Incarceration Rates

Democracy Restoration Act Would Restore Voting Rights to Millions

Lee Rowland | Posted 04.25.2012

Read More: Incarceration Voting, Voting Rights Incarcerated, Incarceration, Incarceration Rates for Blacks, Incarceration Rates, Voting Rights, New York News

Restore the right to vote and you restore a formerly disenfranchised citizen's stake in the community, boosting the chances of a successful reentry into mainstream society.

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U.S. Incarceration Rate Is a National Disgrace

Nake M. Kamrany | Posted 04.16.2012

Read More: Prison Reform, US Prison System, Mass Incarceration, Incarceration, Incarceration Rates, US Prison Overcrowding, Crime News

U.S. jails are overcrowded. By reallocating budgets to improving living conditions and education, crime rates will fall -- so will the stigma of U.S. incarceration and prosperity will rise.

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How The National Urban League Missed The Mark With It's State Of Black America Report

Leigh Owens | Posted 05.09.2012

Read More: Black Voices Life, The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration, Incarceration Rates, Black Voices News

This week the National Urban League released it's 2012 State of Black America Report and with it hosted a forum at Howard University to discuss the findings.

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If Prison Is the Disease, Not the Cure, How Do You Treat It?

Dan Froomkin | Posted 05.08.2012

Read More: Prison Reform, Prison as Disease, Mass Incarceration, Ernest Drucker, Prisons, Prison, Incarceration Rates, Crime News

As the economic and social costs of mass incarceration mount, many criminal justice professionals and officials are now calling on the U.S. to abandon these policies and replace them with more constructive approaches.

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Private Prisons Profit From Pain

Jakada Imani | Posted 04.24.2012

Read More: Corrections Corporation of America, Cca, Private Prisons, Prisons, Incarceration, Prison, Incarceration Rates, Crime News

Incarceration for profit is just plain wrong. Making a business from other people's suffering is wrong. And demanding that states guarantee their for-profit corporation chock-full prisons is immoral.

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America's Gulag: The Money (in Politics) Behind Prison Privatization

Nick Penniman | Posted 04.16.2012

Read More: Geo Group, State Prisons, Jan Brewer, American Legislative Exchange Council, Lobbying, Ohio, Corrections Corporation of America, John Kasich, Arizona, United Republic, Campaign Contributions, Prison Reform, Incarceration, Incarceration Rates, Prison, Prisons, Private Prisons, Politics News

If we are to reform the prison system, and fix the other Big Problems, we must first reform the lobbying and campaign financing systems.

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I Was Stopped, But Not Frisked

Marc Mauer | Posted 04.09.2012

Read More: Silver Spring, Maryland Crime, Silver Spring Crime, Incarceration, Racial Profiling, Incarceration Rates, Maryland, Criminal Justice System, Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Reform, Crime News

It's hardly a secret that the relationship between African American communities and law enforcement has been fraught with conflict. From the old days of station-house beatings to get a confession to today's "stop and frisk" practices, an awful lot of mistrust has been engendered.

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Green Jobs for Ex-Cons: Fixing Broken Systems

Colleen Murphy-Dunning | Posted 04.07.2012

Read More: Greenskills, Green Jobs, Ex-Cons, Third Industrial Revolution, Incarceration, Prison, Incarceration Rates, Prisons, For-Profit Prisons, Business News

Our country, a promised land of opportunity, needs a national green jobs program that targets ex-offenders.

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Why Did Governor Haley Barbour's Pardons Cause Such A Backlash?

Molly M. Gill | Posted 03.20.2012

Read More: Haley Barbour Pardons, Haley Barbour, Haley-Barbour-Pardons-Blocked, Mandatory Sentencing, Pardons, Incarceration Rates, Mississippi Pardons, Sentencing, Prisons, Manditory Minimums, Crime News

The last 30 years of sentencing policy may provide an answer. Getting "tough on crime" became popular among the public and politicians alike. We rejected the notion that a criminal could be rehabilitated.

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Race, Class and Justice in the U.S. Legal System: Still a Long Way From the Promised Land

Marianne Mollmann | Posted 03.18.2012

Read More: Human Rights, Martin Luther King, Incarceration, Incarceration Rates, Amnesty International, Racism, Drugs, Race, Racial Profiling, Mandatory Minimums, Crime News

Last week, a Belgian tourist said he believed he had been cut some slack by the New York City police mainly because he was white. Indeed, even a perfunctory look at US criminal justice figures reveals that something is not quite right.

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Rick Santorum Blasts Mitt Romney Over Voting Rights

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 01.16.2012

Read More: Sc Primary, South Carolina Primary, Incarceration, Incarceration Rates, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Elections 2012, Sc Election 2012, South Carolina Primary Election 2012, Sc Election, 2012 GOP Debates, Video, South Carolina Primary 2012. South Carolina Primary Election, Santorum, 2012 Election, South Carolina Gop Debate, Mitt Romney 2012, Voting Rights, Sc Primary 2012, Rick Santorum 2012, Sc Primary Election 2012, GOP Debates, Voting Rights Prison, Voting Rights Felons, Politics News

Rick Santorum schooled Mitt Romney in classic Santorum fashion during the GOP debate in South Carolina Monday night, drawing him in and pouncing. A su...

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Occupy the Dream: The Mathematics of Racism

Russell Simmons | Posted 03.16.2012

Read More: Martin Luther King, Drug War, Prison, Incarceration, Get the Money Out, Incarceration Rates, Martin Luther King Jr., Racism, War on Drugs, Citizens United, Politics News

Today, the march for civil rights isn't about convincing Americans that racism is wrong. It is about getting money out of politics, so that the profit from institutional racism is eliminated.

