by The Rev. Dr. Britt Minshall

Sitting in my chair at the Baltimore City Courthouse Jury Room I can see out the open door to the central hall leading to the battery of Court Rooms.  From this vantage point I am able to watch everyone as they come and go.

There are a large number of confused looking young people mingling in the hall as if lost.  They are dressed as teens dress, their purpose is to be supportive to their friends who will soon be led down this hall in cuffs and shackles.  As the day progresses I come to the realization that almost every defendant is a youngster.

Police officers pass my door in both directions looking more confident than the others; this is just work for them, at day’s end they leave by the front door leading to freedom.  Their subjects mostly leave by the back door to be bussed off to an eternity in state prison; such different lives at either end of my hall!

Next pass the cadre of lawyers, children themselves, dressed in JC Penny’s best ninety-nine dollar suits.  The look of anticipation and stage fright on their faces is so obvious exaggerating their gaunt thinness still attached to them from years of starvation in Law School.  Today is criminal court, the older, fatter lawyers NEVER ply the halls of Criminal Court, “these defendants are worthless - no money here.”

Finally, down the hall shuffle the hopeless.  Cuffed and leg ironed, shabbily dressed, bent in despair, faces twisted in fear.  These mainly young people, who just yesterday were the delight of their families, today begin their endless spiral into hell.  Not the hell of Bible fame but of the American justice system, broken beyond repair, sick to a living death.

“Oh my,” one is screaming and pulling at his chains.  No worry, the cops arrive in a flash and yesterday’s child is on the floor, under control “get control young boy, we’ll have you convicted and in your cell for the next seven years in just an instant.”

I have worked as an inner-city pastor for the past 13 years.  I have seen children pass by me on their way to being teens.  I have watched as these really good kids go down the tube becoming people I did not recognize.  I’ve been present as really weak beleaguered parents abandon their young just as the street promises a place of safety.  Soon the girls are pregnant and addicted, the boys are ganged and working street crime, and they are all fear ridden 24/7.  They know they are damned but with no hope they can’t conceive of salvation.  [The African American unemployment rate is 41% for males 18 - 45.]

As I stare through my jury room door I begin to speculate: (1) how about if we took the amount we WILL spend to keep this “kid” jailed for one year $20,142.00 and brought it forward.  Assign a “competent” case worker (ALMOST NONE EXHIST) to an at-risk family early on and “manage” that child through the danger years.  (2) Let’s decriminalize drugs [88% of all arrests] thus putting the street system out of existence.

If ANY significant part of this were accomplished our 1500 prisons spending 49 billion a year to destroy the lives of entire generations would be 2/3s empty in a decade.

“Attention, those in the jury room are excused we have our juries for today.”  Eight hours has passed as I watched the life and death drama that played out before my eyes through the jury room door.  As I stood to take my walk to freedom an older black woman Ruth who had peered over my shoulder while I wrote said: “It won’t ever happen they need the bodies of all those dark skinned and lower class white children to keep those prisons full.  It’s big business!”  You’re right” said I “and what would we do with all those really good young citizens we would inherit!”  We walked out the jury room door both knowing the truth, “our Empire for Profit likes it just as it is”

-For God’s Sake

Republished with permission from Rev. Minshall’s monthly newsletter ‘For God’s Sake’

The Reverend Dr. Britt Minshall is an author of several books and a speaker on societal behaviors impacting politics, religion and wealth. He travels and ministers extensivly in Haiti. He is a Pastor Emeritus in The United Church of Christ, a Minister in the Full Gospel Fellowship and a regular contributor on Fox Television Network, Public Radio, and National media. He is also a former Security Agency operator and  INTERPOL Officer. His police career was compromised when he became a Freedom Rider in the mid- sixties.