Stories by Sasha Abramsky

Sasha Abramsky is the author of Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, and Helped Send George W. Bush to the White House (The New Press, 2006). subscribe to Sasha Abramsky's feed

Is Climate Change Driving the Southwest Toward a Dust Bowl?

Posted on: Jul 22, 2013, Source: The Nation

A severe drought in the Southwest is devastating crops and farm communities—and sending a warning about climate change.

Obama's Sister Has Big Ideas for Education Reform

Posted on: Mar 29, 2011, Source: The Nation

Like her brother, President Obama, Soetoro-Ng wants to revamp school systems and broaden test-focused curriculums

$100,000 Per Year to Lock up a Cheese Thief? The Perverse Logic of "Three Strikes"

Posted on: Feb 24, 2010, Source: Comment Is Free

That a man with unpaid-for cheese in his underwear could ever have faced essentially the same sentence as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is an absurdity.

California Court Says Enough is Enough: Our Prison Population is Out of Control

Posted on: Aug 8, 2009, Source: Comment Is Free

For years, California has prioritized incarceration over all other social investments. Now it's being forced to release 40,000 prisoners in two years.

Breadline USA: Why People Are Going Hungry in the Land of Plenty

Posted on: Jul 3, 2009, Source: PoliPoint Press

America's poor are being priced out of a market flush with excess eatables. It's an abomination we can fix.

The Misshapen Mind: How the Brain's Haphazard Evolution Left Us with Self-Destructive Instincts

Posted on: Aug 19, 2008, Source: The American Prospect

Evolution didn't quite hit perfection when it comes to human thought processes.

Defending Middle-Class Consumer-Culture on the Backs of the Poor

Posted on: Mar 4, 2008, Source: Comment Is Free

The bottom dollar: cutting interests rates instead of fighting inflation hurts the economy's most vulnerable.

Prison Crisis: Will California Spend More on Jails Than Universities?

Posted on: Oct 22, 2007, Source: In These Times

As the number of prisoners in California prisons explodes, the state may soon spend more locking up its citizens than on public university education.

Fear and Loathing in Middle America

Posted on: Jul 29, 2007, Source: The American Prospect

Author Joe Bageant's "Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War" gets down and dirty with the hardship economics in Middle America.

The Other Rocky: Salt Lakes City's Visionary Mayor

Posted on: Jan 5, 2007, Source: The Nation

Rocky Anderson is a progressive hero in the die-hard red state of Utah, joining in anti-Bush rallies, restructuring the criminal justice system, and supporting gay rights.

Selling Voters on the Minimum Wage Hike

Posted on: Oct 22, 2006, Source: The Nation

How New Mexico successfully framed the minimum wage as a moral issue, and was able to pass a progressive ballot initiative.

Block the Vote: The 10 Worst Places to Cast a Ballot

Posted on: Sep 12, 2006, Source: Mother Jones

American democracy's glaring weak spots include machines that count backward, slice-and-dice districts, felon baiting, phone jamming and plenty of dirty tricks.

Political Invisibles

Posted on: May 26, 2006, Source: Pop and Politics

Remove the voting power of the urban poor, and issues of importance to inner-city America are likely to get ignored come Election Day.

Excerpt: Conned

Posted on: Apr 24, 2006, Source: AlterNet

In this excerpt from his new book, Sasha Abramsky reveals what really happened during the 2000 Election voter 'purge.'

Running on Fumes

Posted on: Oct 17, 2005, Source: The Nation

Further rises in the cost of gas could kill thousands of small-town economies across America.

Cruel and Unusable

Posted on: Mar 7, 2005, Source: The American Prospect

The juvenile death penalty has been eliminated, throwing the general use of the death penalty further into question.

Incarceration, Inc.

Posted on: Jul 6, 2004, Source: The Nation

Prisons thrive on cheap labor and the hunger of job-starved towns.

Ex-Felons Fight To Regain Political Voice

Posted on: Mar 18, 2004, Source: AlterNet

As the 2004 presidential election approaches, millions of Americans remain legally prevented from voting in their home states.

Ex-Felon Laws Cost Florida Residents Vote

Posted on: Nov 8, 2000, Source: MotherJones.com

Thousands of Florida residents were struck from the voter lists because they were mistakenly identified as ex-felons, just months before what has become the closest election in US history. With Bush apparently leading Gore by only hundreds of votes, in a state with hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised voters, could similar errors be tipping the race?