a civilized state should do no less than spend at least one day a year in atonement for its participation in the horror, fear and trauma that sustained slavery for more than 200 years. We are proud to have led this fight and stand with the entire state legislature to recognize the sacrifices of African Americans and other abolitionists in their fight for freedom," said Bessie M. Jackson, NYS Director of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Also passed was legislation that would recognize Juneteenth as a public holiday in New York State. Juneteenth, June 19th, marks the day Union General Gordon Granger and federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, taking control of the state and enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation. Today, Juneteenth commemorates Black and African American freedom and achievements, while encouraging continuous self-development and respect for all cultures (A.10628, Hyndman).

"It is long past time that we commemorate and honor important dates in Black history," Hyndman said. "Juneteenth must be recognized across the country as a public holiday, and I am proud that, working with my colleagues, we are able to mark a piece of Black liberation on the calendar and in our cultural consciousness here in New York State. The hope is that this day is celebrated far and wide."

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Assembly Recognizies Abolition Commemoration Day and Juneteenth - The Lansing Star Online - Lansing Star

As Brexit resurfaces in the news, we look at how it will impact recruitment practices, from the government's proposed new points-based immigration system for EU and non-EU nationals to attracting and developing talent.

Points-based immigration

As things stand, free movement of people between the UK and the rest of the EU will end on 31 December 2020. Individuals who are resident in the UK on or before then based on EU free movement rules can apply to the EU Settlement Scheme if they wish to continue to lawfully live and work in the UK. Employers would be wise to carry out staff audits to identify who may be impacted.

From 1 January 2021, a new immigration system will apply that will cover both EU and non-EU nationals meaning EU nationals arriving in the UK after this date will need a visa to live and work in the UK. Those who have been granted status under the Settlement Scheme will continue to be governed by the rules of that scheme.

Under the proposed new points-based immigration system for both EU and non-EU nationals, some eligibility criteria will be mandatory but other characteristics would be tradeable so that an applicant could offset certain strengths against certain weaknesses to meet the overall points threshold. As part of these proposals, the controversial resident labour market test would be abolished meaning that mandatory advertising to the resident UK workforce would no longer be legally required.

Sponsorship

The need for a sponsor job offer will add time and as yet unspecified expense to existing recruitment processes. However, there are a number of aspects under the proposed new scheme that would actually make sponsorship of non-EU/EEA/Swiss nationals easier.

The abolition of the resident labour market test would allow for broader and more innovative advertising, rather than the current prescribed locations and format. The minimum skill level of sponsored workers will also drop, as will the general minimum salary threshold, increasing the pool of non-EU workers that can theoretically be sponsored. The government has also proposed to remove the cap on the number of visas that can be issued under the current system.

There is an important exception to the rule, in that a proposed global talent visa category will allow the most highly skilled workers without a job offer primarily with a background in STEM subjects to come to the UK. Other non-sponsorship routes are also being considered.

Competing for UK-based talent

The proposed changes to the immigration system have the potential to make already competitive recruitment processes that much harder for individuals especially for senior posts. Employers may have to rethink the way they attract talent in order to stand out from the crowd.

Given the current economic situation and anticipated downturn, employers would be wise to focus on what they can offer prospective employees other than pure salary especially as salaries could decrease in relative terms. Many employees will gauge employers by the benefits they offer.

Employers who promote work-life balance through flexible working for example are likely to be attractive to job seekers, especially following the change in working patterns for many people as a result of Covid-19. Similarly, being able to evidence a positive culture that makes employees feel valued and supported is likely to have a significant impact on employee retention levels.

Developing existing talent

The new immigration system will arguably make it easier for employers to employ non-UK nationals in more senior or highly skilled roles. As such, employers will likely be more concerned with how they fill perceived staffing gaps for so-called low skilled roles.

The government has urged employers to develop their own UK-based staff and look to the economically inactive to fill the gaps created once their access to low-skilled EU labour is cut off. Employers could consider if their current recruitment processes act as a barrier to talent and look to widen their existing recruitment criteria and target demographics if this is the case. Many employers have already recognised that there are untapped resources out there, for example women who have left work to raise children and who may now be looking to return to a work environment.

