i think i was inspired by michele alexander's booke." >> it is my pleasure to say, ms. colvin, without you we would not be where we are. [applause] thank you for sharing your story, and keep telling your story because we need to know, and our children need to know, and our children's children need to know your story. and we want to thank our sponsors today. we have the san francisco unified school district. we have marked as bookstores, who will be selling this -- ms. colvin's book, written about her, by philip house. we have sponsorship from the african diaspora, and the friends of the san francisco public library. i serve as part of the african- american interest committee that helped put this program together, and i want to thank all of you for coming, and i want to thank sfgtv for taking the program today. we want to thank the department here at san francisco public library, and we are having a reception in l58, and we want to thank read your catering for providing some delicious food for us to nibble on today, so will you please join us and say thank you again to m

michelle alexander calling it the new jim crow. between the 1960's and 1970's, the prison population across the country doubled. in the 1970's and 1980's, it tripled. in california, and build no new prisons between the 1960's and 1970's, the height of political action. between the 1970's and 1980's, they build more prisons in california alone and in the past 100 years. one thing that has happened is the warehousing of black folks in these facilities. if you think about what slavery is, the parallels, it is not just a metaphor when you talk about modern-day slavery. slavery denied black folks the ability to be mobile. you were trapped on one location, in a plantation. it broke up our families. it subjected us to daly wants and violence. anything can happen to you -- an example to you for somebody else. it exploded us for our free labor. all of those things happen in prison today. the u.s. has 5% of the world's population and over 25% of the world's prison population. that is a big part of the equation. i am not waiting for superman,

as michelle alexander made clear in her book, which the reverend brought up, "the new jim crow" the disparities between sentencing are absolutely terrible. but it's also a huge waste of taxpayer money. thank you very much. chairman mirkarimi: thank you very much. quite agree about the drug war. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. thanks for the opportunity to speak. i received the invitation from rob on your staff. i'm with the aclu of northern california. and we have been working with counties around the state as the realignment. legislation came down try to help advocate for really plans very much like the one that we have seen coming out of our probation department so we think it's a good plan overall. i think that the chief is still to be commended and the folks on the executive committee. we do have a few concerns that i would like to share with you briefly, and also some suggestions about thinking about the future. we share the concerns that have been expressed by the public offenders office about how exactly this is going to roll out in terms of the post release supervision rev indi

those of you who have read michele alexander's booke, it says that this needs to be a national conversation. part of the national conversation, i hope, is here. that is why we are going to turn it over to you, to engage in some conversation with our guests. >> i just want to say to the young people today, especially teenagers, boys and girls, some of whom might have been incarcerated, what advice would you give to them? >> first thing i would say -- believe in yourself. if you do not believe in yourself and have some kind of faith and try to work hard, and listen to your teachers and take advantage of all the resources that you have, learning resources. >> today is super bowl sunday. what can our black men in the nfl do to help us have some great people? that is the only place i get to see a positive role model is by watching sports. i think we have a lot of cultures we could really bring together, but we are not joining. >> great question. in 1968, when we saw the black system in the air, that did not happen in a vacuum. it happened in the context of a broader movement. i think we have to

black and latino those in overwhelming majority of black and latino people should read michelle alexander this book called the new jim crow mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness to get more details on this particular situation of the mass incarceration the racially targeted mass incarceration of people across this land now clyde lastly like i said so this is going been going on for more than two weeks now apparently some of these prisoners reportedly are and horrible health some are saying that they're willing to die for this cause here think they're worse than fatalities here that that would change the system at all. right i think first of all i think the prisoners have said that they're willing to die but they don't want to the demands that they raise are completely chest and legitimate demands are not outrageous demands you have articulated what some of them are they've also said the into long term solitary confinement and also the end to the practice of what the prison officials call gang validation or someone on the word of another prisoner or on the word of a guard with ab

alexander in 1996. >> bret: there is anecdotally evidence he is doing well in iowa and up with poll says he is behind micheleachmann there. he somehow surprises and does better than expected in the ames straw poll. >> he has to do that. that is the make-or-break date for him. michele bachmann has been the big surprise of this whole race, how she surged and became for the moment until rick perry decided to get in, all but decided to get in, she became the conservative tea party a terptive to mitt romney. that is the first battle in the republican primary. i think when rick perry gets in there will be a battle between him and michele bachmann who will be the conservative channeler to romney. and, you know, i think michele bachmann is a really compelling candidate for the republican primary electorate. but perry is an 800-pound gor rilla he's got a lot of mup and apparently a great performer. if he dispatches her, then it's a romney-perry battle. >> bret: charles, the story line on governor perry is he was analyzing the mup situation, seeing where the money was. this is what is taking him so long to officially