EMPLOYEE DUPREE IS BEGINNING TO BE FREE

The Connecticut Juvenile Training School ran into significant trouble in 2015 because of reports by the Child's Advocate of Youth Service Officers using harsh restraint techniques on residents. In addition the Child's Advocate Office also released a scathing report about CJTS management that were not running the facility well. Then CT lawmakers jumped on the bandwagon with investigations and public hearings about CJTS, plus many legislators actually toured the facility. During all of this turmoil the white management et al. picked YSO Dupree to portray as the face of harsh restraints of residents. Let me add Dupree is young, black, muscular and chosen as villain by media and others in order to escape the universal condemnation that rained down on the heads of white management about things gone wrong at the CJTS Plantation. Media coverage about Dupree was relentless and unforgiving ; white management took cover behind the muscular back of Dupree and in the time honored American tradition echoed those words "blame it on the black man." Dupree was placed on the Department of Children and Families Central Registry which basically claims anyone on that list is a danger to work with youth. However now after an investigation it appears as if Dupree was taken off the Central registry, but his fight for justice continues.

Now Dupree is in hearings before Office of Labor Relations to ascertain whether any punishment is necessary for his alleged harsh resident restraint of a resident. It is safe to surmise Dupree has already suffered untold agonies from (1.) losing his job, (2.) standing before the glaring media spotlight, (3.) being used by white management to cover up their own incompetence about running CJTS and Pubelo Girls Unit.

In the Arc of the Moral Universe it is possible Dupree is beginning to be free, but that freedom comes at a high price.  Let me also remind readers that what is happening to Dupree is just the latest saga in America of ill treatment of black males in all spheres of life.

SUPERVISORS ON PLANTATION PAID LARGE SALARIES BUT NEGLECT DUTIES

The year 2016 should be time for fresh starts in the lives of people, new diets, self awareness, striving to become better people. You would think that after Connecticut Juvenile Training School was pilloried by the Child Advocate in 2015 for dysfunctional management, and legislative hearings about closing the facility down, maybe things might change on the plantation. However in 2016 there are reports of how CJTS supervisors are making in excess of $80,000- $100,000 dollars while neglecting duties related to male incarcerated residents. Let me be clear. it has been reported by reliable sources how resident's safety is being overlooked. When residents act out behaviorally and are not compliant with Youth Service officers directives, hands on restraints generally occur. Then it at some point decided to have the non- compliant resident isolated in his room or the padded cell. If this does happen, then periodic checks on that secluded resident should take place at regular intervals-but sources report it does not. Supervisors on the CJTS plantation are paid large salaries but neglect their duties.

Sources report how these well paid supervisors work hard to get overtime pay but are not checking on secluded residents. Instead many of these supervisors are busy walking around the facility or getting ready to visit bars on the weekend. Then these same supervisors pass on paper work to other management types to sign as having verified the resident is okay. Say What !! Yes you read it here first, top supervisors will ask other management types to sign papers that residents are cognitively and physically fine, even though these other supervisors might have been off work during the incident. How on God's green earth can top management officials fix their mouths to ask someone else to (1) falsify signing a document ,  and (2) not check on the mental or physical state of residents involved in traumatic restraint events ? The CJTS and Department of Children and Families hierarchy just don't seem to get it. There are several sets of eyes watching the CJTS / DCF monolith, waiting for the slightest infraction to occur. Now there are rumors about more tom-foolery from dysfunctional Key Stone Cops management.

And we thought the year 2016 would be about change on the plantation.

BLACK FREEDOM FIGHTERS AND THE UNEASY RELATIONSHIP WITH WHITE ACTIVISTS

This writer prepared to spend Sunday at home reading a book titled The Great Hunger Ireland 1845-1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith. However freedom fighters involved in Moral Monday CT and #BlackLivesMatter invited me to attend a meeting with whites who wanted to learn about what the black struggle is all about. These white people recently went out and held up #BlackLivesMatter signs in their suburban bailiwick ad were surprised at the amount of negativity received from passing motorist. So we sat in the room and started to talk with whites and discovered something familiar in this conversation and past dialogue with white folk... "their existential angst."  Black people tried in this latest meeting to 'school' white folk that some of what they voiced as opinion and conversation was offensive in the context of this black struggle. A few whites became highly agitated and said so, some threatened to leave the meeting, voices were raised. And therein -at least for me et al.- lies the problem. For some reason whites continue to talk about wanting to be informed, work as allies, but these same whites come with mental baggage or notions of other worldviews [ All Lives Matter, Police Lives Matter ] and then get pissed off when told "hey your worldviews and speech are barriers to black liberation." Is it time for black freedom fighters to end this relationship with whites?

