Here you will find IBW21 initiative news, announcements, articles, media and document posts. Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW21)
The one thing we cannot have in our ridiculous ongoing modern prohibitionist state is a criminal justice system that punishes the criminals in law enforcement as harshly as it punishes those at whom the laws are aimed, and on whom the law principally falls.
By John Nichols
Florida Congressman Trey Radel, who has wisely determined that he does not want to become an American version of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, says he will take a leave of absence from the US House of Representatives to address his penchant for cocaine.
By Liliana Segura A holding cell in South Dakota State Penitentiary. (AP/Amber Hunt) This past August, the Lafayette-based IND Monthly published a story about a 54-year-old man named Bill Winters, incarcerated at a medium-security…
By Harry Levine
“Whites Smoke Pot, but Blacks Are Arrested.” That was the headline of a column by Jim Dwyer, the great Metro desk reporter for The New York Times, in December 2009. Although Dwyer was writing about New York City, he summed up perfectly two central and enduring facts about marijuana use and arrests across the country: whites and blacks use marijuana equally, but the police do not arrest them equally.
The failed war on marijuana has claimed countless lives to incarceration, mandatory minimiums and the marginalization that come from a drug crime rap sheet. That’s why, in The Nation’s…
Despite voluminous evidence that inmates have suffered violence, sexual abuse and neglect inside the facilities of a private juvenile prison operator, the state of Florida has in recent weeks awarded fresh contracts to the company.
By Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News
Despite resistance from the federal government, states have moved to more sensible and far less costly drug policy, as is their right under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
WASHINGTON—Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on today’s bipartisan introduction of the Second Chance Reauthorization Act and the release of a new report from The Leadership Conference outlining a comprehensive policy agenda to ease the re-entry process entitled “A Second Chance: Charting a New Course for Re-Entry and Criminal Justice Reform:
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the biggest private prison company in the country, earned $1.7 billion last year from locking people up. If immigration reform goes badly, they could make even more.
By Aviva Stahl
Even if we already know the statistic, hearing it is pretty chilling: one out of every 100 Americans is behind bars, by far the highest incarceration rate in the world.
By Robin Wilkey
Portland, Maine, voters on Tuesday approved legalizing recreational marijuana for residents 21 and older. The measure, Question 1, passed with about 70 percent of the vote, making Portland the first East Coast city to legalize recreational pot.
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The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW21) is committed to enhancing the capacity of Black communities in the U.S. and globally to achieve cultural, social, economic and political equality and an enhanced quality of life for all marginalized people. – Learn more here
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