Student Minister Abdullah Muhammad, director N.O.I. National Prison Reform Ministry Department, will be hosting the ministry’s annual workshop at Saviours’ Day 2014 in Detroit. The workshop is titled “Mandatory Sentencing and The Re-Entry Dilemma: How Strong is Our Foundation: Can We Survive?”
The session will address the issues revolving around U.S. mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines that unjustly target young Black males and fuel the multi-billion dollar prison industrial complex and school to prison pipeline.
The workshop will also address the reentry dilemma created once those victims of mandatory sentencing attempt to reenter society. Panelists will address real life experiences and discuss solutions to this growing nationwide problem. Student Minister Troy Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque Number One who was formerly incarcerated is scheduled to offer a testimonial to the foundation the Nation of Islam within Michigan Department of Corrections provided. The workshop will conclude with a question and answer period which will provide for audience participation.
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The workshop aims to educate attendees about mandatory sentencing guidelines that target the Black community and explain why the Life-Giving Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as taught to us by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan are so important for the resurrection of our incarcerated Brothers and Sisters in the federal, state and local jails and prisons in the United States; and explore why the Nation of Islam and its National Prison Reform Ministry should continue to produce reentry programs for our Returning Brothers and Sisters upon their release from incarceration.
Our formerly incarcerated Brothers and Sisters often have to endure STG (Security Threat Group) status, solitary confinement, physical and emotional abuse, unjust sentencing and denial of probation or parole for their desire and efforts to become Muslims in the Nation of Islam.
While incarcerated they are denied the rights and privileges of other religious organizations, having to seek recourse from the very unjust court systems that convicted them, to have the opportunity to receive The Final Call newspaper. They have “survived” a very strong assault on their foundation, which can provide lessons beneficial in the future when other assaults will be levied, testing the strength of their and our foundations.
Workshop panelists will include Student Minister Troy Muhammad of Mosque No. 1, former inmate and inmate N.O.I. Study Group Leader; Magistrate Maurice Muhammad, magistrate of Bessemer, Ala.; Che X Daniels, Nation of Islam, served 17 years in Michigan Department of Corrections; LaSalle X Washington, Nation of Islam, served 43 years in Michigan Department of Corrections and Malik Zulu Shabazz, Black Lawyers for Social Justice.
The workshop Mandatory Sentencing and The Re-Entry Dilemma: How Strong is Our Foundation: Can We Survive? is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 22, 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 410 B in the Cobo Center.
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