 I think part of the reason I'm here today as a provocateur and agent of change and someone who believes in truth and justice, I got involved in this criminal justice stuff because we have to talk about the truth, right? And this country was founded on racism. This country was founded on sexism. And to think that because there's one black man in public housing in Washington, DC that think everything has changed, I'm sorry, but that is incorrect. You know what I'm saying? And what I really wanna talk about here today is that people of color in this country, in particular blacks, the indigenous, Latinos, Tejanos, Chicanos, Mexicanos, Mexicans, Mexicans, Locaseas, Hispanics, whatever you wanna call this, even with fighting for our freedom since day one. And what's happening inside these prison walls today is the new slavery. This is the new slavery. Let me tell you, in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was supposed to outlaw discrimination. And what happened? Well, they kind of just figured out how they can manipulate the laws. See, because since 1970 to today, the prison population has exploded by some 700%, okay? And the majority of the prisons are filled with blacks and Latinos. Why is it? It's because we're inherently more criminal. I don't think so. Why is it? I'll tell you why. It's because the war on drugs. It's because zero tolerance get tough on crime laws. It's because of social economic isolation. It's because of the private prison industry, as we mentioned. And I'm not up here to tell you that everybody in prison is innocent because that's not true. Well, what I will tell you is that not everybody in prison is guilty. I, okay, there's so much to talk about. There's so many good things that we've already heard on the panel, but I wanna tell you that, again, none of what I'm telling you is lies, okay? I'm here to tell you from the Bureau of Justice, the statistics will tell you that what is it, some one in three, that will be imprisoned at some point in his life? And what is it, some one in six Hispanic or Latino will be imprisoned at some point in his life? That's scary. You know, we talked about young boys growing up. When I was coming up, I was always taught, hey, something's going on, don't look at the police. Just get out of here. Why is this gonna happen? They'll throw you in prison and they will leave you there. Throw away the key. That's probably what we've done to the majority of our children today. Listen, what's going inside these prison walls right now is completely bogus. You can walk into any prison right now and see a rapist or a murderer sitting next to a guy who has an addiction problem. See a rapist or a murderer next to a guy who's in there for a second DUI. What's up with that? And they're cellies. They're bumped up. Why is it that I got a good friend of mine and probably a good, many like you know, a guy who's doing an eight year bid for an eight gallon bag of crap? I'm sure we're well aware of the crap versus cocaine disparity epidemic. Again, issues. The school of prison and the pipeline is strong. Let's talk about the truth. Let's talk about what's really going on there besides things you might not see in the media. I brought some resources here. Let's talk about this. Well, who's this judge that we got over in Pennsylvania taking a million dollars to lock up children? We know about this juvenile. This guy's got a million dollars. He's willing to risk his feet, his freedom for a million dollars. That's how much money that the system is gonna make from this. And where's that money coming from? Oh, you guessed it, our tax dollars. Let's talk about some stuff you might not see in the media. We talked about Beaumont. For those that might know about Bloody Beaumont over in Texas, I'll give you an example. Something you won't see in the media. How about when a black inmate assaults a white corrections officer? He's probably been bullied. He's probably been picked on. He's probably been nagged at. He's probably dying from lack of stimulation inside this prison that's 120 degrees. So he assaults this white racist officer. What happens? The white guards sneak in some butcher knives to the Arabian nation boys, and they have a bloodbath in the cafeteria the next day. And what you'll find in the media, what you'll see in the media is they'll say, today there was some servants and some inmates were injured. Right? They see a foot now. And I can't continue on at all, but I just wanna talk about, in Texas we talk about third world countries. Of us having torture happening in third world countries. Well, the United Nations Committee Against Torture has pegged to Texas some of the worst prisons in the world. And again, talking about the new slavery, why was the Angola State Prison in Louisiana a former slave plantation? You know, first and foremost, the war on trellis. How has this crippled our communities? I mean, again, let's move this into perspective when we talk about the law, this