The Smart Society's Guide on How to Fight Crime, Reduce Recidivism, and Close Jails and Prisons

An old social phenomenon known today as "cancel culture" is largely responsible for America's incessantly high crime, incarceration, and recidivism rates. It began with the unreasonable discrimination and disenfranchisement of virtually all ex-prisoners being enshrined into national law by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The nefarious wording within these post-Civil War amendments paved the way for the federal government, state governments, and mainstream society to basically declare that any person convicted of a "felony" is effectively no longer an American citizen. As a result, millions of nonviolent and first-time offender ex-prisoners have been forced to live lives of desperation and despair, being part of one of the most openly discriminated-against groups in America since Reconstruction.

Studies show that 100% of American adults repeatedly break the law in one way or another during their lifetimes. However, getting caught breaking the law is what engenders punishment and consequences, not simply committing an act of illegality. That being said, studies have also shown that there is generally no inherent physical or psychological difference between people who have been caught committing crimes and those who haven't. Therefore, there is no justifiable reason to render lifetime penalties of social disenfranchisement to citizens who have been caught committing first-time or nonviolent offenses after they have served their time in jail or prison. This post-incarceration mistreatment and extraneous punishment is the direct cause of America's high recidivism rate among ex-prisoners, not an inherent proclivity on the part of ex-prisoners for engaging in criminal activity. This means that with the right correctional recipe, America's criminal justice systems can greatly decrease their default reliance on punitive institutions and policies, incarceration, policing, and self-interested politicians and bureaucrats.

Written by two ex-prisoners who are also bestselling authors, this much-needed handbook specifies ten things that government and society can do together to greatly decrease our high crime, incarceration, and recidivism rates. It offers the necessary solutions that will subsequently enable the closure of many jails and prisons all across America.
 
The chapters are:
 

1. Make Ex-Prisoners Who've Paid Their Debts to Society Full Citizens Again by Outlawing Discrimination in Employment, Housing & Voting
2. Refocus the Tenets of Incarceration on Rehabilitation & Life Correction
3. Universally Ban Cash Bail
4. Ban Private Prisons
5. Require Prisoners to Submit Feasible Life Action Plans Before Release and Enable Halfway Houses, Probation, Parole & Supervised Release Offices to Make Resources Available to Support Those Plans
6. Make Second Offense Violent Gun or Knife Crime Carry a Mandatory Federal Life Sentence & Apply Gun Ownership Disenfranchisement to Violent Offenders Only
7. Standardize Conjugal Visitation for Nonviolent Prisoners
8. Pay More for Industrial Prison Labor
9. Utilize More Creative Alternatives to Incarceration for Nonviolent First-Time Offenders & Juveniles
10. Increase Training Requirements, Supervision, Accountability & Pay for Police Officers, Probationary & Correctional Staff

Richard Bovan, an ex-prisoner who served over ten years in prison, is now a successful self-made entrepreneur and motivational writer for formerly and currently incarcerated men, women and juveniles. Richard is dedicated to helping curb crime and the high incarceration and recidivism rates of the U.S. criminal justice system and counsels ex-prisoners from all over the world on issues of mentality/lifestyle change, reentry, and achieving real success after incarceration.

Demico Boothe is considered by many to be an expert on many issues dealing with African-Americans, particularly the U.S. Criminal Justice System as it relates to black men. Boothe is the first person to ever publish a book specifically about how the "Prison Industrial Complex" affects the African-American community. Since the release of his first title in 2007, Demico has been crisscrossing the country networking and speaking and raising national awareness about the crisis of African-American male criminality and imprisonment. Demico has found that he is uniquely equipped to address certain dynamics within the mindsets of many African-American male youth as well as the American criminal justice system that are responsible for the creation and continuance of this crisis. He currently resides in his hometown of Memphis, TN where he works with the local community on a daily basis to address issues involving young black men. Demico is also an excellent speaker who has spoken by request at a wide variety of venues including churches, colleges, prisons, jails, halfway houses, and many private venues. Demico Boothe has been contacted and interviewed by many media outlets, including CNN, The Dr. Phil Show, The Foxxhole w/Jamie Foxx (Hollywood, CA), The Commercial Appeal Newspaper (Memphis, TN), The Michael Baisden Show, Playboy Magazine, Al Jazeera The Americas, The Final Call, Upfront News w/Tony Cox, The Daily News Newspaper, The Portland Skanner, The Black Author's Network, The Sankofa Society, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education Magazine (Fairfax, VA), KPFA 91.4 Radio (Berkeley, CA), KBOO Radio (Portland, OR), 90.3 FM WHCR (New York, NY), The Thaddeus Matthews Show, Black Liberation Radio (WBLR.com), Pacific Radio (KPFT.org, Houston, TX), WVOX 1460 AM (New Rochelle, NY), The Rev. and Reggie Show, WUVS-LP 103.7 FM The Beat (Muskegon, MI), Internet Talk Radio, Real Talk w/Brother Neal, African World Books Radio (Baltimore, MD), Tree of Life Harlem Bookstore Internet Radio (Atlanta, GA), Conversations with Cogee, KLAV (Las Vegas), KJCB AM 770 Louisiana, The Village Report w/Eric Croomes, WLOK Radio (Memphis, TN), etc.