Tag Archive for "prison industrial complex"

Posts Tagged prison industrial complex

Orange is the New Black‘s accurate portrayal of men in a story about women

A few weeks ago over at The Atlantic, Noah Berlatsky wrote about what he sees as “Orange is the New Black‘s Irresponsible Portrayal of Men.” Very early in the essay he admits “This may seem like a silly complaint,” because it is. But he continues anyway because… I’m not entirely sure.

Oh, wait. He explains here:

The reason: While media is full of men, real-life prisons are even more so. Men are incarcerated at more than 10 times the rate of women. In 2012, there were 109,000 women in prison. That’s a high number—but it’s dwarfed by a male prison population that in 2012 reached just over 1,462,000. In 2011, men made up about 93 percent of prisoners.

We are dealing with a ...

By Courtney Baxter • 9 years ago

Weekly Feminist Reader

Who has the right to self-defense?

On the decriminalization of condoms as evidence of prostitution in NYC, and why it really matters.

Lupita Nyong’o is only the 9th black woman to be on the cover of Vogue.

The Obama administration has no plans for leniency for unaccompanied migrant children.

On Sally Ride: “To be first is to relinquish the complicated specifics of your story and become a caricature, a stand-in for the ideals of a movement or for the hope and pain of a moment in history.”

Who has the right to self-defense?

On the decriminalization of condoms as evidence of prostitution in NYC, and why it really matters.

Lupita Nyong’o is only the 9th black woman to be on ...

By Katherine Cross • 9 years ago

No One is Disposable: #JusticeForJane and why dignity is a human right

As of this writing, seventy one days have passed since Jane Doe was unjustly incarcerated in the Connecticut State Prison by a government body charged with protecting her—a vulnerable, sixteen year old trans girl.

To recap her situation: Jane Doe was a ward of Connecticut State’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) for much of her life, but according to the DCF’s commissioner, Joette Katz, became violent and unruly. Her transgender status also, allegedly, complicated her placement in alternate facilities. So, the DCF availed itself of statute 17a-12: an obscure law that allows it to place children in the Connecticut State prison system.

Thus it was that she was sent to the York Correctional Facility for Adult Women in Niantic, ...

To recap her ...

By Katherine Cross • 9 years ago

I Hear Them Breathing: Trans women, prison, and the limits of tolerance

2014 has been a decidedly double edged-sword of a year for trans women thus far. “Awareness,” that maddeningly vague but precious resource, has rained upon us like falling cherry blossom petals, right along with the false promises of that debauched liberal currency known as “tolerance.” That awareness has stretched across a long, polychromatic gauntlet, from the inspirations of Laverne Cox and Janet Mock, to a flowering of trans women’s lit, to the depredations of activism and social media gone horribly wrong, to, at long last, the daily struggles of our invisible sisterhood.

Where once the shadows of prison, border control, and policing were wide and deep enough to easily engulf armies of trans women, now a bright light is shining ...

By Wagatwe • 10 years ago

Stop telling survivors they must report to the police

This week, I was one of three survivors that spoke at a press conference where Senator Gillibrand announced her new initiative to increase federal funding for the Department of Education to address the high rates of sexual assault on colleges campuses. After each of us shared our stories of our colleges miserably failing to support us after sexual assault, multiple reporters asked about the role of the local police in each of the investigations and whether one of the Columbia survivors, a junior named Emma Sulkowicz, reported. These questions prompted a shift that often happens when survivors speak out: a focus on the police and pursuing retribution through the courts.

By Wagatwe • 10 years ago

RAINN’s recommendations ignore needs of campus survivors of all identities

Recently, the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) issued recommendations to the White House on how to properly respond to college rape. Seeing the title of the page–RAINN Recommends White House Focus on Criminal Justice Response to College Rape–instantly made me panic. I’m an organizer with ED ACT NOW, a national campaign calling for better federal enforcement of Title IX, and have worked and met with many survivors and activists. I have had the opportunity to hear a wide range of reasons as to why survivors have turned to their schools, rather than the police, to address the sexual violence they endured. One of the most frequently-used reasons I have heard – especially ...

By Courtney Baxter • 10 years ago

Weekly Feminist Reader

You go, Ellen Page.

The Michael Dunn trial will expose disturbing (and sadly unsurprising) truth about America.

“Valentine’s Day is a holiday based on fears…can technology make long-term monogamy any easier?”

From Emmett Till to Jordan Davis: why is standing out still a death sentence for black kids in America?

What role do pharmacists play in teenagers’ access to emergency contraception?

Do the Olympics half-ass women’s sports?

You go, Ellen Page.

The Michael Dunn trial will expose disturbing (and sadly unsurprising) truth about America.

“Valentine’s Day is a holiday based on fears…can technology make long-term monogamy any easier?”

From

By Katherine Cross • 10 years ago

Patriarchy’s Skeleton: What Avery Edison’s Case Reveals about Borders and Prisons

As if the world needed a timely reminder of why independent social media retains paramount importance, comedienne Avery Edison was taken into custody by Canadian authorities at Toronto Pearson International Airport and drawn into the maw of impersonally exercised state power.

And yet, that power was also, on another level, executed in an avowedly personal way.