It’s just kinda weird how there’s one person who somehow has the ability to sign off on Chelsea Manning being continuously imprisoned in, or released from, a monitored, regimented, surveilled life in a cage. I don’t know what it feels like to have another adult human’s very existence as a free individual in the palm…

Entrepreneurs, or people who are alert to profit opportunities and act in order to obtain profits for themselves, exist in all societies. But the profit opportunities they seek will vary. Some entrepreneurs may seek to profit by providing consumers with goods they value, such as pizza or beer. Others may attempt to profit by seeking…

“Texas’s prisoners are the slaves of today, and that slavery affects our society economically, morally and politically,” stated the five-page letter put out by the Industrial Workers of the World’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) announcing the prison strike. “Beginning on April 4, 2016, all inmates around Texas will stop all labor in order to…

Some critics of mass incarceration see the contemporary carceral state as a result of the abolition of state-run mental hospitals. For example, German Lopez of Vox recently wrote that “America’s criminal justice system has, in many ways, become a substitute for the US’s largely gutted mental health system.” Yet when the mental health system was “gutted,” what…

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be…

Recensione di: Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?, Seven Stories Press, 2003. È arrivato il momento di eliminare il sistema carcerario in America e nel resto del mondo? L’attivista, studiosa, icona dei diritti civili Angela Davis nel suo libro del 2003 risponde chiaramente Sì. La Davis è meglio conosciuta per il suo impegno a favore dei…

We are told there is a pipeline in the United States that travels from our school system to our criminal justice system. Correct as the data corroborating the pipeline’s existence may be, it is a flawed way of conceptualizing the issue. There is no pipeline out of schools and into prisons, because schools and prisons…

Review of Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis, Seven Stories Press (2003) Is it time to do away with the American prison system, and prisons worldwide? Civil rights activist, scholar and icon Angela Davis clearly answers Yes in her 2003 book. Davis is best known for her involvement with the civil rights and black power movements…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Jason Lee Byas‘s “There Are No Easy Solutions for White Terrorism” read by Tony Dreher and edited by Nick Ford. Black people — not just in Charleston, but throughout the United States — experience the police as occupiers, not protectors. Centralizing firearm ownership in the hands of the police will not protect people…

Il diciassette giugno, un bianco di nome Dylann Roof ha ucciso nove neri appartenenti alla chiesa Emanuel Methodist African Episcopal (Eame). Cito il colore della pelle perché non è un caso che siano stati uccisi dei neri. È stato un atto di terrorismo al servizio della supremazia dei bianchi. Comprensibilmente, la gente si agita e…

On June 17th, a white man named Dylann Roof murdered nine black members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (EAME). I mention race because it was not a coincidence – this was an act of terrorism in the service of white supremacy. Understandably, people are scrambling for an easy solution, and most proposals involve…

If you have even a shred of humanity, the answer is yes. Prisoners Richard Matt and David Sweat have dominated headlines for nearly two weeks after escaping from Dannemora, a maximum security prison in Upstate, New York. One prison employee, Joyce Mitchell, has been accused of providing them assistance in their escape. She too now,…

It’s sad evidence of collective latent racism that no one cares about prison until a conventionally attractive, intelligent, well-educated, middle-class, urban white woman goes there. Hence, Orange is the New Black, a funny and moving hit original series based on a bestselling memoir. How is it that black and Latina women are relegated to supporting…

Judge Katherine Forrest’s decision to lock up Ross Ulbricht for the rest of his life is a momentous tragedy. There were other tragic circumstances on display during Ulbricht’s trial, however. Submitted as evidence against the integrity of the Silk Road were stories of drug overdoses that were allegedly tied to products bought on the darknet…

Ross Ulbricht has been sentenced to die inside a cage. We call this a “life sentence”, but it is a death sentence. His fate is quite literally to die in a cage in order to punish him for operating the online drug market known as the Silk Road. But truly, that is not his crime….

C4SS Feed 44 presents David S. D’Amato‘s “The Black Hole of the American Injustice System” read by Christopher B. King and edited by Nick Ford. And while consumers pay top dollar for the prisoners’ expensive wares — and companies like Colorado Corrections Industries rake in millions — the prisoners themselves often make as little as 60 cents per…

It’s election day in the USA. The mass incarceration nation is deciding which political opportunists will rule. On the state and local level, citizens are casting their votes on ballot initiatives that will determine the structure, specifics, or application of state coercion. Some of these ballot initiatives probably deserve support from prison abolitionists, specifically initiatives…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Nathan Goodman‘s “Prisons: The Case for Abolition” from the Students for a Stateless Society‘s Volume 1, Issue 3 of THE NEW LEVELLER read and edited by Nick Ford. People often ask what we would do about rapists and murderers without prisons. But as Dean Spade puts it, “The prison is the serial killer; the prison is…

For libertarian prison abolitionists, Randy Barnett’s The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law is an indispensable book. Not only does Barnett offer a persuasive series of arguments for a stateless legal order, he further argues against the legitimacy of punishment altogether. However, even as crucial as Barnett’s work is for libertarian prison…

C4SS Feed 44 presents David Grobgeld‘s “The Cynicism and Futility of Imprisonment” read Christopher King and edited by Nick Ford. The prison system is built on a fundamental paradox of principles. On the one hand, its defenders make pragmatic, consequentialist arguments like “we need to send a clear message to criminals.” But all evidence points to…