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Downsizing Incarceration Is Good for Fairness, Safety, and Our Wallets

Inimai Chettiar | Posted 03.12.2012

Read More: Criminal Justice System, Incarceration, Incarceration Rates, Crime News

The current system of mass incarceration is stripping away the fundamental rights of a large portion of the population -- mostly people of color -- at a huge cost to taxpayers.

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Race, Arrest and Incarceration in New York City

Alan Singer | Posted 02.23.2012

Read More: Arrests, Incarceration Rates, Racism, De Toqueville, Prison Population, Nypd Racial Profiling, Racial Profiling, Minority Arrests, New York News

In 40 years of teaching in the New York metropolitan area I have never had a Black student who did not have a story to tell.

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School Police Have Uncertain Impact On Student Arrests, Crime Prevention

HuffingtonPost.com | Radley Balko | Posted 12.21.2011

Read More: Juvenile Delinquency, Video, Education, Juvenile Crime, Crime, Incarceration, Prison, Incarceration Rates, Criminal Justice, Juvenile Dentention, School to Prison, Politics News

A headline-generating study, published in the journal Pediatrics this week, suggests that approximately one in three Americans is arrested before age ...

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Drug Sentencing Reforms Halt Decades of Prison Population Growth

HuffingtonPost.com | John Rudolf | Posted 12.29.2011

Read More: Prison Reform, Prison Population, Drug Sentencing, Cocaine Sentencing, Crack Cocaine Sentencing, Prison, Incarceration Rates, Crack Cocaine, The Docket, Drug Crimes, Politics News

NEW YORK -- In 1986, as the crack cocaine epidemic ravaged America's inner cities, a Democratic Congress passed legislation dictating harsh mandatory ...

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The Prison Industrial Complex in the United States

Tio Hardiman | Posted 12.18.2011

Read More: Prison Population, Prison Industrial Complex, Prison, Incarceration Rates, Chicago News

What more can be done to help reverse this ever-growing trend of locking people up instead of providing them with the necessary help to cope and deal with a changing world?

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How and Why I Teach in Prisons, Part Three

Steve Mariotti | Posted 10.20.2011

Read More: Prison Reform, Prison Education, Incarceration, Drug War, Prison, Incarceration Rates, Prisoners, Prisons, Crime News

Like the standard business cycle, drug money creates booms, busts, and misallocations of investments and resources. One of the most insidious aspects of the drug industry is that its excess profits are invested in human capital.

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Zero "Zero Tolerance": Ending the Real Debt Crisis

Fagan Harris | Posted 10.04.2011

Read More: Debt Ceiling, Black Americans, Debt Crisis, Dropout Epidemic, Zero Tolerance, Incarceration Rates, U.S. Economy, Black Voices News

The twin threats of mass incarceration and epidemic dropout rates amongst black Americans pose an unparalleled challenge to the country as a whole.

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U.S. No Longer Leader of the Free World

John H. Jackson | Posted 08.28.2011

Read More: Graduation, Education, Poverty, National Center on Education and the Economy, Opportunity, Shanghai, Graduation Rates, Incarceration Rates, Ontario, Finland, Drop Out, Education Week, Japan, International, Schott Foundation, Education News

America was once thought of as the leader of the free world. Over the next 30 years, U.S. cities and states probably will be defined by what happens with the bottom two-thirds of citizens rather than the top one-third.

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The Reasons Why So Many Black People Are in Prison Go Well Beyond Profiling

Keith Rushing | Posted 08.23.2011

Read More: African Americans, Prison, New York Police Department, Racial Profiling, Incarceration Rates, Politics News

Although Whites and African Americans use and sell drugs at about the same rates, Black men in 2003 were almost 12 times as likely to go to prison as White men.

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Investing in Prisons Over Education is not Being Smart on Crime

Lindsay McCluskey | Posted 07.27.2011

Read More: Incarceration, Prison, Crime, Incarceration Rates, Nonviolent Criminals, Drugs, Drug Policy, High Education, Education News

Unless we drastically reform our spending priorities, and move toward "smart on crime" policies, our City on the Hill will continue to resemble Rikers Island instead of the Library of Alexandria.

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A Mother's Day Reminder

Grace Bauer | Posted 07.12.2011

Read More: Prison Reform, Criminal Justice, Prisoner Rehabilitation, Mother's Day, Incarceration Rates, Politics News

Of my 24 years as a mother, seven have been stained by the reminder of a loss that never ends. I am the mother of a young man in prison, one of 2.4 million sons and daughters behind bars.

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Racism Is Hardly a Thing of the Past

Rev. Jesse Jackson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Michelle Alexander, War-on-Drugs, Racism, Post Racial America, Incarceration Rates, African Americans, Marijuana, Books News

Is Jim Crow back? Are African Americans, particularly African American men, once more suffering systematic discrimination on the basis of race -- a discrimination that locks them out of equal rights and basic citizenship?

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Mothers Behind Bars in the United States: A Human Rights Issue

Malika Saada Saar | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Unfair Sentencing, Drug Sentencing, Incarceration, Incarceration Rates, Motherhood, Incarcerated Parents, Prenatal Care, Shackling, Impact News

Mothers behind bars are invisible to most of us. To the extent they are thought of at all, they are caricatured as the ultimate bad mother who has violated the basic maternal commitment to care for her children.

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