KKKop Kerik Fronts for Phony Prison Reform

There’s a growing mass movement in the U.S. against mass incarceration, police brutality, and racism. But there are capitalist-class reformers waiting to co-opt this movement, directing it towards keeping the overall system of social control and exploitation.
This was evident at a January 29 talk about “a united front on prison reform” held by OAR (Offender Aid and Restoration), an Arlington, VA., nonprofit that helps people returning from prison. I went to spread the word about the criminal background checks at Metro, D.C.’s transit system, and to publicize a rally at Metro headquarters.
The speaker was Bernard Kerik, a former NYPD cop and police commissioner, and NYC commissioner of prisons. He also trained cops in Iraq after the U.S. invasion and testified to the 9/11 Commission in favor of pre-emptive strikes. George W. Bush nominated him to head Homeland Security, but had to withdraw his name because Kerik was under investigation for hiring an undocumented worker as his nanny. Then he ended up spending three years in a minimum security prison for fraud. Since then Kerik has become an advocate for prison reform, especially for getting rid of mandatory minimums in sentencing and for using other types of punishment besides prison.
In his speech, Kerik said it hurts the economy to incarcerate people because prisoners are not out working and spending money; that incarceration has a ripple effect on families; that it’s difficult for people with records to get jobs; and prison makes someone more likely to commit future crimes. Responding to an audience member, he also said private prison corporations are profiting and perpetuating mass incarceration. They offer to take over prisons from city and state governments, saving them money, but only if the governments agree to keep the prisons 90 percent full. That gives the governments a financial incentive to lock up as many people as they can, for as long as they can.
But Kerik is no friend of the working class. Before prison, he represented the capitalist class, and this speech showed he hasn’t changed. He said he doesn’t regret being a cop “because the people I put away were bad people.” He had no class analysis, and little understanding of racism. When he was asked how come 50 percent of the prison population is black (even though black people are only 13 percent of the national population), he only repeated his main point about eliminating mandatory minimums, saying this will “help black communities.” Nothing about the racism that puts so many black workers in prison to begin with.
The Flag of Exploitation
Under Kerik’s reforms, stop-and-frisk can continue, along with police brutality, capitalism’s mass unemployment and poverty, and global attacks on workers in other countries. He opened his presentation with a U.S. flag behind him, saying that he loves the flag and the country. No one at the event asked Kerik to answer for his own actions in helping U.S. imperialism and mass incarceration. He ended by praising business owners who hire prison returnees — separating the “good” capitalists from the “bad.” Yet even a boss who hires all returnees is profiting off their labor, and will exploit them harder to compete against other businesses.
My mention of the Metro background checks (see page 3) got nods and claps. Afterwards I distributed flyers about the upcoming rally and a petition to change the Metro policy. Many already knew about that policy and were interested in helping oppose it.
During a positive conversation with three people, an OAR board member asked me to stop distributing the flyers. “I thought we were on the same team,” I joked while the people I’d been talking to quickly grabbed my flyers. The board member said he just “wasn’t sure” I should be handing out anything at an OAR event if I wasn’t part of OAR. He seemed most concerned about the upcoming rally, since the only action mentioned at their event was “writing to Congress.”
The event showed growing consciousness about incarceration. The number of people affected by it is so great now that a mass movement is forming. But not everyone who says they want prison reform is an ally. Capitalists like Kerik will try to co-opt this movement. His emphasis on cost makes one wonder if the ruling class itself is divided, between those who believe they can control workers without prison, and those who’d prefer to keep large numbers of workers locked up, out of fear or because they profit directly from the prison system. In any case, under capitalism there are never enough secure jobs for all workers, in prison or out of it.
Antiracist Fighter