VOL XIV NO.13 FEBRUARY 19 - 25.1992
orr-One month go t Corinthian Baptist
Church, th Chica 0, Dlinoi Living Light Outre ch
nlstrie founder and director, everend Bob
'eeden, deli red powerful m ge to Detroit.
To parap and conceptualize what Reverend
Weeden d, the rebuilding of Detroit i not the job of
the city, tate or federal governments. 1be job i a
community job and the burden of fulfilling that need
OTT'
,
t uarely on the houlde of the church.
Reverend eeden did not mince words. He believ
our deteriorating neighborhoods and many of our drug
and alcohol ddicted young people can become eful
and functional.
He ith the uthority of one he> been
there beca be dmi to being an ex-felon and a
former heroin ddict who tole, robbed, pimped and did
whatever necessary to feed the demon that drove him.
UT OUG "pirltual akening" efound
God and today hing the 0 pel of Jes
Chri LIt
An excerpt from Bob and Angel (the Reverend'
wife, who al 0 been ordained) Weeden' testimony
reads: "God has directed me to hare with you th great
miraculous thin h done in our lives. Not long
go we were running for the devil; heavily involved in
drugs and prostitution. My habit co t me $500 per day
S8 REBUILD, A-10
By BEN SCHMnT
C!ptI!I N ... Servlc.
LANSING-DOUble-bunking,
boot mps, and increased prison
space are all ways Michigan is trying
o olve its prison overcrowding
problem.
But are any of them working?
"We've built more prisons than
any state in the union, in the history
of the United States, in the past two
years and it's like a self-fulfill�ng
prophecy," Attorney General Frank
KeUey said. "By the time you.get the
toilet doors on, the prison's full."
Gail Light, director of public in­
formation for the Department of
Corrections, aid it costs Michigan
an average of $24,300 to keep a per­
son in prison for one year.
"It's costing us more to put an
antisocial criminal in prison for a
year than it ls to educate a person in
our profe ional schools," Kelley
said.
SOME PRISONS IN Michigan
have started "double-bunking" to
combat the overcrowding problem .
•
•
Wha doe
Black
History
on h
mean 0
you?
d lay'
ry
condo
HP college contingent
journeys to Africa
�y FLODEAN S. RIGGS
"." WrIt.,
meeting, king if the i ue could
formally be included on the next
board meeting's agend . "This i
very tragic and d."
Conn walked away from the
microphone at the request of board
Pre ident Frank Hayden, who said
CoM could not pe at that time on
any item other than those on the
agenda.
The condom dl tribution i ue
Dozens of parents and com­
munity activists, up et because the
I ue of distributing condoms in
schools was not placed on the Feb.
11 meeting ·agenda, spoke out,
charging that the board did not care
about tudent lives.
" "I'm t by the rejection," id
Steve Conn, a Technical High
���.�����t �.�m
the J
The Ryam Correctional FaCility, in
East Detroit, opened last May with
intentions to keep two inmate in an
8-foot by 10-foot cell.
Ryan currently has 1,020 inmates
and is not a maximum security
prison.
Warden Sherry Burt aid the sy -
tem is more practical from a budget
standpoint, and 0 prisoners have
cooperated.
"People look at double-bunking
with a negative attitude, but nobody
takes time to examine its benefits,"
she said. "When you have two 0
people in a room, they have to learn
how to relate to each other and thi
better prepares them for bei back
out in the real world."
Legislation for programs alterna­
tive to pri ors are being considered
in a House-Senate conference com­
mi nee, which would place prisoners
with low minimum sentences in boot
camps.
AT THAT TIME, audience
membe houled out in opposition.
"Let him peak," one woman
houted. "It hould be on the agenda.
We asked for it to be on the agenda.
Those people are dying. Do you
care? It's too important to be put to
the end. Safe sex practices are' going
to save our youth in Detroit.
"The agenda must be amended to
include the question of condoms in
the schools. The board is not a plat-
SEN. JACK WELBORN, R­
Parchment, introduced two bills for
See PRISONS, A·10
Figures ba ed on the annual co t of caring for one Michigan
Inmate and the average co t of one ye r f medical chool.
Dr. Charles Mitchell Jr., Presi­
dent of Highland Park Community
College will lead a group of 20
sojourners in HPCC's econd annual
Journey Home II: Window to Africa
educational tour of Ghana, West
Africa February 1S-March 2, 1992.
Dr. Mitchell, a world traveler and
renowned management consultant,
will oversee scheduled activities of
interest to students, faculty and ad-
form for bi-partisan board members
to run for office, " he aid.
"This got to be a platform that
addre se the real concern and
needs of tudents in Detroit and their
lives," he dded. "You're not going
to walk on their dead bodie to re­
election. You have to deal with the
1 ue now."
Reportedly, New York City'
Board of Education uppor1ed con-
dom d b on in public hool
beca e of thigh proportio of 0
African-American and Hi panic
bool ge children injected with the
mv virus. The ituation i imilar to
Detroit, Conn said.
ACCORDING TO random sam­
piing in Detroit, the Detroit Medical
Center found, lout of every 100
randomly selected youths between
the ages of 16 and 24 were mv
po itive.
Board member Irma Clark asked
audience members if they had polled
parents to see if they approve of di -
S DEBATE, A·10
ministrators who are excited about
the trip, Titus McQary, Vice Chair,
HPCC Board of Trustees, will make
the jaurney with two top ad­
ministrators, Ameenah E.P. Omar,
Director of Admi ionslRecords and
Dorothy Greene, Director of Liberal
Arts, joined by Dr. Fredrick
Salsman, Goordinator of The Du-
S AFRICA, A·10
"