Low skilled or entry level roles that do not require particular skills could be used as training and development opportunities to improve staff retention. Likewise, apprenticeship schemes or graduate programmes could benefit younger workers who can learn the skills they need on the job.

While additional investment in training will incur further cost, this may be more palatable than the costly and often time consuming process of recruiting skilled workers from overseas.

Future trends

In the longer term, automating certain jobs or roles, such as repetitive manufacturing processes may help employers to deal with challenging recruitment conditions and increase productivity. However, it should be approached on a case by case basis, as certain roles will not be suitable for machines alone and will always require an element of human involvement.

The current economic downturn is likely to mean less people are looking to move jobs, but employers should work to better understand what drives their existing workforce and how to keep them engaged. Salary is not always the determining factor management, targets, workload and culture may be just as important. Employee surveys and informal feedback opportunities are relatively low cost, low effort ways of facilitating this and signposting where employers could do better in managing staff turnover.

Right to work checks are an obvious but often overlooked consideration. UK employers are required to conduct right to work checks on all prospective employees. They must retain clear records of workers' rights to work in the UK in either prescribed electronic form or hard copy, for the duration of the employment and for a period of two years afterwards. The way EU/EEA/Swiss nationals prove their right to work in the UK will undoubtedly change when the new immigration system is implemented in 2021, and new guidance on right to work checks is expected before then.

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How will Brexit impact recruitment? - Lexology

The story of Shuters ascendancy to Landlord and Tenant Officer is the latest chapter in a nearly 50-year-old failure to reform Philadelphias eviction process.

A unique feature in Pennsylvania, the citys current Landlord and Tenant Office dates back to 1970 and was initially introduced as a civil reform to the citys ancient constabulary system. That 17th-century system of appointing men to handle tax collection and court service had, by the 20th century, lost many traditional powers due to government reorganization. By the 1960s, people elected to constable positions in Philadelphia functioned primarily as politically connected bounty hunters, charged with enforcing court eviction orders for profit often by any means necessary.

During that decade, the constabulary system became a lightning rod for criticism over graft and lack of oversight. Renters routinely reported being harassed out of their homes or evicted without cause. The men doing the evictions held constable sales or distress sales to recoup their costs and time, auctioning off furniture or clothing belonging to displaced tenants.

A 1965 state attorney generals inquest into the system recommended abolishing the positions and transferring their duties wholesale to the city Sheriffs Office.

[Philadelphias] constables are engaging in practices designed to terrify the average citizen, the report reads, describing many constables as glorified bill collectors operating under official marque.

Sam Stretton, a longtime ethics lawyer in Philadelphia, said he recalled now-deceased U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter making a case for dismantling the constabulary system as a central plank of his campaigns for Philadelphia District Attorney in the 1960s.

It was the wild west out there, he said, of the constables. It was bribes and everything else.

Outcry and a court injunction followed an episode in 1969 in which a constable sought to auction the furniture of a North Philadelphia family that put rental payments in escrow after the inspectors deemed their landlords property unfit for human habitation. In a subsequent lawsuit, filed by legal aid group Community Legal Services, federal courts ruled these sales unconstitutional, ordering the abolition of Philadelphias constabulary offices and the judicial appointment of theoretically more formalized Landlord and Tenant officers.

But the ensuing reform soon became a source of controversy itself. And the new system quickly came to resemble the old.

One of the first Landlord and Tenant officers, Edward A. Green, was sued by Community Legal Services for attempting in 1970 to shake down tenants for travel costs and service fees on top of what he was legally allowed to collect. Al Sacks, another Landlord and Tenant officer himself a former constable was also sued by the legal nonprofit in 1986 for allegedly bilking tenants into paying bogus legal fees.

The legislative reformsput the Landlord and Tenant Officers in Philadelphia in the same position as the constables were prior to those reforms, lamented plaintiffs in the suit against Green.

By the late 1980s, the position came under the aegis of the law firm of Robert H. Messerman. This attorney was appointed by Marisa Shuters father, former President Judge Silberstein, who presided over Municipal Court from 1986 to 1999. Messerman would hold this appointment for nearly 30 years.

