Ever since the Democrats established the legality of mandatory minimums and three-strike laws under the leadership of the late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, African Americans have literally had the book thrown at them and the key thrown away. Regardless of circumstances, as convicted felons they a... Read more...
Roberto Martinez-Medina died in CCA's Stewart private detention facility in 2009. He was arrested for not having a driver's license. CCA whistleblower Bryan Holcomb has exposed how the company repeatedly ignored Medina's pleas for care of his heart ailment and how they cut medical care costs ... Read more...
Inmates in at least a third of California's prisons are believed to be refusing meals in solidarity with maximum-security prisoners at Pelican Bay. Inmates in at least 11 of California's 33 prisons are refusing meals in solidarity with a hunger strike staged by prisoners in one of the system's spec... Read more...
By Angela Caputo That's how much the Illinois Department of Corrections estimates that it would cost to incarcerate each 15- and 16-year-old convicted of gun possession if HB2067 is adopted by the state legislature this year. State Rep. Michael Zalewski -- along with some powerful allies f... Read more...
THE legal scholar Derrick A. Bell foresaw that mass incarceration, like earlier systems of racial control, would continue to exist as long as it served the perceived interests of white elites. Thirty years of civil rights litigation and advocacy have failed to slow the pace of a racially biased d... Read more...
Haywood Fennell is one of the 5,000-plus prisoners in Pennsylvania serving life terms for murder. "Red Dog," as he is known, has been in prison since he was 17. He is now 60. This is his life story in graphic novel form. (more…) Read more...
"More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began," Michelle Alexander told a standing room only house at the Pasadena Main Library this past Wednesday, the first of many jarring points she made in a riveting prese... Read more...
Maulana Ron Karenga is an Afro-American author, political activist, convicted felon, and college professor best known as the creator of Kwanzaa. Karenga was active in the Black Power movement in the 1960s and 1970s and founded the black nationalist group Us Organization which remains active to thi... Read more...
It looks like something out of a video game, but this monstrous machine could come in very handy for breaking up prison fights. The Assault Intervention Device (AID) emits an invisible laser-like beam to trigger a brief but painful burning sensation and has been touted as a new type of Taser gu... Read more...