PrisonsIf we were to judge the US by its penal policies, we would perceive a strange beast: a Christian society that believes in neither forgiveness nor redemption: George Monbiot The United States is the only democracy in the world that strips the right to vote from citizens who have done time in prison. Fourteen states permanently disenfranchise some citizens, in 2004, these laws stripped 5.3 million Americans with felony convictions --disproportionately but by no means solely African-Americans and Latino -- of the right to vote, even after they had paid their debt to society. Katrina Vandan Heuvel, The Nation, July 21, 2008. No other country in the world disenfranchises people who are released from prison in a manner even remotely resembling the United States. In fact, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has charged the U.S. disenfranchisement policies are discriminatory and violate international law. In those few European countries that permit limited postprison disqualification, the sanction is very narrowly tailored and the number of people disenfranchised is probably in the dozens or hundreds. In the United States, by contrast, voting disqualification upon release from prison is automatic, with no legitimate purpose, and affects millions. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow pg 154. We're locking up 1 in every 100 American adults—and going bankrupt in the process. Are there alternatives to a total meltdown? Inside America's broken—and broke—prison system. Slammed: The Coming Prison Meltdown (Mother Jones) Ugly Truth Most U.S. Kids Sentenced to Die In Prison Are Black (11/11/2009) Connecticut's Secret Prisoners (01/27/2008) The US incarcerates more people than any other country in the world (2/28/2008) "The Perpetual Prisoner Machine" by Joel Dyer Private Prisons: Profits of Crime Ugly Truth Most U.S. Kids Sentenced to Die In Prison Are Black The Prison-Industrial Complex - 98.12 Learn more about political prisoners and the prison industrial complex in the US: visit http://www.criticalresistance.org/">Critical Resistance, http://www.prisonactivist.org/">Prison Activist Resource Center, and http://www.serve.com/nukeresister/">The Nuclear Resister. Secret Prison on Diego Garcia confirmed Families Against Mandatory Minimums Close the School of the Americas BibliographyThe New Jim Crow: Michelle Alexander Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, and Helped Send George W. Bush to the White House. Sasha Abramsky American Furies: Sasha Abramsky Prison Profiteers: Who makes money from Mass Incarceration. Tara Herivel and Paul Wright Lockdown America : police and prisons in the age of crisis by Parenti, Christian The culture of control : crime and social order in contemporary society by Garland, David Going up the river : travels in a prison nation by Hallinan, Joseph Constitutional chaos : what happens when the government breaks its own laws by Napolitano, Andrew P |