Reached by phone in July, the attorney said he could recall few details of the offices operations. But records show Messerman subcontracted much of the eviction work to surrogates. A so-called deputy landlord-tenant officer that was shot and killed in a 1990s dispute with a West Philadelphia tenant was later revealed to be a contract worker paid by Messerman, according to an Inquirer report. A later lawsuit filed against Messermans office indicated that work was also sometimes subbed out to a local process service firm called B&R Services for Professionals, Inc.

Meanwhile, Silbersteins daughter, Marisa Shuter, graduated from Temple Universitys Beasley School of Law in 1993 and soon went to work in the family trade administering the citys court system. After a stint as an associate in the real estate department at Blank Rome, she began her career in the court system. While her father served as Municipal Courts president judge, the court hired her as a law clerk around 1996. She later joined Messermans office in 2006, serving as a staff attorney and office manager, according to First Judicial District spokesperson Marty ORourke.

When Messerman eventually retired from his post as Landlord and Tenant Officer, Marisa Shuter was appointed by then-President Judge Marsha Neifield Williams to replace him in January 2017.

Today, she runs the office much as Messerman did, relying on independent contractors to do the heavy lifting of writ service. ORourke said all these people are formally deputized, but court rules do not require them to be trained or certified law enforcement.

The court does not require the Landlord-Tenant Officer or the Deputy Landlord-Tenant Officers to meet any specific law enforcement credentials, ORourke said.

Marisa Shuter said, in practice, many did have a background in police work or had served as suburban magisterial constables. She reiterated that she requires deputies to have a license to carry a firearm, own a vehicle and that all received significant job training.

I personally explain all of the laws to them and the process from start to finish, she wrote. They ride along with an experienced deputy for a period of time before being assigned to handle evictions on their own so that they can learn the job.

Michael Williams, a Philadelphia housing attorney, said the distinction between these deputies and actual law enforcement was often vague.

Sometimes tenants will call them the sheriff, but thats wrong, Williams said. Theyre from the landlord-tenant office. Sometimes, they will still refer to themselves as constables.

Some, like ethics lawyer Sam Stretton, said the courts shouldnt be empowering private entities with little duty to disclose information to the public to force residents from their homes.

This office is held out as part of the government when, in fact, its a private law firm, he said. Theres still no standards. They could just get some monster, and say hes just the toughest guy I found.

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Philly Landlord Tenant Officer married to eviction court judge - WHYY

Somewhere in the fireworks and star-spangled attire of every Fourth of July lies an all-too-familiar historical script. Americans never tire of tales in which their freedom-loving forefathers took a stand against British tyranny and asserted their right to independence.

But the window dressing has invited more scrutiny than usual in 2020. In a curious adaptation of the traditional story, protesters threw Christopher Columbus into a Baltimore harbor this year. So much for the Boston Tea Party.

Between 15 million and 26 million Americans are estimated to have participated in Black Lives Matter protests since late May. This makes BLM the largest movement in the nations history and marks a sea change in racial attitudes. Most Americans, regardless of skin color, now agree that racial and ethnic discrimination in their country is a big problem.

Racism, however, is not confined to Americas borders or history. As a result, BLM has not just drawn support from around the world. Recent protests have prompted other countries, like the United Kingdom, to confront their own checkered legacies on race.

This takes us to the heart of the British capital, where University College London (UCL) is working to change the way it teaches history and thinks about its own past.

In 2018, the Royal Historical Society published a landmark report documenting significant and disproportionate levels of discrimination, bias and harassment towards Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) history students and researchers. Led by UCLs own Margot Finn, the RHS concluded that BME historians feel unwelcome and underrepresented in their field. This stems in part from a pervasive unwillingness to grapple with the uncomfortable aspects of white, Eurocentric curricula.

The reluctance to reevaluate traditional teaching methods contrasts with what British universities say they are willing to do in the name of racial justice. When surveyed this year, 84 universities declared a general commitment to making their curricula more diverse, international or inclusive. Only 24 were actually committed to decolonising their curricula.

According to Meera Sabaratnam, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, decolonization can mean several things. It rests, however, upon a willingness to challenge our shared assumptions about how the world is.

Universities can do this, for example, by providing greater representation of non-Western thinkers: Is it acceptable if writings and teachings about international regions or global affairs are done almost exclusively by writers from or based within the West?

