Quakers, the religious sect with which I most closely identify, have a long history of radical action. Historically, Quakers were leaders in the American abolitionist movement and adherents have long been allies of black liberation, womens’ rights, and other social justice struggles. Today, that tradition continues, with many meetings (the equivalent of a congregation) explicitly…

Di Jason Lee Byas. Originale pubblicato il 4 agosto 2017 con il titolo Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Tra tutte le funzioni dello stato, il carcere, soprattutto in grandi numeri, è probabilmente una della più brutali, distruttive e disumane. Tra tutte le…

Of all the State’s activities, incarceration – especially on a mass-scale – is probably one of the most brutal, disruptive, and inhumane. Of all the state’s activities, the census is probably one of the most… boring. But if we care about the former, we should care about the latter. As it stands, the census counts…

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.

In a comment on last week’s post on The Labor Politics of Prisons, Steve Robinson said that my discussion of guards unions was “interesting given past posts about the for-profit prison industry.” He noted that while prison guard unions push for increased incarceration, they also are generally harmed by prison privatization, as private prison contractors have incentives to…

This is the second part of my series on Gus DiZerega’s view of libertarianism and private prisons. Gus writes: Non-profits often pad the salaries of their top people, especially big ones. Padded salaries come from shifting resources away from other purposes, like that sheriff in Marion County. Just because something is a nonprofit does not…

Gus DiZerega recently published a blog post about libertarian ideology and private prisons. He quoted a Facebook comment I left on a status update about the topic. This blog post constitutes a response to Gus. A comment will also be posted on his blog. The reader is encouraged to check it out. In said piece;…

Sometimes you come across an article that so perfectly encapsulates something you have been obsessing about that you have to dust off your blog and throw out a minor rant. Latina Lista published just such an article this week. So here we go. According to a study by the (in no way biased) Prudential, “Latinos’…

In this episode of Speaking On Liberty’s Jason Lee Byas, Grayson English and Kyle Platt interview C4SS Fellow and Dissenting Leftist blogger Nathan Goodman about the the US prison system.

Sometimes “privatization” means more government power, not less.