darkjez:

Nikki Jones, a sociologist from UC Santa Barbara and Meda Chesney Lind, University of Hawaii, and attendee of the conference, has studied the statistics of imprisoned black girls for over 10 years and explained, “we have never seen these kind of numbers before,” reports EthnoBlog.

So far, the cause for this epidemic has been attributed to national zero tolerance policies and a justice system that treats girls of color differently than white girls.

http://madamenoire.com/50225/numbers-of-young-african-american-women-in-prison-rise/

“Here’s a lesser-known red flag in the black community: the fastest growing incarcerated population in the country is African American girls and young women. What does not seem to be rising however, is the number of black girls who are actually committing crimes.”

ladyatheist:

He got 162 years without the possibility of parole for his first offense.

Just think about that for a minute.

162 years

No possibility of parole

For a first offense

truth-has-a-liberal-bias:

Forty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in the case Furman v. Georgia. While the Justices had a variety of reasons for striking down the death penalty, the overriding concern was the risk that the punishment would be imposed unfairly, including on the basis of race.

Four years and four days later, the Supreme Court approved a new death penalty statute in the case of Gregg v. Georgia and allowed a return to executions. Immediately following that ruling, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty was founded to challenge the wisdom of capital punishment as a public policy and highlight the unfairness inherent in the practice.

For our organization, this anniversary serves as a powerful reminder that the death penalty continues to be terribly wrongheaded as a public policy and it brutalizes not only those who are  condemned to death, but all in its wake. The good news is that today, forty years later, as a result of our efforts the death penalty is on its way out again.   […]

oppressionisyucky:

(image description: 4 gifs each showing a black man with a goatee and his hair in dreads pulled back has is hands one over the other in front of his chin. He is wearing gloves. There are people walking around behind him, I think all of the people are men, several are heavily tattooed. The gifs read: 1. One of the last things Jesus did on Earth was invite a prisoner to join him in heaven. 2. He loved that criminal. I say he loved that criminal as much as he loved anyone. 3. Jesus knew in his heart it takes a lot to love a sinner. 4. But the sinner he needs it all the more. In the 4th panel there are also two cops that show up in the background. )

oinonio:

Louisiana is the world’s prison capital

Louisiana is the world’s prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly triple Iran’s, seven times China’s and 10 times Germany’s. […]

“The U.S. locks up children at more than six times the rate of all other developed nations. The over 60,000 average daily juvenile lockups, a figure estimated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), are also disproportionately young people of color. With an average cost of $80,000 per year to lock up a child, the U.S. spends more than $5 billion annually on youth detention.” - Pete Brook, Wired.com (click through for source article)

For comparison, the annual spending for k-12 education (per child) is less than $8000 (source) - it costs 10x less to educate than incarcerate.

truth-has-a-liberal-bias:

(CNN) — Chuck Colson, a Watergate-era “hatchet man” for President Richard Nixon who became an influential evangelical leader after serving time in prison, died Saturday afternoon, according to his website. He was 80.

…..

A former U.S. Marine captain, Colson was considered a main player in the Nixon White House’s dirty tricks during the rough-and-tumble politics of the Vietnam era in America.

Not tied directly to the June 17, 1972, break-in to Democratic National Committee offices in Washington’s Watergate complex, Colson was implicated in the broader political scandal and became the first Nixon aide to be convicted.

While indicted, he negotiated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty in 1974 to obstruction of justice for attempting to defame anti-war activist Daniel Ellsberg, who had leaked the once-secret Pentagon Papers that revealed the full extent of U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia.

He served seven months in prison before being paroled in 1975. […]

somepolitics:

sarahlee310:

Texas priorities:

A year ago, facing a possible shortage of key drugs needed to keep the nation’s busiest execution chamber in business, Texas prison officials appear to have purchased tens of thousands of dollars worth of the lethal drugs, new disclosures by state officials reveal.

While no detail is provided, records obtained by the American-Statesman hint that Texas could have enough of the drugs on hand to cover its executions for more than a year and perhaps the largest stockpile in the country — at a time when other states are scrambling to find suppliers for the same drugs.

What the fuck? $50,000?!

truth-has-a-liberal-bias:

Welcome to Books To Prisoners!

*******

Books To Prisoners (BTP) is a Seattle-based, all-volunteer, nonprofit organization that sends books to prisoners in the United States.  BTP believes that books are tools for learning and opening minds to new ideas and possibilities.  By sending books to prisoners, we hope to foster a love of reading and encourage the pursuit of knowledge and self-improvement.

Want to donate your new or used books?

You can help a prisoner by donating new or used paperback books to BTP.

• Which books are needed?

solitaryforager:

Private Prison Corporation Offers Cash In Exchange For State Prisons

As state governments wrestle with massive budget shortfalls, a Wall Street giant is offering a solution: cash in exchange for state property. Prisons, to be exact.

Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest operator of for-profit prisons, has sent letters recently to 48 states offering to buy up their prisons as a remedy for “challenging corrections budgets.” In exchange, the company is asking for a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90 percent full, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Huffington Post.

The move reflects a significant shift in strategy for the private prison industry, which until now has expanded by building prisons of its own or managing state-controlled prisons. It also represents an unprecedented bid for more control of state prison systems.

Corrections Corporation has been a swiftly growing business, with revenues expanding more than fivefold since the mid-1990s. The company capitalized on the expansion of state prison systems in the ’80s and ’90s at the height of the so-called ‘war on drugs,’ contracting with state governments to build or manage new prisons to house an influx of drug offenders. During the past 10 years, it has found new opportunity in the business of locking up undocumented immigrants, as the federal government has contracted with private companies in an aggressive immigrant-detention campaign.

Did y’all catch that?

“plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90 percent full”