David Engle

ALT "The university could also turn its words into action by divesting from Maryland Correctional Enterprises, the state of Maryland’s prison labor arm. In 2016, The Diamondback reported that the vast majority of furniture at this university comes from MCE inmates who are paid far less than $2 per hour of work — well below the minimum wage. And it doesn’t appear that there’s been any meaningful change to stop this university’s participation in the prison industrial complex — a system that disproportionately targets people of color and perpetuates racism in this country — since then. Student groups, including this university’s NAACP chapter, have pushed the university to divest from MCE, to no avail. Black people are overrepresented in the state of Maryland’s correctional facilities, making up 69 percent of those in prison while composing 31 percent of the state’s population. Now is a perfect time to divest from a system that disproportionately harms the black community."