I spent three years teaching young men between the ages of 16 and 18 in a public high school run by the New York City Depart-ment of Education on Rikers Island, one of the world's largest penal colonies. Because Rikers is a jail, all of my students were awaiting trial. Most of them had been … Continue reading Incarceration in America
Articles
Color and Incarceration (Harvard Magazine)
https://harvardmagazine.com/2019/09/elizabeth-hinton Historian Elizabeth Hinton probes the roots of a gathering crisis. by LYDIALYLE GIBSON SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2019 Elizabeth HintonPhotograph by Stu Rosner IN 2005, during her first year of graduate school, Elizabeth Hinton traveled from New York to California to visit her cousin in prison. In some ways, she understood what to expect: for most of her childhood, … Continue reading Color and Incarceration (Harvard Magazine)
CounterPunch Review of The New Plantation: Lessons from Rikers Island
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/prison-classrooms-reflect-white-supremacy/ AUGUST 30, 2019 Prison Classrooms Reflect White Supremacy by W. T. WHITNEY One story is that of a young man in the midst of bizarre, even outrageous interactions with a group of boys. He is inexperienced, but perseveres, learns, and overcomes what looks like a dead-end situation. The other story is about these imprisoned teenagers … Continue reading CounterPunch Review of The New Plantation: Lessons from Rikers Island
Why American Prisons Owe Their Cruelty to Slavery
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/prison-industrial-complex-slavery-racism.html#permid=sContainer&permid=102092349:102092349 Several years ago, my law office was fighting for the release of a black man who had been condemned, at the age of 16, to die in prison. Matthew was one of 62 Louisiana children sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for nonhomicide offenses. But a case I’d argued at the Supreme Court was part … Continue reading Why American Prisons Owe Their Cruelty to Slavery
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2019
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2019.html By Wendy Sawyer and Peter Wagner March 19, 2019 Can it really be true that most people in jail are being held before trial? And how much of mass incarceration is a result of the war on drugs? These questions are harder to answer than you might think, because our country’s systems of confinement are so fragmented. The … Continue reading Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2019
How the War on Drugs Kept Black Men out of College
TAMARA GILKES BORR - MAY 15, 2019 - From The Atlantic The War on Drugs locked up thousands of black men, and a new study finds that it may have also locked many out of the college classroom—and all the benefits that come with a college degree. There was a time when black men’s college enrollment was … Continue reading How the War on Drugs Kept Black Men out of College
One reason capital punishment should end:
https://eji.org/news/charles-ray-finch-exonerated-43-years-after-being-sentenced-to-death?fbclid=IwAR10mC65E1wnRBErnYCTM7f6Em0fCenipVixNJ5N_5Y2CZYSVQz-c2Mwzx8 Charles Ray Finch Exonerated 43 Years After He Was Sentenced to Death in North Carolina June 28, 2019Charles Ray Finch, now 81 years old, became the 166th person in the United States since 1973 to be exonerated after having been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death when the district attorney in Wilson County, North … Continue reading One reason capital punishment should end:
Book Trailer: The New Plantation: Lessons from Rikers Island
Report: Restorative Justice for Juveniles Works Better Than Jail Time
https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2019-05-30/juvenile-justice/report-restorative-justice-for-juveniles-works-better-than-jail-time/a66625-1?fbclid=IwAR08s2RS52btxOslO1SULpTWUGc7O513kSNxet5GD0c7rziaT6ysI1Z_QlM A new report says restorative-justice programs for young people work better to reduce repeat offenses and cost considerably less than traditional prosecution, incarceration and probation. (Los Angeles Youth Justice Coalition)May 30, 2019 OAKLAND, Calif. – When a juvenile is accused of a crime, making them face the victim, take responsibility and make amends works … Continue reading Report: Restorative Justice for Juveniles Works Better Than Jail Time
Talk & Reading from The New Plantation – 6/27/19 @ 6:30 p.m. @ Norway Memorial Library
A conversation with author Jason Trask (with David Daniel)
Back in December as part of our Literary Lowell series, we profiled local author David Daniel, author of the Alex Rasmussen detective series and a number of other books. Now it’s David’s turn to contribute a new author profile to the blog. He recently caught up with Jason Trask who now lives in Maine but who spent … Continue reading A conversation with author Jason Trask (with David Daniel)
