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Nation Topics - Jails and Prisons

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Nation Topics - Jails and Prisons

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Protest against NYPD surveillance

Americans remain mostly blind to the abusive treatment of terror suspects on US soil.

Cook County Department of Corrections

As an investigative journalism student, I helped uncover proof that should have cleared Anthony McKinney’s name. Instead, he died in prison.

Will California Choose Prisons Over Schools—Again?

Progressives supported Prop 30 to send more money to schools but now the funds are headed to prisons. How could this happen—and can it be stopped?

A drawing of a cellblock at Pelican Bay State Prison by an anonymous inmate

A call for architects to refuse to design chambers of living death.

California prisons

With Governor Jerry Brown taking a hardline position, strikers must turn to the courts, public opinion or the legislature.

Eric Holder

President Obama should follow Attorney General Eric Holder’s lead and commute the sentences of low-level drug offenders.

There are over two million men and women incarcerated in the United States and most cannot afford to call their families. 

California petition

The death of Billy “Guero” Sell will not be the last, warn advocates for prisoners refusing to eat or work.

Guantanamo Protest

Aamer, the last British resident still imprisoned at Guantánamo, has faced ongoing retaliation for speaking out against his detention. Now The Nation has evidence that he may be sent to Saudi Arabia.

Blogs

Why did the Court limit its ruling to cases with mandatory sentences, instead of banning juvenile life without parole altogether?

June 26, 2012

 The next execution set for the US:  Marcus Ray Johnson, next Wednesday in Georgia. Will progressives sit this one out, as well? 

September 30, 2011

What do breaded chicken patties, office chairs and cruise missiles used in Libya have in common? They are all made by America's 100,000-strong secret workforce: prisoners.

August 5, 2011

New statistics on US crime released by the FBI reveal that crime has dropped significantly over the past few years while prison populations have exploded, putting huge strains on state budgets.

May 26, 2011

How the media frenzy obliterated the presumption of innocence and relentlessly impugned both Strauss-Kahn and his accuser in vulgar stereotypes.

May 24, 2011

The uprisings in Egypt have inspired all sorts of people, including Private Bradley Manning, the young man being held in solitary confinement in Quantico, accused of being the source for Wikileaks. Manning's friend David House tweeted after visiting him this week that “Bradley's mood and mind soared” at the news from Egypt.

February 4, 2011

Julian Assange of WikiLeaks is out on bail—apparently headed for the 10-bedroom home of British former army officer Vaughan Smith, described by the Guardian as a rightwing libertarian.

December 16, 2010

The New York Times is finally calling it torture—when someone else has admitted to it.

November 18, 2010

Monday, January 11, marks eight years since the Bush administration transferred the first prisoners to the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. Ever since, human rights groups have pushed for the closure of Guantánamo and they're pushing harder now for the Obama administration to implement its plans to transfer or release detainees and shut the place.

January 12, 2010

As a seven-month national moratorium on executions comes to an end, where does the student movement against the death penalty go?

September 9, 2008
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