construction of what we feel is right and just. It should not be a law. The law is so focused in some respects. And I'll give you another example is that, and again, nothing to anybody who drinks alcohol, but I used to live in the Beer City, USA. Oh yeah, beer, all right, let's have some beer, let's have some fun, but shame on you and go to prison for smoking a plant. Let me tell you something, beer liquor is far more dangerous than somebody that's puffing out a little dope, a little weed, and yeah, I say weed, part of the slang. Next I want to talk about police brutality, Mr. Michael Oughtgarve, police brutality, and let's not forget one of the highest profile stars, someone who's heralded in this country, was the biggest victim of police brutality, and that's Dr. Martin Luther King. We are here celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for Dream Week. And this man, let's talk about the truth, a matter of public record. This man was assassinated by agents of this government. Let's talk about police brutality, let's talk about the truth, okay? The next thing I want to talk about is that, yes, I've been arrested on some racist bullshit, no, I haven't been to prison, but I've been locked up in a jail cell, no, it's not fun, the case was immediately thrown out of court, the ALCU, so they couldn't do anything, so now to talk about this racist bullshit, every time I go for a government job, I'm actually having a felony, right? The next thing I want to talk about is that, some of us are talking about what we're doing inside the criminal justice system, some of our work. A few years ago, when I was living in Michigan, there was a deputy warden, a black man, who was down for the cause. He says, Max, maybe you got some influence, you got some charisma, you know, why don't you come in here and help out some of these Latinos? I was like, really, you know, what's going on? He's like, man, these guys are here stabbing each other on a $40 piece of plastic. What are you talking about, man? He's like, man, we need you to come in here and take a look. I went inside this prison and I was shocked. Couldn't tell the difference between this prison and a mental institution, where everybody who's sick, injured, ill, or whatever is getting aspirin, right? Talking about addiction, talking about drugs. I had the protein, I had the protein for a broken leg, whatever you got, right? And I went into these prisons, I got a couple of pictures here because I wanted to share with you. As I walked in here, I was shocked because I felt like I was in a family reunion. Everybody in there looked just like me. Felt like I was in a high school reunion. Take your high school reunion because everybody I grew up with was locked up, right? Sure, many of you know the same story. So as I started hearing some of these stories and started seeing these horrific conditions, I said, you know what, I can write about it. So recently I wrote a play called The Impression of the Impress. Some of you were at the reading that we had and it's a phenomenal story where I talk about true stories of, again, men who are innocent. One of my good friends, Hakeem Crank, was put in a prison for 15 years facing maybe a lifetime bid when he was forced to confess over something that never even happened, right? That's what happens, right? When he's tough, I cry, someone's gonna pay. If you can't find who did the crime, go get him in a room and you're gonna interrogate him. These are things that we don't often hear about, okay? Things that we don't get as much attention. The other thing is that what I want to do with this play is that today with police brutality, we got these weapons with us. These camera phones. We're able to catch gross atrocities of the law. Things that we already know happens inside of our communities, but we're able to actually document them, right? We see all these guys, these police officers, shooting black men when they say, oh, this guy went for my taser. Man, no, he didn't. We got proof. He never used for nothing, no? But we don't see what happens inside the prisons. And I know what happens inside the prison so I wrote this play. I've got an amazing play ready for production and I'm looking to get it off the ground this year and I encourage you all, if you know of anyone who wants to see this get off the ground, get in touch with me, okay? There's so much work to do and I don't think things are gonna change. We talk about these legislations. Look, the system is comfortable with locking up all these people. They're making money off it. I'm part of these things that there's some sick pleasure that this country gets off putting men in the shoe, right? Special housing unit. Make them go insane, right? You go into solitary confinement, you're either gonna leave a schizophrenic or a scholar. I hope you brought a couple books with you. I'm telling you folks, there's some gross atrocities happening inside these prisons and we gotta make some change with this.