Posts Tagged prison industrial complex

By Verónica Bayetti Flores • 10 years ago

Keeping youth out of adult prisons

In a welcome bit of positive news, after years of  “tough-on-crime” legislation that started gaining traction in the 1980s, some states are now passing laws which keep youth offenders out of  the adult criminal justice system by curtailing prosecutors’ abilities to try them as adults.

In a welcome bit of positive news, after years of  “tough-on-crime” legislation that started gaining traction in the 1980s, some states are now passing laws which keep youth offenders out of  the adult criminal ...
By Courtney Baxter • 10 years ago

Weekly Feminist Reader

Where to get baby food and formula during the shutdown.

How to check your gender bias.

Frozen embryos: do you know where your children are?

“Being a musician/rockstar/whatever is pretty fucking impossible.”

Fighting the wrong mommy wars.

“I’m a Girl.”

On the uphill battle for women and girls in STEM.

“Imagine a woman actively in labor. Now imagine her handcuffed.”

Wendy Davis is in the building, y’all.

The limits of the “female-fronted” band.

Presumed incompetent.

The grossest advertising strategy of all time.

“I was a domestic violence counselor and still ended up in an abusive relationship.”

The cost of Gandhi’s “experiments.”

Was the

Where to get baby food and formula during the shutdown.

How to check your gender bias.

Frozen embryos: do you know where your children are?

“Being a musician/rockstar/whatever is pretty fucking ...
By Alexandra Brodsky • 10 years ago

Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet

Jos on HuffPost Live talking about Skyler White and “complex female roles.”

Legally married gay couples aren’t eligible for veterans benefits, says the VA. What. The. Fuck.

Solidarity is for Miley.

Campus activists! Apply for a SAFER policy training.

Stopping the drug war isn’t enough to end mass incarceration.

The queer afterlife of Whitney Houston.

Katie at Salon: Fox News celebrated National Dog Day rather than Women’s Equality Day.

I guess I missed the “abortion orgies” when I was a Girl Scout.

On Chelsea Manning and the prices of disclosure.

Zerlina talks with Mother Jones about online harassment.

Le1F speaks out against “Same Love.”

Jos on HuffPost Live talking about Skyler White and “complex female roles.”

Legally married gay couples aren’t eligible for veterans benefits, says the VA. What. The. Fuck.

Solidarity is for Miley.

Campus activists! Apply ...
By Mychal Denzel Smith • 10 years ago

“Piper was my Trojan Horse”

Netflix original series “Orange is the New Black” has garnered a great deal of attention, much of it having to do with the portrayal of women of color and the prison industrial complex. But the main character is Piper Chapman, a “nice white lady.” According to series creator Jenji Kohan, the show wouldn’t have been made if that weren’t the case. From her interview with NPR’s Fresh Air:

“In a lot of ways Piper was my Trojan Horse. You’re not going to go into a network and sell a show on really fascinating tales of black women, and Latina women, and old women and criminals. But if you take this white girl, this sort of fish out ...

Netflix original series “Orange is the New Black” has garnered a great deal of attention, much of it having to do with the portrayal of women of color and the prison industrial complex. But ...
By zerlina • 10 years ago

Attorney General Eric Holder announces new treatment for non-violent drug offenders

Yesterday, in addition to the court ruling on stop-and-frisk, there was other news with regards to civil rights.  Speaking at a national gathering of the American Bar Association, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he will review the criminal justice system and push for legislation that adjusts the archaic mandatory minimums for drug offenders as well as a directive for all U.S. attorneys to draft charges in non-violent drug offenses and possession cases, that do not trigger mandatory minimum sentences.

As a reader of this site, we all are aware that the criminal justice system and the so-called “war on drugs” in particular has a discriminatory impact on black and brown bodies.  These changes are a continuation of the work that ...

Yesterday, in addition to the court ruling on stop-and-frisk, there was other news with regards to civil rights.  Speaking at a national gathering of the American Bar Association, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he will review ...
By Alexandra Brodsky • 10 years ago

Video: Contextualizing California prison sterilizations

I posted yesterday about the recently exposed forced sterilizations in California prisons. On All In, Chris Hayes explains why we should be outraged but not shocked by such reproductive coercion given the state’s history of eugenics and unconstitutionally cruel prison conditions, in the news again today thanks to a 30,000-strong hunger strike. The clip is worth a watch, but Hayes doesn’t take the obvious next step: forced sterilization isn’t only of a kind with California’s particular brand of mass incarceration but also with the inherent abuse of imprisonment.

Transcript, via MSNBC, after the jump.

I posted yesterday about the recently exposed forced sterilizations in California prisons. On All In, Chris Hayes explains why we should be outraged but not shocked by such reproductive coercion given the state’s history of ...
By Alexandra Brodsky • 10 years ago

California prisons have been sterilizing women for years

Yesterday the Sacramento Bee published a devastating (if unsurprising) article from the Center for Investigative Reporting revealing that, between 2006 and 2010, 148 female prisoners were illegally sterilized by force. Corey G. Johnson writes:

At least 148 women received tubal ligations in violation of prison rules during those five years – and there are perhaps 100 more dating back to the late 1990s, according to state documents and interviews.

From 1997 to 2010, the state paid doctors $147,460 to perform the procedure, according to a database of contracted medical services for state prisoners.

The women were signed up for the surgery while they were pregnant and housed at either the California Institution for Women in Corona or Valley State Prison for ...

Yesterday the Sacramento Bee published a devastating (if unsurprising) article from the Center for Investigative Reporting revealing that, between 2006 and 2010, 148 female prisoners were illegally sterilized by force. Corey G. Johnson writes:

At least ...
By Verónica Bayetti Flores • 10 years ago

Rick Perry declares second special session to pass “pro-life” bill on same day as 500th execution

One would think that the irony of such an action would be too much. But nope! Yesterday, the state of Texas executed Kimberly McCarthy, the state’s 500th execution since the death penalty was re-enacted in 1982:

Her death marks a grim milestone in a state that kills more people than any other in the country. Texas has carried out more than 40 percent of the roughly 1,300 executions that have taken place in the United States since the Supreme Court re-instated capital punishment in 1976. A 2011 study found that 92 percent of men sentenced to die in Texas were black.

On the same day, Governor Perry called a second special session of the Texas state legislature to enact the “pro-life” omnibus ...

One would think that the irony of such an action would be too much. But nope! Yesterday, the state of Texas executed Kimberly McCarthy, the state’s 500th execution since the death penalty was re-enacted in 1982:

Her death ...

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