Incoming New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio does not lack for issues demanding his immediate attention. Among them are the historic levels of income inequality and homelessness, as well as the matter of a militarized police force and its abuse of power, particularly with regard to communities of color.
by ANTHONY PAPA
A new report by Human Rights Watch titled “An Offer You Can’t Refuse” reveals that only three percent of U.S. drug defendants in federal cases chose to go to trial instead of pleading guilty in 2012.
Barack Obama is the historic worst of all 44 U.S. presidents when it comes to exercising the executive powers of clemency, which includes pardons and commutation of sentences for prisoners.
Nelson Mandela’s death has elicited a predictable outpouring of accolades. Glowing praise is now coming from American politicians as disparate as Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama.
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
Are establishment black “civil rights organizations” like the NAACP, the National Action Network and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund really opposed to mass incarceration and the prison state?
By Sheila A. Bedi, The Daily Beast
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to introduce a mandatory prison sentence for anyone caught with an illegal firearm. But reams of data shows that incarceration creates more crime.
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…
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.
At about 12.40pm on 2 January 1996, Timothy Jackson took a jacket from the Maison Blanche department store in New Orleans, draped it over his arm, and walked out of…
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.