Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 11-7-17

Local
Sentinel Staffers Observe Breast Cancer Awareness Month
The Sentinel Layout and Design Department spearheaded a Breast Cancer Awareness Month Celebration. Before having lunch, the staff walked a block in support of the awareness. The group celebrated one of their staff members, Editor Gwen Hayes, who is a 2-year Breast Cancer survivor.
This ‘selfie’ of the group was taken by Terry Clark – in front. Ronika Hughes and Gwen Hayes are holding the ‘Think Pink’ sign the group carried as they walked the neighborhood. Also in the photo are: Betty Dawkins, Toynetta Cobb, LaVora Edwards, Iris Holton, Tommie Wilson, James Johnson, Michael Hodges, Johnny Watson and C. Blythe Andrews, III, Sentinel President.
Former Hillsborough County Commissioner, Jan Platt, Dies
A popular former Hillsbor- ough County Commissioner and community advocate died on Friday. Mrs. Jan Platt was 81-years-old.
A native of St. Petersburg, Mrs. Platt graduated from Hillsborough High School. She continued her education at Florida State University. Mrs. Platt graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and enrolled at the University of Florida Law School. She remained there for a year.
She also attended the Uni- versity of Virginia and Vander- bilt University for postgraduate studies.
Mrs. Platt was first elected to public office in 1974 when she won a seat on the Tampa City Council. She re- mained in that position until 1978.
That same year, Mrs. Platt successfully campaigned for a seat on the Hillsborough Board of County Commission-
MRS. JAN PLATT 9/27/1936 --- 11/3/2017
ers. She remained in that posi- tion until 1994.
During her tenure as a County Commissioner, Mrs. Platt fought to protect the en- vironment in Tampa Bay.
She was involved in the creation of a county preserva- tion program, fought to in- crease funding for libraries, and led the charge to pass an ordinance banning discrimina- tion based on sexual orienta- tion.
Mrs. Platt left the Board in 1995 to run for Mayor of the
City of Tampa. She was de- feated by former Mayor Dick Greco.
She returned to the Board of County Commissioners and remained there until 2002.
Mrs. Platt is credited with proposing the merger of the City and County libraries. The Jan Platt Library was named in her honor. It opened in De- cember 2000.
She was a member of sev- eral city, county, and state or- ganizations. In 2012, Mrs. Platt was inducted into the Hillsborough County Commis- sion On The Status Of Women Hall Of Fame.
In 2013, the Hillsborough County Board of Commission- ers voted unanimously to re- name the Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protec- tion Program in honor of Mrs. Platt.
She is survived by her hus- band, son, and granddaughter.
Prison Reform Advocate Speaks At USF
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
TAMPA – It’s not a coinci- dence that prisons and prison systems in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean look eerily similar to those in New York or Penn- sylvania.
That’s because the modern penal system was invented in the United States and then replicated throughout the world, said professor and prison reform advocate, Baz Dreisinger.
“America is the one re- sponsible for this mess,” she said. “We exported this sys- tem.”
Dreisinger, who teaches English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, talked about worldwide prison reform Wednesday dur- ing a visit to the University of South Florida.
The author of “Incarcera- tion Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World”, Dreisinger also is the founding academic direc- tor of John Jay's Prison-to- College Pipeline program, which works to increase access to higher education for incar- cerated and formerly incarcer- ated individuals.
Dreisinger’s work in- cludes traveling for two years to dozens of prisons in several countries, including Thailand, Jamaica, and Norway.
Conditions are dire in many of these prisons. For ex-
Baz Dreisinger spoke about the prison systems worldwide designed by the U. S. (Photo credit: John Jay)
ample, about 5,000 prisoners in Uganda are held in a facility that was originally built for 600. They sleep standing up and AIDS infections are at epi- demic levels, she said.
Dreisinger launched a creative writing program at the prison in Uganda and has led arts programs in Jamaica and Singapore.
But such programs are likened to putting “band-aids on amputated limbs” and do not go far enough to prepare the incarcerated for re-entry into society, she said.
True prison reform must come from a sweeping over- haul of criminal justice policies and processes, Dreisinger said.
“A Band-Aid has value,” she said. “But we shall never lose sight...of them systemic changes that need to happen.”
All over the world there is a process of labeling people as
“other,” mass criminalizing them through petty laws, and then subjecting them to mass incarceration.
It’s a form of social control that provides a labor force for the penal system and African Americans and Latinos espe- cially are victims to this cycle here in the United States, she said.
“The idea of making money off of incarcerated people is lu- dicrous,” she said. “You’re re- ally talking about capitalism buying out the justice system.”
While men may be the face of the penal system, the num- ber of women in prison is “growing in epic proportions,” thanks to the so-called ‘war on drugs,’ Dreisinger said.
That’s because women are “the low-level foot soldiers in the war,” she said.
Changing the system re- quires changing how we think about incarceration and the in- carcerated’s reentry into soci- ety, Dreisinger said.
Reentry particularly is dif- ficult because the formerly in- carcerated face discrimination in almost every arena, includ- ing housing and employment.
While there are “pockets of progress,” the public narrative about the prison system will remain the same – and it’s on the United States to lead the way, Driesinger said.
“We need to think collec- tively and think about best practices on a global scale,” she said.
Church And Community United: A Service To Bring Our Communities Together
Representative Ross Spano and local church lead- ers have come together to promote unity in the Tampa Bay community, hosting a unity service on Sunday, No- vember 19 from 6 p. m. to 8:30 p. m. at LifePoint Church, 8702 Hunters Lake Dr., Tampa, FL.
These local leaders have put together two successful unity services over the past year. First at Bell Shoals Bap- tist Church in Brandon last November, and at Brown Me- morial Church of God in Christ, Tampa this past May.
“With the current political and social environment in America, these local leaders and myself believe we must come together as one com- munity to pray and worship,” said Representative Spano. “If we are to end the divisions in this country, it must start with the church and it must begin with prayer.”
Pastor Brad White of LifePoint Church will be host- ing the event, with other local pastors and community lead- ers also speaking during the service.
Meeting
Neighborhood Meeting for High School ‘TTT’
Hillsborough County Public Schools will hold a neighborhood meeting to inform adjacent property owners and area residents about the district’s plans to locate a new high school in the Ruskin/Balm area.
The neighborhood meeting will be held at Shields Middle School, 15732 Beth Shields Way, Ruskin, on Tuesday, Novem- ber 7, at 5:30 p. m. This is not a school attendance boundary meeting.
The school (High School TTT) is projected to open in August 2020. The high school property is located on CR 672 (Balm Rd.) east of U. S. 301, across from the Ayersworth and Mirabella sub- division. The new school will relieve nearby Lennard High School and East Bay High School.
Information on attendance boundaries and naming of the new high school will come at a later date.
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