DEFUND D.O.C.s UNDERGROUND HIP-HOP ALBUM, DIESEL THERAPY, USES SALES TO FURTHER SYSTEMIC CHANGE

Nationwide - September 5, 2024 (USANews.com)

By: Daniel J. Simms, Independent Journalist/Podcaster/Activist. www.DefundDOC.net.

Systemic change is not only needed it is necessary! Every penny raised selling the underground hip-hop album, Diesel Therapy, goes back into fighting for you, your children, and descendants. Ensuring they are not unjustly piped into mass incarceration. This nonpartisan endeavor seeks to unite Republicans and Democrats behind criminal-justice reform. There has been a growing bipartisan consensus that the uniquely American policy of mass incarceration is both fiscally and morally unsustainable. (See: Long Term Sentences: Time to Reconsider the Scale of Punishment. 86 UMKC L. Rev. 113, 114 (2008). Marc Mauer). In February of 2006 I was thrown away by society at age twenty-five. Murdered with a slow death sentence. Thirty-two years in prison. Otherwise known as Civil Death. (See: The New Civil Death: Rethinking Punishment in the Era of Mass Incarceration. 160 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1789, 1797 (2012). Gabriel J. Chin). Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of other troubled Americans churned through the current mass incarceration system are killed similarly. Some even labeling the outrage a Slow Holocaust.  (See: Holocaust in Slow Motion?: Americas Mass Incarceration and the Role of Discretion. Mark Osler and Mark W. Bennett. 7 Depaul J. Soc. Justice 117 (2014)). What was my crime? A botched drug deal. In one short moment, a dispute over the prices of street drugs, a demand for money back using a gun, turned into decades and decades of misery. No victim was severely hurt. Nevertheless I am harmed and traumatized on a daily basis in prison. No one was killed. Yet I am being killed slowly. Disproportionate and excessive sentences like mine are not the exception they are the norm across the Nation. (See: Excessive Prison Sentences, Punishment Goals, and the Eighth Amendment: Proportionality Relative to What? 89 Minn. L. Rev. 571, 574 (2005). Richard S. Frase).

When George Floyd was murdered by law enforcement the American people rose up against systemic injustices like these. There were 10,600 protests across the country in the wake of his death (See: Shot in the Streets, Buried in the Courts: An Assault on Protester Rights. 52 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1569 at 1573, 1575 (2022). Olalekan N. Sumonu). These protesters demanded systemic change. Yet our Nations criminal justice system has remained unchanged. It is time to listen to the American people that protested and demanded reform. The immense pain and trauma modern prison life inflicts upon millions of our troubled Americans is horrific. Every measure of political and social scientists has recognized that our Nations mass incarceration strategies have been a moral, legal, social, and economic disaster that cannot end soon enough. (End Mass Incarceration Now. N.Y. Times. Editorial. May 24, 2014. pg. SR10). It must be reformed. 

With fifteen more years to go it is unlikely I will make it to my release date. (See: State v. Daniel J. Simms, 171, Wn. 2d. 244). Therefore it has become my lifes mission to expose the atrocities occurring across the Nation. To ensure our descendants inherit a fair and just system. The fact is, the systemic brutalities prolific in the Department of Corrections (D.O.C.) should be considered crimes against humanity. For instance torturous solitary confinement has been scientifically proven to injure prisoners brains harmfully rewiring them.Yet the cruel practice is used prolifically across the country. (See: Psychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement. 22 Wash. U. J. L. and Poly 325 (2006). Grassian). The alarming truth is that the government, Federal and State, are the biggest Slaveholder in human history. People incarcerated in America....are forced to work for pennies an hour with the profits going to Countries, States, and private corporations, including Target, Revlon, and Whole Foods. (See: America Never Abolished Slavery. Huffington Post. (May 2, 2015). Angela F. Chan. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/angela-f-chan/America-never-abolished-slaveryb6777420.html [http://www.perma.cc/HD9K-VZBF]). The question American voters should be asking is why they government, Federal and State, has become a blatant Kleptocracy. Stealing the wages of millions of imprisoned Americans. Keeping prisoners and their families in poverty. Then there is the degrading massive sexual assault of prisoners. Forcing them to suffer anguishing systemic naked strip searches. It is repugnant. (See: Visual Rape: A Look at the Dubious Legality of Strip Searches. 13 J. Mar. L. Rev. 273 (1980). Shuldiner). Troubled Americans are separated from their families and communities effectively alienating them and further disadvantaging their chances at reintegration. (See: Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse. Todd Clear). The  extraction of prisoners families funds, through expensive phone calls, media, personal property, commissary, and a myriad of other hidden costs keeps our troubled people destitute. (See: For the Poorest People in Prison, its a Struggle to Access Even Basic Necessities. Prison Policy Initiative (Nov. 18, 2021). Tiana Herring. http://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2021/11/18/indigence/). The insidious lack of adequate mental health treatment keeps our troubled citizens in foreseeable cycles of recidivism. (See: Why are Prisons Brim-Full of the Mentally Ill: Is Their Incarceration a Solution or a Sign of Failure? 11 Geo. Mason U. Civ. Rts. L. J. 157, 157-58 (2000). Paul F. Stavis). 

Likewise continued warehousing of prisoners while failing to ensure meaningful higher education and career training opportunities guarantees new victims of newly released Americans. (See: Cost and Punishment: Reassessing Incarceration Costs and the Value of College-in-Prison Program. Northern Ill. Univ. L. Rev. (2011). Gregory A. Knott). The immense harm placed upon the innocent children of the incarcerated is a largely ignored factor that has damaged future generations. Children of incarcerated parents, the invisible victims of mass incarceration, suffer tremendous physical, psychological, educational, and financial burdens---detrimental consequences that can continue even long after a parent has been released. (See: Prisoners of Fate: The Challenges of Creating Change for Children. 77 MD. L. Rev. 385 (2018). Amy B. Cyphert). For most prisoners, including me, simply being incarcerated is grounds enough for the State to take their children and alienate them from parental love. Which is incredibly damaging. (See: ASFA in the Age of Mass Incarceration: Go to Prison--Lose Your Child? 40 WM. Mitchell L. Rev. 990, 1003 (2014). Jean C. Lawrence). What makes it even worse is new studies have conclusively proven that long sentences in mass incarceration do not work. More and more research now suggests that imprisonment...has, on balance, no rehabilitative or deterrent effects after release. (See: A Natural Experiment Study of the Effects of Imprisonment on Violence in the Community. 3 Nat. Hum. Beh. 671, 671 (2019). David J. Harding, et al.). To date, prison policy has largely ignored research on imprisonment and reoffending. At present, we have enough evidence to be fairly confident [that]...prison does not seem to be any more effective than noncustodial sanctions at reducing recidivism. (See: The Impact on the Risk of Violent Recidivism. 103 Marq. L. Rev. 775, 787 (2020). Jennifer E. Copp). 

In light of the above, to educate and share the truth that current criminal-justice policies have failed, we are dedicating one hundred percent of all profits from the sale of the underground hip-hop album, Diesel Therapy, towards furthering the goals of systemic change. We greatly need everyone to help by obtaining the album. Click here to receive your own copy: www.DefundDOC.net/music-album