This workshop will look at the way that "justice" is carried out in our courtrooms, police stations and prisons. Panelists will give their firsthand experiences with the criminal justice system and provide a critical analysis of the ongoing race to incarcerate and execute in the United States. This workshop will also take up the issue of police torture, specifically in Chicago, where over 200 African American men were systematically tortured by police under the command of Jon Burge and forced into giving confessions. A currently incarcerated police torture victim will participate as a panelist via telephone hook-up.

Workshop participants will be engaged in a frank discussion about:
1) the injustices of the criminal justice system
2) the challenges of building a sustainable movement
3) and strategies for building an effective movement.

The biggest challenge that we face is the criminal justice system, itself, which is wrought with racism and class-bias and a government that promotes a "law and order" agenda. This means that poor people and people of color are disproportionately impacted by the death penalty. Also, although support for the death penalty has dropped (a welcome trend), the majority of Americans still support the death penalty.

Abolition of the death penalty would end a cruel, barbaric and inhumane practice in the U.S. Alternatives to the death penalty should reject the politics of law and order politics and support rehabilitation. Instead of "getting tough on crime" we need to "get tough on the CAUSES of crime."

Due to the growing number of innocent people who have been sentenced to death, the national debate over the death penalty has intensified and overall support for the death penalty has declined. Also, questions surrounding the constitutionality of lethal injection have brought exeuctions to a halt in a number of states across the country. Anti-death penalty activitist need to build on this momentum.

Strategies for growing our movement and winning abolition include maintaining and building public awareness and pressure; holding our elected officials accountable; and finding commonalities and building coalitions with non-traditional progressive allies (e.g. organizations who work on preventing gang violence; challenging long-term prison sentences; or working on other human rights abuses).

We also challenge ourselves and our movement to find creative ways to get our message across. For example, "Live from Death Row" programs feature the voices of prisoners live from their prison cell via telephone hook-up. We have also made special efforts to incorporating spoken word performances, death row art and progressive music in our work. We seek to build on this creativity, especially as a means to reach out to the broader public.

This workshop connects with the Forum's crosscutting themes of growing inequality and institutionalized racism that fuel the prison industrial complex. It will be conducted in English and hand-outs will be provided.