Tag Archives: Prisons

BOOKS / Ron Jacobs : Incarceration Complex: ‘Beyond Walls and Cages’

Incarceration complex:The desire to imprison Walls and Cages provides example after example of how central the business of incarceration is to the U.S. power elites in the twenty-first century. By Ron Jacobs | The Rag Blog | August 7, 2013 … Continue reading

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Jean Trounstine : Censoring What Prisoners Read

Werewolf erotica: Too sexy for prisoners? Image from The Atlantic Wire. ‘Werewolf erotica’ too ‘sexy’?Censoring what prisoners read The truth is that prisons want to control behavior. They want to ‘reform’ prisoners, which usually means they want to turn out … Continue reading

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Ted McLaughlin : U.S. Leads World in Incarceration Rate

Chart shows skyrocketing rate of incarceration in U.S. as of 2006. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE We’re number one!U.S. is off charts in rate of incarceration By Ted McLaughlin / The Rag Blog / November 11, 2010 The citizens of … Continue reading

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Jordan Flaherty : New Orleans Jail Struggle Could Shape City’s Future

Image of Orleans Parish Prison from BBC documentary, Prisoners of Katrina.New Orleans:The nation’s incarceration capital Struggle over the size of New Orleans’ jail could define the city’s future. By Jordan Flaherty / The Rag Blog / November 11, 2010 NEW … Continue reading

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BOOKS / ‘Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America’

What I found striking in this volume is the extent to which advances in behavioral science and pedagogical experience have played almost no role in the evolution of corrections: Sentencing policies and prison conditions stem from basic, often religious and … Continue reading

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Ricardo Rachell and Criminal Justice in Harris County

The victim never mentioned facial scars when he identified Ricardo Rachell, above. Photo: Harris County Sheriff’s Office / Houston Chronicle. ‘This form of justice has become commonplace in Harris County with its history of unforgivable crime lab mistakes and outright … Continue reading

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Life in American Prisons: Radicalizing the Masses

The Radicalization Of An American PrisonerBy George Peter Jr. / December 5, 2008 During a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2006, high- ranking F.B.I. officials testified that the Bureau considered U.S. prisons to be “fertile grounds for extremists”, … Continue reading

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Cole: Rising Tuition, Prison Populations, and Pot

Click on image to enlarge. State Universities versus State Prisons;And Marijuana Legalization as a SolutionBy Juan Cole / December 4, 2008 Why is tuition so high in state universities that the NYT is wondering if families will go on being … Continue reading

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Ritmo : Inhumane Texas Detention Center Should be a Crime. Cheney or No Cheney.

Federal detention center in Raymondville, Texas. ‘Willacy County is home to the largest of a new generation of detention camps where thousands of undocumented immigrants live in massive tents with poor food, non-existent health care, facing months if not years … Continue reading

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Angola : Slavery Haunts America’s Plantation Prisons

Prisoners picking cotton at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. Photo by William Albert Allard / National Geographic.‘It’s not even really a metaphor for slavery. Slavery is what’s going on’By Maya Schenwar / August 28, 2008 On an expanse of 18,000 … Continue reading

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Prisons : Why Texas Still Holds ‘Em

Forget oil and gold. In the Lone Star state, the boomtown business is locking up immigrants.By Stephanie Mencimer This article appears in the July/August issue of Mother Jones. In 1997, with the private prison business booming, the Corrections Corporation of … Continue reading

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