The recent video of a police officer violently assaulting a teenage girl in her high school classroom is just one example of black women and girls being attacked by male police. These incidents have caused many to realize the need for criminal justice reform is not just an issue men of color are deeply impacted by.
The 9to5 National Association of Working Women has understood for years the devastating impact mass incarceration has on women. With more than 1 million women behind bars or under the control of the criminal justice system, women are the fastest-growing segment of the incarcerated population, increasing at nearly double the rate of men since 1985.
Given this reality, I did not find it surprising in 2011 when 9to5 members of the Georgia chapter expressed a desire for a “Ban the Box” campaign in the city of Atlanta. The goal was to get Atlanta to become the first city in Georgia to eliminate the checkbox question of past criminal offenses on public employment applications.
After little more than a year of our organizing, Atlanta responded to our demand by “banning the box” on city employment applications.
The Georgia chapter of 9to5 went on to join other community and criminal justice organizations to urge Gov. Nathan Deal to issue an executive order banning the box on state employment applications. Earlier this year, Gov. Deal made history by becoming the first governor of a Southern state to issue an executive order banning the box.
We at 9to5 are excited to see the momentum behind criminal-justice reform. When 30 women, almost all African-American, came together in 2011 in the IBEW union hall to discuss launching the “Ban the Box” campaign, we never expected that just four years later, President Barack Obama would issue an executive order banning the box on federal employee applications.
But we know “Ban the Box” and President Obama’s recent order releasing over 6,000 non-violent prisoners are just the first steps in addressing our flawed legal system.
9to5 members impacted by racial and gender bias in our legal system share with me the need to address prosecutorial discretion, predatory policing and the reality that women often find themselves incarcerated for executing survival tactics when dealing with a violent intimate partner. A California Department of Corrections study found that an astronomical 93 percent of women convicted of killing an intimate partner had been abused by that partner.
While the Georgia chapter of 9to5 strongly supports these first steps by the Obama administration, we anticipate additional reforms to address the many needs of those currently incarcerated, formerly incarcerated and all people with criminal records.
Charmaine Davis is Georgia state director of the 9to5 National Association of Working Women.
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