But while representation is important, it is only one piece of the puzzle. Decolonising a curriculum requires scrutiny of what universities prioritize learning about, the models that they use to learn it, and the classroom culture that is created as a result.

All of these things contribute to an attainment gap in degree results between BME and white students that persists even at universities that pride themselves on diversity.

Decolonization is a difficult and comprehensive process, but it is what the RHS report concluded is necessary to redress systemic inequities in the field of history. Universities must not only include and draw attention to the work of BME historians, though that too is important.

Universities must make race and ethnicity essential topics of discussion while dissecting white histories and Eurocentric approaches.

Joe Cozens, a British historian at UCL, explained to The College Post what that might look like.

Diversifying the writers and central themes of British history, Cozens said, is how we facilitate more meaningful discussions on race and ethnicity than traditional curricula would permit.

I encourage my students to engage with the likes of C.L.R. James, Ron Ramdin, and Paul Gilroy, he said, and recently I have added Shirin Hirschs In the Shadow of Enoch Powell and Priya Gopals Insurgent Empire to my reading lists. All are celebrated BME colonial and postcolonial historians.

I have also integrated the themes of race, ethnicity, and migration into the broader story of social and political change in the long nineteenth century, referring to the period between 1789 and 1914.

Asked about how the role of his classroom in todays social climate, Cozens turned to a familiar topic.

I encourage students to think deeply and critically about the purpose of policing in the past and to consider what police reform in the future might look like. These issues seem all the more vital in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Department Head Eleanor Robson elaborated on how historians at UCL are tackling Britains whitewashed past from several angles.

Were the only History Department in the country that offers a programme of truly global history from antiquity to modernity, and are world leaders in the history of slavery and abolition, empire and post-colonialism, Robson told The College Post.

Our flagship Centre for the Legacies of British Slave-Ownership has been dominating the national news in recent weeks, she added as an example.

The Centre is known for tracing the beneficiaries of Britains Slave Compensation Act of 1837, which compensated slave owners for the abolition of slavery. Insurance market Lloyds of London and Greene King, the largest pub chain in the country, recently apologized and pledged charity donations to minority communities after some of their founding members were revealed to have been compensated by the law.

While the department has ramped up its reassessment of policies and teaching methods since the RHS report was released in 2018, it started doing so long before. In fact, Robson said, UCL historians have been working to decolonize their curricula since before the Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013.

Still, another challenge for reform-oriented educators is to diversify what it means to study BME history in the first place. According to the RHS report, there is a seemingly relentless focus on enslavement, abolition and exploitation.

This is especially important to keep in mind as calls to reform British history education extend beyond universities. In the wake of recent protests, The Black Curriculum, an education reform group, has seen a surge in support for their nationwide campaign to make teaching black history mandatory in secondary schools.

"When I was at school, as a Black British girl, I couldnt see myself in the history books; none of my ancestors were there and our stories werent toldhow important can my culture be if it wasnt even taught in schools?" @GraziaUK #TBH365https://t.co/5SVUkzE11w

The Black Curriculum (@CurriculumBlack) July 20, 2020

It is also something to keep in mind as UCLs history department expands opportunities to study Native American, Caribbean, East Asian, and African history this year. This also includes a new postgraduate program in Black British History at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Departmental culture has also become an area of scrutiny. According to the RHS report, demeaning comments and stereotypes inhibit the success of BME scholars and further contribute to the attainment gap.

As a result, all students and Teaching Assistants will undergo inclusivity training this year as part of an initiative from the departments Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee, which Robson chairs.

The department will also provide a new support network for BME staff and students amid complaints of inappropriate comments and behavior. The network, however, has declined to give details about how it will operate and how students can get involved.

After two years of implementing the recommendations of the RHS report, the department will soon audit its progress. But while not complacent, Robson said it has certainly moved in the right direction.

And considering that decolonizing a curriculum is not something that happens overnight, as Lecturer Sabaratnam wrote, such steps alone are laudable. The history departments recent reforms reflect a sensitivity to increasingly vocal demands for systemic change.

Supporting the now-global cause of racial justice manifests itself in many ways. In this case, the UCL history department is doing so by scrutinizing its traditional teachings and addressing inattention to its own underrepresented BME scholars.

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Decolonizing the Curriculum: The Black Lives Matter Approach to History - The College Post