Decarcerate the Garden State advocated against forced labor in prisons during an event Saturday in Plainfield. Watch video
PLAINFIELD -- Six people stand at the corner of Front Street and Park Avenue, rapping, while a video camera films them.
The microphone changes hands as the song segues from verse to chorus.
"When we put down the tools/And we give it a rest/Non-violent/Enslavement protest."
The group, comprised mostly of young Plainfield residents, was recording a music video Saturday to protest forced labor by the incarcerated. The 13th Amendment permits involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime.
To Bob Witanek, co-founder of Decarcerate the Garden State, that's unacceptable. He's promoting a planned prison strike for Sept. 9, when inmates across the country say they'll refuse to work. Solidarity actions are planned for Camden, Highland Park, Newark, Trenton and other cities in New Jersey.
The date is an homage to a 1971 riot at Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, N.Y. About 1,000 inmates rose up to demand better living conditions, taking 42 staff members hostage in the process. The turmoil left 43 people dead.
Decarcerate the Garden State also recently turned its focus to national non-profit The Sentencing Project's June report, which found black people in New Jersey are incarcerated at 12 times the rate of white people -- the highest disparity of any state. Nationally, the ratio is about 5 to 1.
Witanek attributes New Jersey's numbers to many factors, including the significantly higher poverty rate among the state's black population. Still, he doesn't believe economic factors tell the whole story.
"At least part of it is differences in policing, in prosecution and in courts," he said. "It'd be impossible to come up with that statistic, otherwise."
He's taking action to combat the ratio, which he calls "a blemish on New Jersey." Decarcerate the Garden State is asking people to come to them if they think racial factors impacted the prosecution or sentencing of someone they know.
Once Witanek has data, he said he plans to demand that local and state government bodies address it.
"What there needs to be, on every level, is an investigation and a call by government to say, 'Bring us the information, and if you can make a case, we'll take a look.'" he said. "They have to admit that there's a problem."
Ireyah Stevens, 22, joined Decarcerate the Garden State's event Saturday because she said she was troubled by New Jersey's incarceration rate of black people. The numbers hit particularly hard in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has gathered steam nationally in the past two years.
She said being black in America feels scary these days.
"Either you die, or you get incarcerated," said Stevens, of Plainfield.
Black Lives Matter ties directly to other issues affecting black Americans, like nutrition in prisons and corrections officer-inflicted violence against inmates, Witanek said. More than half of New Jersey's prison population is black, according to The Sentencing Project's report.
"Incarcerated black lives matter, as well," Witanek said.
Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati. Find NJ.com on Facebook.