Disaster Capitalism on the battlefield and in the boardroom by William Astore A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in Afghanistan. (Photo: REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis)There is a new normal in America: our…
The photo looks like something out of a horror film. A long, thin animal lays dissected on a white table. Metal tools pull the animal’s skin back to reveal its…
By Andrew Gumbel In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville visited the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia to observe first-hand the effects of a peculiar — and, at the time, entirely novel…
By Maya Schenwar
As the debate rages over whether poor people deserve to eat, it’s an apt time to acknowledge that in some states, the right to food stamps has long been denied to a large group of poor people: those with felony drug convictions.
The United States criminal justice system is the largest in the world. At yearend 2011, approximately 7 million individuals were under some form of correctional control in the United States, including 2.2 million incarcerated in federal, state, or local prisons and jails.
Global Tel*Link profits off love, charging prisoners as much as $17 for a 15-minute phone call. Tell the FCC to set prices families can afford. http://aclu.org/global-tel #prisonprofiteers This video is…
While Colorado and Washington have de-criminalized recreational use of marijuana and twenty states allow use for medical purposes, a Louisiana man was sentenced to twenty years in prison in New Orleans criminal court for possessing 15 grams, .529 of an ounce, of marijuana.
We are living in boom times for the private prison industry. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest owner of private prisons, has seen its revenue climb by more than 500 percent in the last two decades.
By Dylan Murphy
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) refuses to negotiate with prison hunger strikers as they enter day 56 of the protest at solitary confinement and inhumane conditions. The hunger strikers are in increasing danger from heart attacks but maintain their resolve to continue their resistance until the CDCR agrees to negotiate around their five core demands.
By Michelle Alexander
For the past several years, I have spent virtually all my working hours writing about or speaking about the immorality, cruelty, racism, and insanity of our nation’s latest caste system: mass incarceration. On this Facebook page I have written and posted about little else. But as I pause today to reflect on the meaning and significance of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington , I realize that my focus has been too narrow.