NAACP billboard: Focus tax money on schools, not prisons

A billboard, big as a bus and sporting two symbols of freedom, is touring Philadelphia, urging new thinking about how tax money is spent.

"Welcome to Pennsylvania," reads one side of the sign, featuring a cracked Liberty Bell. "Since 2000, state spending on the prison system increased 300 percent while spending on higher education went down."

The other side, with the sun setting behind the Statue of Liberty, reads: "Welcome to America: 5% of the world's people, 25% of its prisoners."

Near the real Liberty Bell early Monday afternoon, a news conference including U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) and District Attorney Seth Williams endorsed the idea that the solution to cell-block overpopulation may be to aid schools more, not less.

"Education should be a greater priority of this country than building prisons, especially for nonviolent offenders," said J. Whyatt Mondesire, president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP.

The national civil rights organization is behind the billboard campaign, which is in five cities this week; the others are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Richmond, Va., and Birmingham, Ala. Locally, the sign will tour through Wednesday.

Philadelphia was chosen because of a high dropout rate and the level of spending - an estimated $290 million - on imprisoning people from just 11 sections of the city, according to preliminary results of an NAACP study expected to be released in January.

"It's a complete reversal of where a modern society's priorities should be," Mondesire said.

The campaign also hopes to boost support for the National Criminal Justice Commission Act being considered by the Senate, Mondesire said. The legislation would set up a blue-ribbon panel to reexamine the nation's legal system.

Such issues will be a part of a "One Nation Working Together" rally in Washington on Oct. 2, calling for jobs and justice.

Smaller type on each side of the billboard ties the messages together: "Let's build a better tomorrow. Pass the National Criminal Justice Act. Contact your U.S. Senators now. Rally in Washington, DC 10.2.10."

For more information, it says, go to www.naacp.org/justice