BALTIMORE — It was a crowded barbershop on a Saturday evening, but this group didn’t come here for a hair cut.
“The reason why we’re here is because we know that whether its a fauly design or broken or whatever you want to call it, we have an over-incarceration of black men in Maryland," Attorney General Anthony Brown said.
Brown and Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue are usually on opposite sides of an issue inside the courtroom. But on this day, they joined forces. They’re aligned in the larger pursuit of justice in a legal system they call "broken.”
"This is just the beginning of the conversation and we are hoping that conversations are leading to solutions."
The Groomatory was one of three barbershops Brown and Dartigue visited in Baltimore.
The pair was here not to talk, but to listen.
Several inmates shared their stories, including Kevin Shird. He served 12 years, and is now a published author and associate professor at johns hopkins. But when he first was released, he couldn’t even find an apartment. Nobody would rent to him because of his record.
“If a guy gets out of prison, he wants to do everything right. He wants a job, he doesn’t want to go back to prison, he wants to be a productive member of the community, and he can’t get a place to sleep, what are we doing? We’ve set this guy up to be pushed back into the street.
Tyrone Little had a similar experience. He says the key to his success was access to education. He's now a Ph.D candidate. But he had to fight to get there.
"Every door, when i got out after serving 38 years from 1977 to 2015, every door, every opportunity was closed in my face.”
A few attendees asked brown and dartigue - "now what?"
They said this was just the first step in putting together a larger initiative to reduce incarceration, and they plan to include the community every step of the way.
“We’re not pretending to suggest that we are going to be able to tackle every piece of this, but we can certainly make a difference," AG Brown said.
Why barbershops? Brown and Dartigue say barbershops have been a cornerstone of African-American communities for centuries, and this is where the real conversations take place.
