If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
Today, crime no longer the number one issue on people's minds, pressure has been building to reduce sentences and eliminate mandatory minimums imposed for many violent crimes.
The private prison industry has devoted time and money to ensuring that crime legislation benefits their financial interests. They have donated millions to political candidates and parties, as well as helped pass more punitive sentencing laws.
If we are to reform the prison system, and fix the other Big Problems, we must first reform the lobbying and campaign financing systems.
Who have been the primary beneficiaries of "school reform?" Duh, the for-profit companies! While consultants and think tanks have done OK, the real money has been in testing and textbooks and technology and construction.
Members of Congress who believe offenders should be punished for their conduct and not the color of their skin should take heed.
Our country, a promised land of opportunity, needs a national green jobs program that targets ex-offenders.
In less than the time it takes to make an ATM withdrawal, Cook County Bond Court judges make decisions affecting individual liberty and the public safety. This way of transacting justice exacts a dear convenience fee.
I agree -- even though my own rage would be hyperactive if I or a loved one was violated -- I still agree that killing for killing's sake does not bring a person back, and who is to say that it does justice if it enmeshes us forever in a cycle of violence?
Arizona's legislature recently passed a law charging prison visitors a onetime $25 fee as a way to help close the state's $1.6 billion budget deficit. Fees like that, slapped on prisoners and their families, couldn't be more counterintuitive.
Yesterday, Florida senators delayed their vote to sell a part of its state correctional system to the highest bidder. Sixteen thousand inmates would have become 'product' for the prison profiteers in this corporate take-over.
The trouble with making a child the center of the universe is that the child grows up believing it's true.
We often hear the phrase "The War on Christianity" loudly bandied about by politicians, pundits and religious groups. Generally speaking, it's a Conse...
Letting prisoners die is a complete disregard for humanity but could also possibly be a tactic to remove "undesirables" from Cuban society. But why would the Cuban government choose to let them die? The answer rests in present-day Cuba.
We are building a movement to reclaim our communities for all members: not just those who set the rents. We must make clear the myriad of ways in which our community members are treated as though they are less than human.
"We're foolish if we think we're going to end mass incarceration unless we are willing to deal with the reality that huge percentages of poor people are going to remain jobless, locked out of the mainstream economy, unless and until they have a quality education that prepares them well for the new economy."
Then something sinks in. My "real" mother's an addict and criminal. My "real" home is a prison. While I don't understand until decades later, the trauma of learning about my prison birth sent me into a deep dive, an emotional lockdown behind a wall which imprisoned me for almost twenty years.
