Mass Incarceration 
-
-
SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
8/23/2022
Educational Aid for Prisoners Works. Why Do Politicians Reject It?
by Adrian Cox and Kate L. Flach
Making imprisoned people eligible for federal education grants was shown to be successful, but was ended by the notorious 1994 crime bill. It's time to change course and restore them.
-
-
SOURCE: Jacobin
8/21/2022
Sociologist Brittany Friedman on the Rise and Endurance of Political Organizing by Black Prisoners
Although it is often linked to the rise of Black Power movements in the late 1960s, evidence shows that state authorities were working to eliminate civil rights organizing among Black prisoners as early as the 1950s.
-
-
SOURCE: n+1
8/15/2022
Fighting Incarceration from the Inside: Prison Litigation as Resistance
by Charlotte Rosen
The Prison Litigation Reform Act has cut incarcerated people off from their rights to access the court system to seek personal relief from abuse and cruel punishment and systemic change to the mass incarceration regime.
-
-
SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
6/8/2022
Inventing Solitary Confinement
Kali Nicole Gross, Ashley Rubin, Jen Manion and Paul Takagi offer insight into the historical irony of modern incarceration's roots in Philadelphia, the nominal cradle of American liberty.
-
-
SOURCE: WORT
12/20/2021
Heather Ann Thompson on Mass Incarceration
Karma Chávez guest hosts a wide-ranging conversation with historian Heather Ann Thompson about policing, mass incarceration, and why overhauling the criminal justice system is the civil rights issue of our time.
-
-
SOURCE: The Metropole
12/14/2021
Introducing “Disciplining The Nation”
by Matt Guariglia and Charlotte Rosen
"Rooted in racial slavery, settler colonialism, and U.S. empire, policing and incarceration in the United States were slowly and meticulously built over time for the purpose of subordinating, punishing, and exploiting populations –and historians have the documents to prove it."
-
-
SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
12/15/2021
Philadelphia DA: Prosecutors Hid Evidence for Years in a 2003 Murder Case
Prosecutors in Philadelphia are accused of withholding evidence that undermined the credibility of key witnesses in the case, a pattern that critics argue has been widespread.
-
-
SOURCE: New York Times
10/23/2021
Let the Punishment Fit the Crime
by Ben Austen and Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Tough-on-crime laws that forbid discretionary parole emerged in the 1970s. A historical perspective suggests they've failed, keeping people in prison long after doing so protects society.
-
-
SOURCE: Gothamist
9/9/2021
What Set the Stage for Rebellion and Violence at Attica
Tyrone Larkins, Alhajji Sharif and Akil Shaquan were incarcerated at Attica 50 years ago. Hear their story about conditions in the prison and the events of the riot and its brutal suppression. Also features an interview with historian Heather Ann Thompson.
-
-
SOURCE: The Nation
9/13/2021
Honoring Attica After Half a Century
by Heather Ann Thompson
Activists both inside and outside of prisons in the 1960s and 1970s confronted the violence of the state. Accountability for law enforcement is still an unrealized legacy of the 1971 Attica rebellion.
-
-
SOURCE: TIME
9/8/2021
50 Years Since Attica, Will America Observe the Human Rights of Prisoners?
by Heather Ann Thompson
"The Attica prison uprising was historic because these men spoke directly to the public, and by doing so, they powerfully underscored to the nation that serving time did not make someone less of a human being."
-
-
SOURCE: New York Post
9/4/2021
Daughter of Slain Attica Prison Guard Demands Apology from New York State
After New York State has approved a reparation fund for the surviving prisoners of the 1971 Attica riots, is it time for similar justice for the employees caught in the violence of the state's response?
-
-
SOURCE: New York Post
7/5/2021
The New York Post Would Like You to Get Mad about a Yale Course Comparing Incarceration in the US and Stalinist USSR
Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley plan to team-teach a course examining the comparative history of mass imprisonment in the two empires.
-
-
SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
6/16/2021
Inhumane System of Incarceration in U.S. Poses Special Danger to Women
by Jessica L. Adler
When politicians close single prisons after complaints of abuse, they leave untouched a cruel and dehumanizing system that poses particular risk to women.
-
-
SOURCE: The New Yorker
5/7/2021
The Emerging Movement for Police and Prison Abolition
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Organizer Mariame Kaba is one of the leading public intellectuals behind the movement for the abolition of the institutions of policing and prisons and for a politics that imagines more humane alternatives.
-
-
SOURCE: Insurrect: Radical Thinking in Early American Studies
5/10/2021
"Abolition Is...": A Roundtable
Several young scholar/activists reflect on how historical analysis can inform the contemporary prison abolition movement and alternative approaches to justice.
-
-
SOURCE: The Marshall Project
5/14/2021
I Survived Prison During The AIDS Epidemic. Here’s What It Taught Me About Coronavirus
by Richard Rivera
Like the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, imprisoned people at risk of COVID-19 find that suspicion, paranoia and isolation have taken the place of meaningful support.
-
-
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
1/28/2021
UCLA Wins $3.65-Million Grant to Build ‘Age of Mass Incarceration’ Archive with LAPD Records
In addition to 177 boxes of LAPD records, which the university fought for and won access to in court, the project will seek out and include oral histories and other ephemera from community members who were affected by the region’s aggressive criminal justice pipelines, said professor Kelly Lytle Hernández.
-
-
SOURCE: ROAR
1/23/2021
Anything is Possible: Toward an Abolitionist Vision
by Marc Lamont Hill
Abolitionism is about more than dismantling prisons. It is also about building a world with universal access to safety, self-determination, freedom and dignity.
-
-
SOURCE: The Metropole
1/4/2021
Disciplining The City: Scholarship And The Carceral State Year In Review 2020
Charlotte Rosen and Matthew Guariglia compile 2020's most essential works of scholarship on the nexus of urbanization, racism, policing, and mass incarceration.