On AlterNet: prisons

Stories, blog posts, and videos tagged as "prisons"

Mumia Abu-Jamal May Be Off Death Row, But His Torture Continues In the 'Hole'

Hans Bennett, Prison Radio. January 23, 2012.

Bret Grote of the Human Rights Coalition discusses Mumia Abu-Jamal and the crime of solitary confinement.

Horrific Peek into Women's Prisons Finds: "Sisters, Fighting For Our Lives Together'

Ida Hartmann, AlterNet. November 16, 2011.

New book offers a horrific peek behind the walls of US prisons and reveals the human rights violations suffered by women in confinement.

15 Years of Giving Voice to Women and Transgender Prisoners in California

Angola 3 News, AlterNet. October 10, 2011.

An interview with Diana Block, Pam Fadem, and Deirdre Wilson of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.

From Troy Davis to Occupy Wall Street: How the Prison System Destroys the American Dream

Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, AlterNet. October 3, 2011.

The people of Occupy Wall Street are protesting our country's growing inequality--and nowhere is this inequality more acutely felt than the makeup of our prison population.

Blowback in Somalia: How Misguided US Policy Turned the Country into a Playground for Islamic Militants

Jeremy Scahill, The Nation. September 15, 2011.

The US's proxy war in Somalia has led to the arming and empowering of warlords and an almost unthinkable rise in the influence and power of Al Qaeda and the Shabab.

From Attica to Pelican Bay: The Lessons We Haven't Learned About Prison Conditions Over the Past 40 Years

Michael Ratner, The Nation. September 13, 2011.

Conditions in U.S. prisons remain far too like the ones that contributed to the uprising at Attica and its brutal suppression.

10 Books About Prison That Will Make You Rethink the United States Penal System

Anna Clark, AlterNet. August 31, 2011.

We take for granted that more than 2 million US citizens are incarcerated. These books suggest it's time to rethink the whole operation.

Inmate Health Dwindles as Prison Hunger Strike Enters Fourth Week

Jorge Rivas, ColorLines. July 21, 2011.

Prison officials told the LA Times they’re closely monitoring 49 inmates who have lost at least 10 pounds each.

Why Are Your Tax Dollars Funding Secret CIA Prisons in Somalia?

Jeremy Scahill, The Nation. July 13, 2011.

An investigation in Somalia uncovers secret sites that include counterterrorism training for Somali intelligence agencies and secret prisons, operated by the CIA.

Prisons Ban Books (Except the Bible)

Nadra Kareem Nittle, The Loop 21. May 20, 2011.

Nationwide, the works of Toni Morrison, Sojourner Truth and even Shakespeare have reportedly been banned in prisons.

Lockdown America: Prison Expert Christian Parenti on America's Staggering Incarceration Rate

Charles Shaw, openDemocracy.net. May 12, 2011.

The Land of the Free punishes or imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation. Parenti explains why.

The GOP's Shady Plan to Privatize Prisons

Suzy Khimm, Mother Jones. April 28, 2011.

In the name of balanced budgets, Republican governors and legislators are pushing controversial plans to privatize prisons.

Sting Operation Finds Cell Phone Smuggling Rampant In Prisons

Michael Montgomery, California Watch. April 22, 2011.

On the prison black market, a cell phone can fetch up to $1,000 or more.

States' Shameful Trade-Off: Putting Prisons Over Public Schools

Michelle Chen, In These Times. April 21, 2011.

At the center of state lawmakers' money-laundering shell game is the starving of public education for investments in prisons -- an incentive for incarcerating the disadvantaged.

Building More Prisons Won't Solve Our Immigration Detention Crisis

Andrea Black, New America Media. March 17, 2011.

ICE claims that these new facilities will replace existing beds in problematic facilities, yet no commitment has been made to close a single bed in any location.

The Dangerous Conservative Philosophies That Put People Behind Bars

Mike Konczal, New Deal 2.0. January 7, 2011.

Two conservative ideologies are at work behind the huge prison population.

Why Wikileaks Whistleblower Bradley Manning's Solitary Confinement Rivals the Suffering of Physical Torture

Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Atul Gawande, Democracy Now!. January 5, 2011.

The physical and psychological effects experienced by people held for extended periods in solitary confinement, says prison expert Dr. Atul Gawande.

WikiLeaks: Locking Up Whistleblower Bradley Manning in Solitary Confinement Puts America's Depravity on Full Display

Lynn Parramore, New Deal 2.0. January 4, 2011.

We as American citizens should not accept torture by our government, and that's what the military is doing to Bradley Manning.

5 Things You Didn't Know About the Death Penalty

Lauren Kelley, AlterNet. December 23, 2010.

Some of the more surprising, and unknown, facts about the death penalty that shed light on the country's shifting attitudes toward capital punishment.

New York Governor-Elect Cuomo Right on Point: Shut Down Half-Empty Prisons

Anthony Papa, AlterNet. November 16, 2010.

Andrew Cuomo is searching for ways to cut the budget and reduce economic waste, and half-empty prisons are an obvious target.

Corrupt Prison-Based Gerrymandering Ends in New York State

Anthony Papa, AlterNet. August 18, 2010.

The axing of prison-gerrymandering will result in the reduction of the reliance on the prison industrial complex in upstate New York.

Our Society Is Turning Into One Giant Prison

Tolu Olorunda, TruthOut.org. June 17, 2010.

We've gotten to a point where society is so unmanageable we must partition ourselves off from every feature of it.

How One Lawyer Learned to Make Money Gaming the Prison System in His Clients' Favor

Theodore Ross, Guernica . April 27, 2010.

Need to pick a good prison? Alan Ellis can help. Attorney, author, and self-publicist, Ellis is the creator of a new legal niche: the fast-talking prison salesman.

Study Settles It: Shocking Black & Latino Imprisonment Rates the Result of Racist, Punitive Impulse

Liliana Segura, AlterNet. April 21, 2010.

How racist attitudes barely hide beneath the surface of 'tough on crime' policies.

GOP and Dems Agree: Crack/Powder Cocaine Disparity Unjust and Needs Reform

Bill Piper, Jasmine Tyler, AlterNet. March 18, 2010.

The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved bi-partisan legislation reforming a failed two-decade old policy.