In Saint Louis, Missouri one prominent religious voice in the struggle for black liberation said this " I am so damn tired of listening to white peoples feelings." In several conversations with whites over the past year since Moral Monday CT was started by Bishop John Selders and wife Pamela Selders, white existential angst has been put forth as if it were The Holy Grail. Whites have questioned MMCT strategies, tactics, and indirectly the black leadership of Bishop Selders and Pam. And as granddaddy would say "here we be, once mo' and again with dis foolishness" i.e. white feelings about black agendas. It takes time, energy,  the patience of Job and thick skin to listen to whites emotional catharsis about "their feelings" while trying to explain how blacks feel. The striking thing about all conversations with whites is how they keep trying to dilute the very essence of this freedom fighter struggle, by injecting in to the conversation ideations like All Lives Matter or Police Lives Matter.    Not one of the whites attending the meeting yesterday could give working definitions of racism or discuss the origins of Moral Monday  or #BlackLivesMatter. Yet whites tried to tell blacks in that room about feeling uncomfortable about some tactics of the movement ; hold on white folks, didn't you come to Bishop John Selders and Pamela asking to be guided from your own version of Plato's Myth of the Cave, where you were looking at forms and shadows that you perceived were real ? And on that journey out of the darkness of your mental cave toward the light... representing truth, did not many of the white folk hesitate ? In Plato's Myth of The Cave some people viewed the light and went back to the forms illuminated on the wall, that light was bright and revealing, it was more comfortable to embrace the lie [forms on the wall ].  It is apparent that after several years of talking with white folk about the freedom fighter movement black dialogue is not resonating inside of white consciousness.

At this juncture it is necessary to make hard decisions about working with white activists. We as black people are living in perilous times inside of America, police killings of blacks, and all the social barriers erected to hinder blacks make our existence a living nightmare. There is no time to indulge whites in banter about "their feelings" when the very existence of blacks is at stake. Hovering over the heads of black people like "The Sword of Damocles" is endemic American racism which manifest itself in forms more hideous than the face of the Gorgon Medusa. And while we as black people struggle with the horror of this hideousness of racism white people come to us and want to spew forth "their uncomfortableness or feelings" about black organizations.

The meeting Sunday finally ended with whites feeling threatened and blacks unable to move a white one dimensional worldview into a better understanding of what it means to live black.

It is time for black leadership to make that hard decision and publicly break from white folk as it relates to being involved in this movement. White people have given us no choice and no room to maneuver regarding this subject. To be sure there will be wailing  and gnashing of teeth when we sever the relationship with white activists. They will claim to have been cast out into the Stygian Darkness. However whites will have to endure the pain.

 Memo to white people: blacks folks have endured pain for 400 plus years in America.

SECRET MEETING WITH PLANTATION WORKERS ABOUT INJUSTICE

The employees of Connecticut Juvenile Training School and Department of Children and Families Hamilton Street office contacted DCF Plantation staff writers. The goal of these employees was and is to discuss the racial injustice, bias, and white supremacy that exists within both organizations. Such a meeting as this is historic in many respects, for years certain members of DCF Plantation hierarchy tried to keep employees from talking about racial bias or injustice. Those in charge of the DCF white supremacy leadership used unsavory tactics to silence any possible opposition to their rule, even going so far as to fire former CJTS employee Cornell Lewis [ also founder of this blog ] on trumped up charges. However an arbitrator found Lewis had been fired for no justifiable reason and ordered DCF to rehire him. All of these shenanigans surrounding Lewis came about because he organized workers to file a class action lawsuit concerning racial discrimination. During the seven years Lewis et al. were fighting for justice other plantation workers would not help, shying away from people filing the lawsuit.

Now however it seems like there is some sort of consciousness raising among those oppressed and embattled workers from both facilities. Over the past few months lawmakers have held hearings about CJTS use of restraints on residents, the Child Advocate Office released a scathing report about CJTS and DCF. Youth Service Officer Dupree has been made the poster child of harmful restraints at CJTS, might I might add Dupree is this muscular black man-and of course white management put the blame of incompetent leadership on Dupree.. as reasons why that facility is in disarray.

Employees from both facilities sat down at a local eatery in Hartford to discuss issues they felt are representative of their particular institutions. According to Hamilton Street workers " we are pushed to perform at levels that cause stress for us. White management is using children of color to enhance the power of DCF and frustration grows at Hamilton Street office. Just because Commissioner Joette Katz promoted a black man to be second in command at DCF has no bearing on the fact discrimination is still rampant at Hamilton Street facility. Hell, the black man who is second in charge has no real power within a facility rampant with white supremacy." When it came to CJTS employees this was said " There is no doubt racism exists at our facility, we see it in how overtime is doled out to those people [ usually white ] management looks upon with favor. We [ YSOs ] are made out to be scapegoats for this dysfunctional facility and hoe management has run it into the ground. When we try organizing white leadership goes after all employees they consider threats. We realize now that when Cornell Lewis was an employee those things he said about CJTS were and are still true. Superintendent Rosenbeck never comes out of his office to manage this facility, when we bring him empirical data concerning injustice or racial bias his reply is  'I did not know', then things never get better." The meeting concluded with vows for future actions at both facilities by employees to highlight injustice which occur.

alea iacta est [ the die is cast ].