After antifa clashed with right-wing protesters in Berkeley, Mayor Jesse Arreguin argued that California “should classify [Antifa] as a gang.” Later this month, juggalos – fans of the rap group Insane Clown Posse (ICP) – will protest their own federal gang classification in Washington, DC. Gang classification is commonly misunderstood. ICP themselves were originally amused…

I am of the ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards) and FTP (Fuck The Police) ideological lineages: even though, as a blameless bastard child, I resent the comparison. However, many who engage in this critique of state-backed mercenaries fall into rhetorical traps at the simplest rebuttal.

At a recent press conference, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said: “If you want to collect a drug debt you can’t file a lawsuit in court.” This was an attempt to justify his May 12th memo instructing federal prosecutors to pursue the strongest possible sentences for drug offenders, including non-violent ones.

It’s difficult to know everything that goes on behind bars but trans activists and prisoners remind us that prison is often particularly cruel for them. Notable activist CeCe McDonald has spoken out on the way she was hyper-sexualized by guards and staff while serving time in a men’s prison. Others experience similar issues, like prison rape. Sometimes, when dealing with sexual assault, trans prisoners are put into solitary confinement.

In January 2010, Chelsea Manning began changing the world, and she never stopped. As a private in the US army, she saw the evil, the corruption, and the criminality of the institution she had enlisted to serve. To ignore this and do nothing would have only corrupted her, and so she did what she knew she had to do to expose it. Through the then little-known publisher Wikileaks, she released this vital information to the world, for all to see and judge.

This is the first part in a series. Be sure to check out parts 2, 3, 4 and 5. Gun control is a big issue to many leftists. The Democratic Party has campaigned for years on a platform of gun control. Such measures, they claim, are the only ways to reduce gun violence and save lives. They claim they…

This week (May 15 – May 21) is the 4th Annual National Week of Action Against Incarcerating Youth, brought to you by Save the Kids (@STKgroup). The national event celebrates a different theme each day of the week concerning youth incarceration issues. Today’s theme is dedicated to ending curfews and truancy laws targeting youth. Tomorrow,…

The dominant belief in our society is that prisons are a necessary tool to fight crime. Prisons are often thought to counter crime in at least three ways: 1. Deterrence: The expectation of a prison sentence increases the perceived cost of committing a crime, thus creating incentives not to commit crimes. 2. Incapacitation: By coercively…

In a new article at Harper’s (“Legalize It All,” April 2016), Dan Baum recalls a 1994 confession by former Nixon domestic policy adviser John Ehrlichmann, about Nixon’s motives in first launching the War on Drugs. Baum, interviewing Ehrlichman for a book on drug prohibition, asked a “series of earnest, wonky questions, that he impatiently waved…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Roderick Long‘s “Black Jurors Need Not Apply” read by Moses Sayre Sukin and edited by Tony Dreher. The way in which jurors are chosen in the United States is intended to ensure an unbiased jury; and part of that process is the right of “peremptory challenge,” by which the prosecution and…

If you’re black, you may have trouble getting on to a jury. The way in which jurors are chosen in the United States is intended to ensure an unbiased jury; and part of that process is the right of “peremptory challenge,” by which the prosecution and the defense are each allowed to reject a certain…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Ryan Calhoun‘s “Bland, McKenna, and the State’s Psychiatric Weapon”  read by Thomas J. Webb and edited by Nick Ford. It’s clear McKenna’s death was no accident, just as a woman who dies as a result of her husband beating her is no accident. McKenna’s physical condition leaves no doubt that her…

After Sandra Bland was found hanging in her jail cell from an apparent suicide, her mental health immediately became the focal point of discussion by police and the media. According to law enforcement, Bland had attempted suicide within the past year, but was no longer suicidal. As recently as October, she’d listed herself as suffering from depression. Marijuana…

Little more than a year after the death of Eric Garner at the hands of the NYPD, another man with a family and a case of asthma has been killed by a reckless police force. Troy Goode was visiting Mississippi for a concert. As many concert goers do, Goode got drunk. Goode’s wife, who was…

It’s June, and for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community, that means it’s Pride month. All around the world throughout June, pride parades and pride festivals celebrate our identities, our lives, our culture, our progress in smashing stigmas, and our resistance to oppression. That last part, resistance, is absolutely crucial. Pride is…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Jeff Ricketson‘s “Justice is for Victims” read by Dylan Delikta and edited by Nick Ford. Given how easy it is recognize in both paradigms that justice is about victims, why do people so often think justice is about punishing the criminal? Often, when protesters call for justice in the name of a victim, they…

The recent events surrounding Michael Brown’s death raise the topic of justice in modern society to a new place in public consciousness. Many have called for justice for Brown, and almost always this consists of calling for the indictment, prosecution, and punishment of Darren Wilson, the policeman who shot Brown. Would this be true justice for Michael…

Amnesty International declared that the sentence passed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, on a case in which the Guatemalan government did not investigate the tragic murder of a teenager, tells the whole world that violence against women will not be tolerated. Maria Isabel Veliz Franco was 15 when she was sexually abused, tortured and…

America’s criminal code is massive, criminalizing a litany of seemingly harmless and ethical actions. In an excellent 2013 article in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Paul Larkin explores this overcriminalization through the lens of public choice theory. Public choice theory uses the assumptions and methods of economics to study the behavior of…

Whenever someone asks me about the problems of the prison state and why I would like to abolish the entire prison system, I just say, “read Nathan Goodman’s blog ya muppets!” I’m delighted to be writing this guest blog post for my pal Nathan, who does a wonderful job highlighting the problems and moral atrocities…